George Bancroft is the ruthless editor of a scandal oriented newspaper. He's oblivious to his lovely, "loving" wife's afternoon and evening sessions with a pickled puss lover (Kay Francis and Clive Brook). Kay asks Clive for 24 Hours (!) (they co-starred in a movie with that title in '31) to decide whether or not to run off to Europe with him. In a key scene one sees the revulsion for Bancroft's work ethic -- it has left her cold and unloving. Brook himself becomes a victim of Bancroft's paper and not to spoil the ending, I'll leave it there. It's an absorbing and well-performed drama. Francis registers well here, although the ending leaves us wondering whatever happened to her.
Add a Review
-
sobaok11 June 2002
-
AlsExGal18 December 2021Gruff Mark Flint (George Bancroft) is editor of the "scandal sheet", The Bulletin. He identifies as a "newspaper man", with the newspaper first and foremost and the humanity part playing second fiddle. He steals photos of a young man who committed suicide to accentuate the story he is running on the event, and he refused to not print a story about a school principal being the brother of a famous criminal even though that story will probably ruin the principal as people believed in eugenics a lot more in those days. He says he prints the news always, and if it ruins a person's life that is not his problem.
Meanwhile his wife Edith (Kay Francis) is having an affair with their mutual friend, the bank president Noel Adams (Clive Brooks). Adams comes to tell Edith that he is leaving town and going on an ocean voyage because he realizes she will never leave Mark because she does not want to hurt him. Mark is none the wiser even though Edith is always telling him he is heartless to run the kinds of stories that he does and seems indifferent to him. But then Adams' bank is involved in a scandal and so Flint is keeping close watch on Adams all of a sudden. Maybe he will not like what he finds out. How does this turn out? Watch and find out.
It seems that Edith and Noel are taking lots of chances here. Noel shows up at their apartment while Mark is at work and Edith runs out to greet him like a school girl in love. She sure does talk loudly and take chances with her maid just in the next room. Bancroft is towards the end of his acting heyday here. His film image as tough guy got him to believing his own press and being pegged as difficult just as lots of fresher more cooperative faces arrived in Hollywood. Also note character actor Regis Toomey as action reporter Regan. He has some good scenes, especially in the beginning when he shows what somebody has to go through to stay gainfully employed at The Bulletin. -
jennyp-222 November 2004Spoilers: George Bancroft plays a tough big-city newspaper editor determined to print the news no matter whose life it may destroy. His one weakness is wife Kay Francis who he adores. Francis doesn't return his affection and turns to suave banker Clive Brook. Bancroft learns of the affair from his news photographer, who snaps a shot of the pair embracing in Brook's apartment window. He kills Brook, and then returns to his office to dictate the story before turning himself in. It should have ended there, but the studio tacked on a 'happy' ending of Bancroft contentedly running the prison newspaper. A little hokey at times, but an enjoyable melodrama with great sets and lovely costumes for Francis. Viewed at Cinesation in Massillon Ohio in October 2004.
-
JohnHowardReid8 August 2009"Scandal Sheet" (1931), a superb early sound movie, handled in an admirably freewheeling style by John Cromwell, re-unites the director with the fascinating Kay Francis whom he had been pressured by David O. Selznick into using in "Street of Chance" and had then coached in "For the Defense". Kay tops her magnificent performance in the latter film with her mesmerizing study here of the two-timing wife of a ruthless newspaper editor, Mark Flint, played by George Bancroft at his most engagingly charismatic. In fact, all the acting is solid from the stars right through to the smallest, uncredited bit part (Syd Saylor as the pleased-as-punch photographer who snaps the damaging picture). Even normally boring Clive Brook delivers stylishly. Happily, executive producer B.P. Schulberg loosened the purse strings on this one, allowing Cromwell to take advantage of some really staggeringly-sized sets. The only aspect of the fast-moving script that I disliked was the anti-Hays Office ending in which the killer escapes to live happily ever after. Certainly a change from the usual, but a puzzling one. Cromwell once explained it was actually a tacked-on additional scene which the studio felt lightened the original downbeat conclusion.
-
museumofdave27 September 2015What begins as a conventional Unfaithful Wife Story evolves into something more fascinating, as we see a ruthless editor of a major city newspaper tread on too many toes and get some comeuppance. There is some wonderful set work at play in this "B" film, with a fashionable ultra-mod apartment turned out as Kay's Love Nest with a naughty banker who offers whiskey in bottles the size of a glass brick, as well as some zippy tracking shots in a newspaper office setting a fast pace of hustle and rush.
From the beginning, the viewer eavesdrops on cynical reporters attempting to bribe the little brother of a recent suicide, simultaneously offering the Mother cold cash for the dead boy's verse; editor George Bancroft sets the tone here as a heartless man who claims that no matter who the story damages--if it sells papers, it's news. His wife, Kay Francis, sits at home, draping various parts of her body with eye-catching fashion, and in one scene, other action front and center, there is some pre-code semi-nudity with mirrors catching the sort of undressing censored just three years later.
But it is the plot that, despite the soapy melodrama, rises above its origins, and provides no little suspense--with an odd, seemingly tacked-on ending, probably to please the money men. An additional incentive to early film fans is the rich casting of secondary players--Irving Bacon, Sid Saylor, Vince Barnett, Robert Parish, and even the man that become The Weenie King in The Palm Beach Story--Robert Dudley. -
AAdaSC13 July 2019Newspaper editor George Bancroft (Flint) is a nasty piece of work. He will print anything that he deems newsworthy regardless of the effects on those concerned and their families. He is even approached by a kind-hearted old headmaster to hold back a story but Bancroft is having none of it. His wife, Kay Francis (Edith), is having an affair with banker Clive Brook (Adams) and debating whether or not to elope with him. Her decision will influence the course of this film.
The film is ok if a little dull but picks up at the end once Bancroft takes matters into his hands. However, the final scenes are ridiculous. There is some funny dialogue between Bancroft and Brook but I'm afraid we just can't sympathize with Bancroft and his monotone voice. He's not a role model to attach your emotions to and this is why the ending is particularly annoying.
I've read that Bancroft regarded himself as something pretty special in real life. In this film, his news hierarchy to present to the public has stories about newspapermen allocated to page 3. They are not headline material. Well, he makes sure he promotes himself to headline status. That's total dedication for you. What a big-head! -
Paramount knew they had a gold mine in Kay Francis even though she had limited theatre experience. Exhibitors noted that her name on a marquee meant top business and fan magazines clamoured for her photos and interviews to keep her legion of fans happy. Kay had a great love of her privacy and her flip, often "get lost" approach eventually turned the public against her but in 1930, 31, Paramount tried all it could to get the public onside, showcasing her in picture after picture.
Mark Flint (George Bancroft) is ruthless when it comes to digging up the dirt for his scandal sheet - when an old head master comes pleading with him to keep his family out of the news when his brother is exposed as a notorious gangster, even though the managing editor is a friend, with Flint it's "no go"!! But tough guy Flint is a marshmallow when it comes to his beautiful wife Edith (Kay looks stunning in some beautiful outfits - I wonder if it was this movie that first had female fans drooling over her wardrobe)!! She is madly in love with banker Noel Adams (Clive Brook, in his usual prim and proper style) so when Flint confronts Noel in his flat, Noel thinks the showdown is here!! It is - but just not this showdown!! Adam's bank is in hot water over some shares that should never have come up for sale, he and the other managers are scrambling to raise money to pay back the shareholders. Flint pays a visit and gives him 48 hours to get the money or the story goes onto the front page - "Banker Packs Bags - Widows and Orphans Hold the Bag"!!
When Flint leaves a cub reporter outside the apartment to take a picture - the one he gets sends shock waves throughout the paper "at last we've actually found a story that Flint won't print"!!
With George Bancroft front and centre stage, the other two pale into the back ground, regardless of how beautiful and insouciant Kay appears. George Bancroft was larger than life both on and off the screen and he gives Flint a terrific presence, especially during the last third when eager reporter (Regis Toomey) presents him with the photo of Edith in Noel's arms. He smoulders with suppressed anger as he calmly tells them what they are going to put on their front page before it happens!!
Bancroft may have been one of Paramounts top stars but he rapidly developed a huge ego and while "Blood Money" was a boost to his career, his roles became sparser and after 1933 he turned to character parts. -
Kay Francis stars with George Bancroft, Regis Toomey, and Clive Brook in "Scandal Sheet" from 1931.
Francis plays Edith Flint, the wife of aggressive news editor Mark Flint (Bancroft) who doesn't care whom he hurts by printing stories. The paper has a decidedly tabloid bend to it. Though he seems to adore his wife, the paper is his obsession.
As a result, Edith has been having an affair with a banker (Brook). He demands a commitment from her, and she asks for 24 hours to make a decision. During that time, Brook learns that he's about to become the subject of one of Bancroft's stories.
I'm afraid I did not have the same reaction as others. Kay of course was lovely - and those clothes! Knockouts. Bancroft did well as a tough man, but there weren't many levels to his performance.
I see here that people went on about the twist at the end. Maybe the very last scenes were a "twist," but what lead up to it wasn't, for me anyway.
I found this a stilted drama. And may I add, I don't understand what Kay Francis saw in either man. -
boblipton16 December 2021He never misses a chance on a story; he threatens to quit and take the story with him when the publisher asks him not to cover a prominent suicide, as the dead man's brother is an old friend of his. Right now, his reporters -- most prominently Regis Toomey -- are working on a yarn about how Clive Brook's bank has cheated depositors, and Brook is about to flee with the loot and Bancroft's loved wife, Kay Francis. Will Bancroft choose love over his newspaper, and what's the moral basis for his scandal-mongering, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may style of journalism?
Bancroft was the right actor to play the unlikable editor, and the pre-code era was a time when you could tell a story like this, with everyone full of warts. Once the Code came into full force, of course, the newspaperman-as-hero persisted, but they wound up gelded, crusading men in search of truth and true love, with their hats battered, but not their souls. I prefer stories like this one, with people who are neither saints nor demons, just unscrupulous. -
view_and_review13 August 2022I saw "The Scandal Sheet" (1952) starring Broderick Crawford before seeing this one. I don't like seeing remakes before seeing the original, but in this case there was no harm done. Though similar, they differed enough to make "Scandal Sheet" (1931) like watching a totally different movie.
"Scandal Sheet" (1931) is about a hardcore newspaperman. Mark Flint (George Bancroft) was the editor of a burgeoning New York rag and he was the reason for its recent success. He didn't let anything get in the way of him printing a news story--not personal relationships, personal feelings, or anything else. When it came to news he was as cold as ice. His heart and mind couldn't be budged.
His code and principles would be severely tested when his wife became the subject of a salacious news story. His wife, Edith Flint (Kay Francis), was photographed in the home of a banker named Noel Adams (Clive Brook). Noel was being tailed by reporters because his bank was the subject of a shady deal gone wrong. Edith just so happened to be careless enough to be spotted there.
When the publisher of the paper, Franklin (Gilbert Emery), brought the photo and the information about Edith to Mark's attention he had the first real test of his career. Print this salacious story or bury it.
I thought "Scandal" did a wonderful job even setting up the drama. It's always riveting when the drama involves the morals of a principled person: will they compromise or won't they? It helped that "Scandal" had a villain so-to-speak as well. No one likes a cheat and his wife was just that. How could he punish his wife, and keep his principles as a newspaperman, and keep his reputation clean? Or is that even possible? It was well worth watching to find out and the ending didn't disappoint.
Free on YouTube.