''Park Row'' is a 1952 American
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
starring
Gene Evans
Eugene Barton Evans (July 11, 1922 – April 1, 1998) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, television films, and feature films between 1947 and 1989.
Background
Evans was born in Holbrook, Arizona and raised i ...
as a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
journalist who founds a new type of newspaper in the 1880s and
Mary Welch as the established publisher who opposes him. It was written, directed, produced and financed by
Samuel Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget B movie, genre movies with controversial themes, often ...
, himself a New York reporter prior to turning to filmmaking. It was his favorite film,
though it did not do well at the box office.
The title refers to the
street in Manhattan where most of New York City's newspapers were located.
Plot
In 1886, reporter Phineas Mitchell (Gene Evans) is fired from ''The Star'' newspaper for criticizing its methods and philosophy. When his friends stand up for him, they too are discharged. As the newly unemployed men are drowning their sorrows in a bar,
Steve Brodie (
George O'Hanlon
George O'Hanlon (November 23, 1912 – February 11, 1989) was an American actor and writer. He was best known for his role as Joe McDoakes in the Warner Bros.' live-action ''Joe McDoakes'' short subjects from 1942 to 1956 and as the voice of Georg ...
) rushes in, claiming to have survived a jump off the
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
and insisting that Mitchell write an article about it and make him famous. Mitchell tells him he no longer has a newspaper job.
Then acquaintance Charles A. Leach (
Forrest Taylor
Edwin Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 – February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films.
Early years
Taylor was born in Bl ...
) tells Mitchell that he had always dreamed of going into journalism. Leach makes a startling proposition: that they become partners and launch a new newspaper. Leach has a printing press, vacant offices and enough money to get started. Mitchell accepts and hires his friends on the spot, including aged but veteran reporter Josiah Davenport (
Herbert Heyes
Herbert Harrison Heyes (August 3, 1889 – May 31, 1958) was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1915 and 1956, including the famed 1947 film '' Miracle on 34th Street'', in which he played an ahistorical "Mr. Gimbel ...
) and eager youngster Rusty. He decides to name the newspaper ''The Globe''. When a policeman comes looking for Brodie, Mitchell drags the hiding fugitive out from behind the bar. Now Mitchell has the front-page story for the first issue.
Charity Hackett (Mary Welch), the young, ruthless publisher of ''The Star'', at first dismisses her new rival, but soon becomes concerned. Mitchell has many revolutionary ideas. Despite ''The Globe''s precarious finances (it is printed on cheap materials at hand, including
butcher paper
Butcher paper is a type of kraft paper originally sold to butchers for the purpose of wrapping meat and fish. It is now used for a wide variety of purposes, notably in primary education where it is used for arts and crafts, such as hanging artwor ...
), it instantly becomes very popular for the subjects it fearlessly tackles. When she visits its offices, she encounters
Ottmar Mergenthaler
Ottmar Mergenthaler (11 May 1854 – 28 October 1899) was a German-American inventor who has been called a second Gutenberg, as Mergenthaler invented the linotype machine, the first device that could easily and quickly set complete lines of ...
, who is busy inventing the
Linotype machine
The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Lin ...
to automate the slow, laborious process of
setting type by hand. She tries to recruit Mergenthaler for ''The Star'', but fails.
Eventually, Hackett visits Mitchell, working late at the office, and proposes a merger. Mitchell takes her in his arms and kisses her, but rejects her offer. She orders the second-in-command at her publication to cut off supplies of ink and paper to ''The Globe''. He goes further than she had intended: men are beaten up, and Rusty is run over by a heavy wagon. Mitchell confronts Hackett and tells her that Rusty may have to have his legs amputated. He does not believe her when she claims she did not mean for things to go this far, and that she has fired the man responsible.
When Mitchell learns that France's gift of the
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...
has not been erected because of lack of funds to build a pedestal for it, he launches a public campaign to raise the money, promising to print the names of all the donors. However, he later discovers that
con men
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have de ...
are collecting money in ''The Globe''s name. The government steps in and orders him to return all the funds.
Mitchell finds out that the fraud was concocted by ''The Star'' and writes a scathing article, but finds his press room has been vandalized, with all the type spilled from the cases and glue poured over it. But Mergenthaler declares his machine complete and soon the paper is ready to print. However, at this point a bomb is thrown into the office, destroying the printing press. Devastated by the loss of everything he has built, Mitchell drinks himself to sleep.
The next morning, he is puzzled to find his story being read by everyone. Mergenthaler had used his machine to typeset the paper again, and Hackett herself had provided the press and paper to print it while Mitchell's men worked late into the night. Hackett tells him that she has decided to kill ''The Star'' so that ''The Globe'' can flourish.
Instead of "The End," the film ends with "
THIRTY
30 (thirty) is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31.
In mathematics
30 is an even, composite, pronic number. With 2, 3, and 5 as its prime factors, it is a regular number and the first sphenic number, the smallest of the form , ...
", the newspaper reporter's signal that the story has been finished.
Cast
*
Gene Evans
Eugene Barton Evans (July 11, 1922 – April 1, 1998) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, television films, and feature films between 1947 and 1989.
Background
Evans was born in Holbrook, Arizona and raised i ...
as Phineas Mitchell
*
Mary Welch as Charity Hackett
* Bela Kovacs as Ottmar Mergenthaler
*
Herbert Heyes
Herbert Harrison Heyes (August 3, 1889 – May 31, 1958) was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1915 and 1956, including the famed 1947 film '' Miracle on 34th Street'', in which he played an ahistorical "Mr. Gimbel ...
as Josiah Davenport
* Tina Pine as Jenny O'Rourke
*
George O'Hanlon
George O'Hanlon (November 23, 1912 – February 11, 1989) was an American actor and writer. He was best known for his role as Joe McDoakes in the Warner Bros.' live-action ''Joe McDoakes'' short subjects from 1942 to 1956 and as the voice of Georg ...
as Steve Brodie
*
J. M. Kerrigan as Dan O'Rourke
*
Forrest Taylor
Edwin Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 – February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films.
Early years
Taylor was born in Bl ...
as Charles A. Leach
* Don Orlando as Mr. Angelo
*
Neyle Morrow
Francis Neyle Marx Jr. (October 28, 1914 – September 30, 2006) was an American film and television actor.
Morrow was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He began his screen career in 1940, appearing in the film '' Drums of the Desert''. In the sa ...
as Thomas Guest
*
Dick Elliott
Richard Damon Elliott (April 30, 1886 – December 22, 1961) was an American character actor who played in over 240 films from the 1930s until the time of his death.
Early years
Elliott was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Career
Elliott p ...
as Jeff Hudson
*
Stuart Randall as Mr. Spiro
*
Dee Pollock
Finis Dee Pollock (September 24, 1937 – December 27, 2005) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing Billy Urchin in the American western television series ''Gunslinger''.
Life and career
Pollock was born in Alhamb ...
as Rusty
*
Hal K. Dawson as Mr. Wiley
Production
Fuller decided to fund the film entirely on his own upon hearing suggestions by 20th Century Fox (the studio that he had made films for in the 1950s) to make it with stars, color or as a musical (
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of ...
told him that his period piece would be a loser). He made the film for $200,000, with roughly half the budget being spent on a four-story set that attempted to re-create Park Row in the 19th century.
Reception
Despite Fuller's attempts at garnering good press, the film was a financial failure that nearly bankrupted the director. In 1998,
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for ''The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008, when he retired. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has ...
of the ''
Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
'' included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the
AFI Top 100.
References
External links
*
*
Review of filmat Variety
*
*
{{Samuel Fuller
1952 films
Film noir
1950s historical drama films
American historical drama films
American black-and-white films
Films about journalists
Films directed by Samuel Fuller
Films set in Manhattan
Films set in the 1880s
Films scored by Paul Dunlap
1950s English-language films
1950s American films