Deadline - U.S.A. (1952)

Humphrey Bogart ("Ed") is superb in this tale of a newspaper editor whose paper is being sold by it's owners. With all looking for their next job, he must try to galvanise his team into an investigation of local mafia kingpin "Rienzi" after one of their number is killed. Occasionally cluttered by a rather clumsy romance (his relationship with soon to be remarried ex-wife "Nora" (Kim Hunter)), this film really focusses on just how newspapers were run in post war USA: gritty, determined and authentic journalism competing with organised crime, personal and family interests (some benign, some less so), corruption and physical danger - all to deliver the daily news to the breakfast tables of millions of New Yorkers. Ethel Barrymore adds some class as the newspaper's proprietress who begins to doubt the wisdom of the sale as she is also drawn into the almost visceral nature of this investigation into a man who uses threats and lawyers to remain one step ahead of the authorities. It packs quite a punch for almost all of it's 90 minutes, and really does show off the star and the writing at their best.