When cult auteur writer director Sam Fuller goes soft he goes bad as evidenced here with this sentimental valentine to the newspaper business. Fuller who was a full fledged reporter on a big city daily at the age of 17 makes much of the dialog sound like speeches at a retirement part - full of reverence, praise and hyperbole.
The time and place is 1880 New York City where newspaper wars between competing dailies resort to physical violence and property damage to gain an edge in readership. In some cases they manufacture the news for a headline as editor Phineus Mitchell does when he has someone jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. Mitchell's early success incurs the wrath of The Star an established competitor and its ice cold editor Charity Hackett. There is a war of words between the two that momentarily thaws to allow Phineus to melt the heart of the frigid Charity and take her in a caveman like way( They don't call Sam a "primitive" for nothing ). Then its back to war between the two as people are maimed and offices are bombed. Through out all of this the nobility and dedication of this 19th century Lou Grant and his staff perseveres. Fuller signs off this Hallmark card with a veritable love and kisses by using the word "thirty" (the end of a story in newspaper terminology)in place of the end.
Sam Fuller has made classic films in many genres. War films (Steel Helmet) westerns (40 Guns) and noir (Pick-up on South St.)that hold their own with other recognized classics that had double the budgets. Fuller's in your face, brutal style of conveying his point of view made up for that. He was an expressionistic artist that was in a unique position of annoying both the Left and Right. A lot of the time he worked with a heavy hand-with a meat cleaver in it. Still, he swung it mightily.
Park Row is a nostalgia piece, an overt labor of love that is not a good fit for Fuller's pulpish sensibility. There's some of his powerfully jarring camera work through an indoor, outdoor set that amounts to a TV sound stage and some nice tracking shots around the office and the downright weird presence of the cane carrying dressed in black frigid dominatrix, editor Charity Hacket is Sam at his best but for the most part Park Row is Skid Row.
The time and place is 1880 New York City where newspaper wars between competing dailies resort to physical violence and property damage to gain an edge in readership. In some cases they manufacture the news for a headline as editor Phineus Mitchell does when he has someone jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. Mitchell's early success incurs the wrath of The Star an established competitor and its ice cold editor Charity Hackett. There is a war of words between the two that momentarily thaws to allow Phineus to melt the heart of the frigid Charity and take her in a caveman like way( They don't call Sam a "primitive" for nothing ). Then its back to war between the two as people are maimed and offices are bombed. Through out all of this the nobility and dedication of this 19th century Lou Grant and his staff perseveres. Fuller signs off this Hallmark card with a veritable love and kisses by using the word "thirty" (the end of a story in newspaper terminology)in place of the end.
Sam Fuller has made classic films in many genres. War films (Steel Helmet) westerns (40 Guns) and noir (Pick-up on South St.)that hold their own with other recognized classics that had double the budgets. Fuller's in your face, brutal style of conveying his point of view made up for that. He was an expressionistic artist that was in a unique position of annoying both the Left and Right. A lot of the time he worked with a heavy hand-with a meat cleaver in it. Still, he swung it mightily.
Park Row is a nostalgia piece, an overt labor of love that is not a good fit for Fuller's pulpish sensibility. There's some of his powerfully jarring camera work through an indoor, outdoor set that amounts to a TV sound stage and some nice tracking shots around the office and the downright weird presence of the cane carrying dressed in black frigid dominatrix, editor Charity Hacket is Sam at his best but for the most part Park Row is Skid Row.