This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

A hardworking newspaper editor faces pressure from all quarters when a number of simultaneous developments look set to have a devastating impact on his life and the lives of the 1500 people who work with him. For some time, "The Day" had been striving to expose the crimes of New York's leading racketeer but on the same day that the state Senate Committee is forced to drop all charges brought against him, the newspaper is suddenly threatened with closure and the editor's ex-wife (who he's desperate to reconcile with), announces that she's planning to remarry as soon as possible. This perfect storm generates numerous plot strands and the ways in which they're so expertly weaved together, is one of this movie's best qualities.Editor of "The Day", Ed Hutcheson (Humphrey Bogart) is frustrated when he hears that notorious mob boss Tomas Rienzi (Martin Gabel) has escaped justice yet again and then attends a meeting during which it becomes clear that a dispute between the late owner's widow, Margaret Garrison (Ethel Barrymore) and her two daughters is likely to culminate in the imminent closure of the publication. After imparting this information to his fellow employees and attending a wake for the paper, he goes to see his ex-wife, Nora (Kim Hunter) who had divorced him because his commitment to his job had been so great that it had completely ruined their relationship. Nora still cares for Ed and allows him to stay at her apartment overnight but recognising that they have no future together, has recently agreed to marry her boss.Next morning, Ed is informed that the reporter he'd assigned to work on the Rienzi investigation, had been found badly beaten-up by the racketeer's thugs and this fires him up to devote all the resources he possibly can to discovering some evidence that can finally bring the full extent of Rienzi's crimes out into the open.Ed is an idealist who strongly adheres to the ethos of his newspaper by believing in the value of a free press, being totally committed to printing the truth and consistently avoiding sensationalism. This sets him apart from Ethel's two daughters who are only interested in getting richer by selling "The Day" to the publishers of its main rival who simply want to close it down to boost the circulation of their own paper.The Rienzi investigation takes an interesting turn when it emerges that a young woman whose drowned body had recently been recovered from a local river was, in fact, the gangster's mistress who had spent some of the money that he'd given her for safe-keeping and that her brother, Herman (Joe De Santis), had also been involved in facilitating her murder. When Herman agrees to tell his story for a large pay-off, it seems that a breakthrough has been reached but this proves to be a false dawn and it's only when an unexpected person steps forward with some compelling documentary evidence, that Ed feels able to go to print with the kind of story that will ensure that "The Day" goes out with a bang.The fact that this movie delivers its rather involved story in such a punchy way without ever compromising on character development is very impressive and testifies strongly to the quality of Richard Brooks' writing and direction. Powerful performances by its talented cast make all the characters seem very credible and the atmosphere of the busy newspaper office is brilliantly recreated on-screen. Humphrey Bogart's exceptional performance as the energetic, fearless and very determined editor also plays a huge part in driving the whole production forward and as well as being enjoyable to watch, is also worthy of far greater recognition than it's ever been given to date.

Although he wrote and directed several films with much higher profiles Deadline USA is, in my opinion, far and away the best movie both written and directed by Richard Brooks, scoring as it does on several fronts. Brooks wrote an original screenplay based on his own experience of how newspapers of the era worked and drew brilliant performances from a top-of-the-line cast and not just the likes of Ed Begley, Paul Stewart, and Kim Hunter but also people like low profile Audrey Christie and Martin Gabel, whilst the two Bs, Barrymore and Bogie are superb with Bogie especially beyond excellent. Jack Webb also directed a similar film with a similar title and in common with this one it remains both fine and neglected but in the long run as far as movies about newspapers go this is the one they all have to beat.

Timeless Story of Journalism and its Role in our Daily Lives and the implications and Necessity of a Free Press. This Film actually addresses some of the Reasons that Tabloids, because of the Aforementioned, are a viable and Necessary part of Our Culture. But of course the Emphasis here is on the need for Balance and the Fate of Our Society if we allow the Lowest Common Denominator to determine or blot out the Truly Unbiased, or Objective Reporting of Events as much as Possible. The Uninformed Populace cannot make Wise Decisions. That Foundation is our Forefathers First Amendment Intent.This Film is Realistic in its Setting and the Professionals who Populate the Newspaper. You can almost Smell the Pulp and Feel the Ink Stain Your Consciousness. One of the Best of the Newspaper Movies that has Dated very Little despite Our Modern Platforms and Delivery System Incarnations within the Mass Media.

Deadline - U.S.A. has Humphrey Bogart as the editor of a big city newspaper that is in the process of being sold to a Rupert Murdoch like chain that publishes scandal sheets. His paper is in the process at the same time of doing an expose of notorious racketeer Martin Gabel.And if that ain't enough for Bogey his wife Kim Hunter is splitting from him. It's the usual story, she can't stand having him married to her and the paper as well.Growing up in New York in the Fifties we had several newspapers, each vying for a smaller readership. I remember we had the Times, News, Post, Herald Tribune, World-Telegram&Sun, Journal-American, and the Daily Mirror. Some of those you can see are the products of consolidation, there were more in the past. After a printer's strike in the sixties most of them went out of business. The papers were competing for a shrinking share of readership. In the previous generation, radio competed with the print media and I grew up with that new phenomenon of television. Today we are seeing the effects of the Internet as the individual's primary source for news.The gangster part of the plot gets started with the discovery of the body of a Virginia Hill like moll, the former mistress of Martin Gabel. While some of the scandal sheets cover the sensational aspects of the murder of a glamor girl, Bogey's paper does some serious investigative reporting and uncovers a lot of evidence. Their work also has consequences including the maiming of young reporter Warren Stevens.In the meantime the heirs of the newspaper's original founder are looking to sell the paper. Opposing it is their mother, Ethel Barrymore and she has a fine part and is obviously the model for the widow publisher played by Nancy Marchand in Lou Grant. She has one classic scene with Humphrey Bogart where they commiserate over their mutual problems.Deadline - U.S.A. is a realistic look at the life of a big city paper in days gone by. It's a gritty piece of nostalgia, as timely in its day as The Front Page was in the Twenties. Cast members like Paul Stewart, Jim Backus, and Ed Begley look and feel right at home at their jobs.The film is recommended particularly for younger viewers who are glued to their computers and television to see how a newspaper functioned back in the day.