Power of the Press is a 1943 American crime film directed by Lew Landers, written by Samuel Fuller (story) and Robert Hardy Andrews (screenplay), and starring Guy Kibbee, Gloria Dickson, Lee Tracy, Otto Kruger and Victor Jory.
Amidst the turmoil of WWII, the publisher of the New York Gazette, an isolationist newspaper, is assassinated just as he is on the verge of switching the paper's stance to support the American war effort. To track down the perpetrators, his comrade, a patriotic editor from a small town, is recruited.
Not to be confused with the 1928 Frank Capra film The Power of the Press (note the definite article).
Power of the Tropes:
- Alliterative Title: Power of the Press
- Author Tract: In this film, Samuel Fuller—who was a former journalist, and a serving soldier in the U.S. Armynote —outlines the importance of an independent and impartial press, and his opposition to American isolationism.
- Conspicuously Public Assassination: Rankin has Trent shoot John Cleveland Carter while Carter is giving a speech to a press society dinner.
- Da Editor: Griff Thompson is the hard-bitten managing editor of the New York Gazette. Initially only concerned with increasing circulation, he has a My God, What Have I Done? moment after an unsubstantiated story he runs at Rankin's urging results in a riot and a man's death, and then joins Bradford in his quest to clean up the Gazette.
- Engineered Public Confession: Using a fake newspaper story to scare Rankin into thinking that Trent had made a complete confession before he died, Griff manages to wring a confession from Rankin in a room full of journalists and policemen.
- Frame-Up: To ensure that the paper remains unchanged, Rankin has Carter assassinated, and frames Jerry Purvis, a former Gazette employee, for the crime.
- Girl Friday: Edwina Stephens is the personal secretary to New York Gazette publisher John Cleveland Carter, and his confidant. When Carver is shot, Edwina delivers the will granting Ulysses Bradford majority ownership to Bradford personally, and persuades him to honour Carver's wishes by taking on the position of publisher. She also pretty much keeps he paper running until Bradford gets up to speed on running a big city paper, and is the only person willing to stand up to Da Editor Griff Thompson and ensure he does what Bradford wants, rather than what he thinks is best.
- He Knows Too Much: Bradford rallies to the defense of Purvis and posts a reward offer for information leading to his exoneration. A "newsie" comes forward with information that will clear Purvis, but Oscar Trent, one of Rankin's men, throws him down an elevator shaft before he can make a deposition.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Trent shoves the newsie who can prove Jerry Purvis' innocence down an elevator shaft in an attempt to make it look like he accidentally fell to his death. Too bad he accidentally dropped his racing guide.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Da Editor Griff Thompson experiences this after an unsubstantiated story he runs at Rankin's urging results in a riot that burns down a warehouse full of essential war supplies, causes a public official to suffer a fatal heart attack, and provides important information to the Nazis. Following this, Griff realizes the extent of Rankin's corruption and joins Bradford in his fight to seek justice.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: Griff manipulates Trent's dead body to make it look like he is wounded but still alive, then photographs him and uses the photograph to produce a fake newspaper front page to trick Rankin into making an Engineered Public Confession.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Newspaper publisher Ulysses Bradford writes an editorial in his newspaper, the Starr County World, accusing John Cleveland Carter, his friend and publisher of the New York Gazette, of abusing the freedom of the press and running articles harmful to the wartime security of the United States. Carter agrees with his friend's criticisms, and decides to operate his paper in a more responsible manner. This decision gets him murdered.
- Simple Country Lawyer: A journalistic equivalent. Ulysses Bradford describes himself as a "simple country newspaper publisher" when introducing himself to the senior staff of The New York Gazette, just before he lays down the law about what the new editorial policy of the paper is going to be.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The investigation into the newsie's death eventually turns up Trent as the prime suspect, and Rankin, fearing that his conspiracy will be exposed by Trent, has him murdered.
