Scandal Sheet

Released Jan 16, 1952

1h 22m

Crime

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

5 Reviews

88%

Audience Score

100+ Ratings

Editor Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford) presides over a trashy but financially successful tabloid newspaper in New York City. With his hotshot crime reporter, Steve McCleary (John Derek), and feature writer, Julie Allison (Donna Reed), Chapman attends a Lonely Hearts Club publicity stunt sponsored by the paper, where he's shocked to run into Charlotte (Rosemary DeCamp), the wife he abandoned two decades before. Their argument takes a violent turn that might ruin everything Chapman has.

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Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

... directed by Phil Karlson with a suitably sleazy atmosphere of journalistic cynicism.

Dec 5, 2009

Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

As directed by "B" level film noir expert Phil Karlson, Scandal Sheet is really quite good.

Oct 30, 2009

Full Review

Michael E. Grost

Classic Film and Television

Vividly told thriller.

Aug 9, 2007

Full Review

Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Goatdog's Movies

Its only flaw is a mildy silly plot contrivance that allows the stunning finale, but other than that it's just about perfect.

Rated: 4.5/5

Dec 6, 2005

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Hard-hitting film noir thriller.

Rated: B+

Feb 16, 2005

Full Review

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nick s

Good production, nicely acted with good camera work.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/07/24

Full Review

Daniel E

One must consider it for what it is. It's a pretty good film noir appropriate to its time. I tend to measure these pieces against The Maltese Falcon and of course it falls short of that mark in every category.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/06/23

Full Review

gary d

Very good film, Broderick Crawford is perfect for his role.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Martin B

Old drunk and former reporter calls Donna Reeds character and says he has the story of his career and will give it to her. She brings the ace reporter in on it for some inexplicable reason who blows it off and it dies. It makes no sense the Donna Reeds character brought anyone in on it and it makes no sense she would not have followed up on her own with her friend no matter what her fellow reporter said. It makes no sense the ace reporter starved for leads would blow anything off that has a chance to bare fruit. That's typical of the things that go on in the movie that make no sense other then to advance the story line. Plus is plays negative stereotypes of newspapers and reporters that in the end is more cliche then a good plot. That said the cast is great lead by Crawford. It's just a train wreck you can't look away from.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/28/22

Full Review

paul d

Phil Karlson's Scandal Sheet is a taut crime thriller based on newspaper reporters who alternate sensational, sleazy stories with very good investigative journalism. Broderick Crawford is outstanding as the complex, impulsive, manipulative and very successful editor. John Derek is very good as a star reporter, and Donna Reed is even better as the film's moral compass. Derek and Reed make an engaging, intelligent couple, entirely believable in these roles. The supporting cast is also very good. There are some film noir elements, but this very good movie could have been great, possibly even outstanding, had it been shot with more dramatic and stylized cinematography. The score works very well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

jason m

Tight & absorbing mystery, and I don't care if people don't like John Derek in this, he's like Jimmy Olsen but sexy in this.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Phil Karlson

Director

Broderick Crawford

Mark Chapman

Donna Reed

Julie Allison

John Derek

Steve McCleary

Rosemary DeCamp

Charlotte Grant

Henry O'Neill

Charlie Barnes

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Synopsis

Editor Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford) presides over a trashy but financially successful tabloid newspaper in New York City. With his hotshot crime reporter, Steve McCleary (John Derek), and feature writer, Julie Allison (Donna Reed), Chapman attends a Lonely Hearts Club publicity stunt sponsored by the paper, where he's shocked to run into Charlotte (Rosemary DeCamp), the wife he abandoned two decades before. Their argument takes a violent turn that might ruin everything Chapman has.

Director: Phil Karlson
Screenwriter: Samuel Fuller, Eugene Ling, James Poe, Ted Sherdeman
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Edward Small Productions
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 16, 1952, Wide
Release Date (DVD): Oct 27, 2009
Runtime: 1h 22m
Sound Mix: Mono

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