Behind the Headlines

It's hard to know if British newspaper reporters ever really behaved like this, seeing it as their duty to investigate and solve a crime for the sake of a `scoop' story on the front page of the daily newspaper. But who cares? After all, it's an interesting variation on the private detective genre, which in turn is just a variation on the police genre. The main point is that the audience is entertained by the right combination of mystery, suspense, intellectual deduction and risk of violence, in the fight between good and evil.

All of those features are present in this movie and the result is a reasonably satisfying crime story with a London setting. The newspaper reporters sure don't sit around meekly waiting for press releases about people `helping police with their inquiries'. And things are spiced up even more with some love interest to distract our heroes along the way.

But that's not all. A major part of the fascination of this movie is its time-capsule quality. It's a snapshot of Britain and its film industry in the mid 1950's - struggling, but largely failing, to assert some uniqueness in the face of post-war Hollywood domination. Like a number of similar British movies of its day, American stars join local British actors in an attempted blending of trans-atlantic cultures. Chic apartments and widespread use of cocktails and guns remind us of New York. Boxy British motor cars and pokey gas room heaters tell us that after all this is still post-war Europe. Somehow the whole cultural ambience is fake, imitation, envious and ultimately wanting to be somewhere else. Maybe that's partly why the British film industry was engulfed by Hollywood; it could never hope to deliver American cultural aspirations as well as the Americans could.

All in all, this movie provides good basic entertainment and a fascinating glimpse into the not-so-distant past.

Though not a complete unknown to me, I must admit that I do not know much about Director Charles Saunders. That said, he does a credible of keeping BEHIND THE HEADLINES riveting, thanks mainly to a clever and humorous script by Allan McKinnon, and a terrifically effective cast that certainly falls short of stellar but has an in-form Paul Carpenter with the capacity to charm the pants off any female... and when two bombastic beauties like Hazel Court and especially Adrienne Corri appear in his cross hairs, he needs no love potion (or blue pills - of course, they didn't have those in 1956).

Photography rates competent, but I recall no particularly imaginative or unusual shots.

I liked the sharp and flirty repartee between Carpenter and the two beauties, and I was impressed with the subtle villain, matched by Carpenter's own subtle deception in the climax.

Great fun in a short 55 minutes.

Paul Banner used to be an American reporter working in London. Recently he has gone freelance, leaving his paper so that he can focus more on chasing down facts and selling his stories once he gets them – no more deadlines or misguided editors to divert his attention. When showgirl Nina Duke is murdered the press are all harrying the police for statements and facts but Banner hangs back and does a little work of his own to uncover the story. Nina, it transpires, was in jail for blackmail previously so it is possible that this was why she was killed – however can Banner get the story that the police cannot?

The concept of a journalist investigating a crime is one that had been used well in the decade around this film and had produced some classic films along the way. Here we have a British attempt at cracking the genre, albeit with an American in the lead. It is a reasonably entertaining affair although it is understandable why it has barely amassed 20 votes on this site at the time of writing. The plot is solid enough but delivered without any sense of fun, pace or excitement. It is a very British way of doing it and it does well to set the period and has the trimmings of mundane British life (as opposed to the way newsroom fizzle and journalists talk in Hollywood versions). For most viewers the result will be to rather turn off rather stick with it just because it offers little for the casual viewer to be bothered with.

The cast are reasonably good and the material is solid enough but the delivery is pedestrian from Saunders. He doesn't have that much style and he doesn't add anything to the material, instead just seemingly happy to point a camera at the words. Carpenter is nothing that special but fills the role well. He isn't particularly charismatic but the delivery of the film isn't really there for him even if he had been. Corri and Court have obvious side-kick roles and they do them well enough for the film. Solon is what he needs to be while Reid is effective when called upon.

Overall then a fairly so-so film that doesn't offer much for the casual viewer but might just fill an hour for the undemanding viewer. The plot and cast are solid but, like the delivery, nothing is particularly of note and is quite uninspiring.

Some newspaper men and women try to find out who killed a curvaceous blonde before the police do. Banner the freelance hack starts to fall for Adrienne Corri, though neither of them seem to have their hearts in it.

Then Banner's ex-fiancee turns up to fill in for his secretary and it turns out she's Hazel Court. Corri tries some arch banter, but Court is much better at it. That is, if you like arch banter, which I don't. In fact, I loathe it. What's worse, all these shenanigans are supposed to be funny.

It was a bad fashion moment, though there have been worse. Most frumpy outfit: Courts tweed coat dress with removable cape when she turns up at the Hastings hotel.

This is the type of film which used to appear as the B film in British cinemas in the 1950s and a staple of British TV up till recent times.Paul Carpenter stars as a reporter trying to find scoops on a woman blackmailer who is murdered in her flat at the beginning of the film.He falls initially for the affections of a rival reporter,Adreienne Corri,but his true affections lie with his secretary,Hazel Court,Queen of the B films.The fact is that there is not much mystery as there are not a multiplicity of suspects.Though it is hard to believe that the murderer would try to kill Carpenter since it would only make his chances of capture more likely.Anyway a reasonable film of its genre.