Front Page Story *** (1954, Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Allan, Eva Bartok, Derek Farr, Patricia Marmont) – Classic Movie Review 4906

Jack Hawkins stars in Front Page Story (1954) as a workaholic Fleet Street newspaper editor who faces an endless series of trials, tribulations and troubles. Among them are which story to hold the front page for, a wife (Elizabeth Allan) who wants a divorce, and an editorial team who are on the verge of mutiny.

Director Gordon Parry’s engrossing 1954 British black-and-white newspaper drama from the Fifties can boast plenty of period detail and remarkable acting. The admirable Hawkins is ideally cast and gives a robust performance as the harassed news editor of The Daily World, the focus of an excellent multifaceted story about various events of the day back in the early Fifties.

Patricia Marmont plays the reporter who interviews Cockney children made homeless by a bureaucratic mix-up. Jenny Jones (aged 10) gives a scene-stealing performance as a plucky orphan.

As they use to say at the time in newspapers, all human life is here – and it is vibrantly and realistically portrayed in the screenplay by Jay Lewis and Jack Howells, based on the novel Final Night by Robert Gaines.

Also notable in the cast are Eva Bartok, Derek Farr, Michael Goodliffe, Martin Miller and Walter Fitzgerald. Arthur Mullard is uncredited as a policeman outside the court house.

It premiered in London on 20 January 1954.

It is made by Jay Lewis Productions at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK, and released by British Lion Film Corporation (1954) (UK) and Associated Artists Productions (1955) (US).

The cast are Jack Hawkins as Grant, Elizabeth Allan as Susan Grant, Eva Bartok as Mrs Thorpe, Derek Farr as Teale, Michael Goodliffe as Kennedy, Martin Miller as Dr Brukmann, Walter Fitzgerald as Black, Patricia Marmont as Julie, Joseph Tomelty as Dan, Jenny Jones as Jenny, Stephen Vercoe as Craig, Helen Haye as Susan’s Mother, Michael Howard as Barrow, John Stuart as Counsel for the Prosecution, Bruce Beeby as Counsel for the Defence, Guy Middleton as Gentle, Ronald Adam as Editor, Henry Mollison as Lester, and Arthur Mullard as policeman.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4906

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