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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful: An engaging and entertaining tribute to American Journalism, 19 June 2002 Author: Kalaman from Ottawa
Before becoming a B-movie specialist and one of American cinema's finest filmmakers, Sam Fuller was a journalist who once worked as a crime reporter for The New York Daily Graphic. He made his great pictures in headlines, something more akin to tabloid journalism and sensationalism. "Every newsman is a potential filmmaker", Fuller once said and explicitly used it in "Park Row", an intensely personal work in which he financed with his own money but unfortunately failed miserably when it came out."Park Row" is small but an engaging and entertaining tribute to American journalism. Under the opening credits we see a huge rolling title that lists about 2,000 American daily newspapers and this story is dedicated to them.Set in the 1880s New York, the film is about the rivalry between The Globe and The Star. An aspiring newspaper editor (Gene Evans) sets up his own daily The Globe after a man jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge. He struggles to compete with his former employer's (Mary Welch) newspaper The Star, who happens to be in love with him, while the Statue of Liberty is being donated to the U.S. by France.Unlike Fuller's bleak and lurid "Shock Corridor", "Park Row" is full of reverential optimism and is packed with so much gusto and excitement, featuring some terrific tracking shots that will make your head spin.Highly recommended.
17 out of 20 people found the following review useful: A poor mans "Citizen Kane"?...low budget homage to early days of american journalism is full of the same electrically vital love of cinemacraft...and is even more honest about the world of new, 13 August 2002 Author: martin lane (martylee13045burlsink342@yahoo.com) from Cortland Ny
Sam Fuller's brilliant direction combines a tatty set, low watt cast, and potentially preachy and pedantic script into a small masterpiece...seemingly with the sheer electric passion of his film sense. Superb use of camera takes ordinary talking head shots and makes them off kilter peeks into the clash of opposing souls. The passion filled but low key love/hate/love interplay between opposing editors played by Gene Evans and Mary Welch is one of the most adult and genuine dark romances in cinema history (how sad that this was only major appearance for Welch...who died in 1958). Fuller's lauded tracking shots...including some which seem to have the camera being tossed about like a football in an effort to keep up with the action..are very much in evidence...but film is most striking for it's effortless ability to capture the quiet passion and integrity of one mans devotion to the craft of journalism...a devotion so strong that great love for an unscrupulous competitor was no obstacle...a devotion so great that his insight and passion helped transform the press into the behemoth it is today. Any film that can turn the creation of linotype into a miracle of discovery is a wonder. Check out this 83 minute masterwork...rediscover how alive film can be.
12 out of 17 people found the following review useful: An overlooked classic, 15 July 2002 Author: (cereal_11@hotmail.com)
One of my favorites from Samuel Fuller; a frenzied, kinetic melodrama about journalism in the late 1800's. Although the film is laughably unrealistic at times in it's portrayal of two major newspapers competing for more readers, this is no hindrance to one's enjoyment of the film.Never did Fuller create a film of such sheer energy and nostalgia. The film's tracking shots and frenetically-edited montages seem to get the most attention, but there are also some great monologues and magnificent performances, particularly from Mary Welch as the head of the "evil" newspaper, The Star, and Gene Evans as the leader of their opposing newspaper, The Globe.The film has it's moments of campiness, but overall it's one of cinema's overlooked classics.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful: An excellent film about rival New York City newspapers in the 1880s, 9 July 2002 Author: zetes from Saint Paul, MN
Its main draw is Sam Fuller's direction – he is, without a doubt, one of the most skillful American directors to have ever lived. You have to see some of the brilliant long takes in Park Row to believe them. The flowing shots make the rather brilliant moves in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope look trite (which is no dump on Hitch, mind you; Park Row is just that impressive). Unfortunately, Fuller's screenwriting ability is quite a bit below his directorial prowess. You've got to admire any director who was working in Hollywood at the time and was also able to write his own scripts. There is only the smallest handful of writer/directors at the time. But, man, can Sam Fuller be overbearing at times. Fortunately, the sillier pieces of the script, as well as bad bits of dialogue, fuel the madness of it all in Park Row. I found myself utterly entertained by the larger than life situations and the hamfisted attempts at symbolism. I laughed quite hard at a scene where Phineas Mitchell, the film's protagonist, attacks a hired thug from the rival newspaper and pounds him repeatedly against the statue of Ben Franklin. I also loved the overwrought symbolism of the scene where Phineas hangs the final issue of his paper on a hook labeled `Deaths.' Or how about the ridiculously over-the-top editorial that Davenport writes near the end? And you've just got to love the final scene, with the word `THIRTY' boldly replacing `THE END'. You'll understand what that means if you see the picture. The only piece of the film that should really have been subtracted is the horribly clunky romance; it seems like an afterthought developed to capture a greater number of female moviegoers and it doesn't work a lick. 9/10.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Fuller Valentine with plenty of Hokum, 27 January 2008 Author: st-shot from United States
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.
"You're in love with a dead woman, my boy.", 8 September 2009 Author: Irie212 from New York City
Sage old reporter Josiah Davenport says this to crusading editor Phineas Mitchell, but writer/director Sam Fuller might have been speaking to himself when he wrote the line. He is clearly pining for the long-dead old days of newspapers in New York-- and with good reason, check nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp/history.htm for a brief and amazing history. The IMDb reviewer, st-shot, who called this movie a "valentine" hit the mark. This valentine has a fair amount going for it, but it's more flawed than faithful. A newspaperman himself (ca. 1930), Fuller prided himself on the historical accuracy of "Park Row" and there is truth behind, if not in, the screenplay: The base of the Statue of Liberty, which was unveiled in 1886 when the movie takes place, was indeed partly paid for by a newspaper campaign (but Joseph Pulitzer's "New York World," not the then-nonexistent New York Globe). A Bowery bookie named Steve Brodie did claim to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge that same year, and survived to both acclaim and controversy. Linotype was indeed invented by German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1886, but it wasn't for a Park Row newspaper, it was for lawyers wanting a way to get legal papers printed faster. The young political cartoonist called "Thomas Guest" is obviously a thinly veiled Thomas Nast, who would have been in his mid-40s and very famous by 1886. Much of that cinematic license can be forgiven, because the problem isn't the lack of historical accuracy; it's Fuller's proud claim that it WAS accurate. Perhaps he was referring to the typesetting and printing processes he shows in such loving detail-- which certainly are fun and fascinating to see.Then there's the plot, another big problem. Melodrama was Fuller's Achilles' heel and he pours it on rather thickly here-- injured towheaded kid, heroic journalists, rival editor and publisher as the Clark Kent & Lois Lane of 1886. But, while the movie is more frenetic than energetic, there's enough camera movement and odd angles to establish this firmly as a Fuller film, and therefore worth seeing. Once.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Park Row Takes A Skid Row Course **, 23 January 2008 Author: edwagreen from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
What could have potentially been a wonderful movie, instead turns into an amateurish like production.I heard that this film could have been made with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in Technicolor. It would have been a musical with Peck singing. How delightful that would have been. Instead, we are subjected to an overly simplified production of trying to explain the importance of newspapers.Angered when a newspaper caused the hanging of an innocent man, Gene Evans forms his own paper called the Globe. The Star, the rival paper, is owned by a woman. Soon, a war develops between the papers. An odd sort of people work for the Globe. A typesetter who can't read, a young boy who has his legs sliced off by the competitor's carriage.As the story evolves, there might be a hint of romance between the lady and Evans. This is not pursued as the film ends. When the Globe is bombed, the lady, who has had a change of heart, prints the paper itself....And we have mom and apple pie too.Don't bring up the trial of John Peter Zenger. That was a story. This story of the importance of newspapers would have been better served in an old fashioned western.
4 out of 8 people found the following review useful: No front-page story, but a nice feature, 8 July 2002 Author: marcslope
Samuel Fuller showed a certain bravado in writing and directing a ringing tribute to freedom of the press in 1952, near the height of McCarthy hysteria; we could use more like him in 2002, where the meekest mention of separation of church and state brands one as unAmerican. End of speech. Anyway, his is a lively melodrama of 1880s New York journalism, specifically the rivalry between the new, enterprising Globe and the old, corrupt Star, presided over here by a wicked dragon-lady publisher. The cast is no-name, the central romance utterly unconvincing, the history of newspapers absurdly telescoped -- you'd think everything of import in journalism happened in one week in 1886. Still, for an independent B movie, it's impressively elaborate -- the detailed, three-block Park Row set alone makes it worth a look -- and Fuller matches his publisher-protagonist for passion and ingenuity. His dramatic black-and-white cinematography, unusual camera angles, and big effects on a small budget will remind you of the journalistic stretches of "Citizen Kane," even if his dramaturgy doesn't.
0 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Classic Fuller, 25 February 2008 Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY
Park Row (1952) *** (out of 4) Extremely powerful if bizarre film about The Globe, a new newspaper on Park Row that has an editor (Gene Evans) who wants the truth and nothing but the truth printed. This independent paper doesn't sit well with the big guys who do everything they can to get The Globe out of the market. I had never heard of this film until it showed up on TCM and I'm certainly glad I got a chance to see it because it's quite an experience. When you are constantly watching new films all the time it's great to come across something like this that reminds you why you keep searching out new gems. This is an incredibly bizarre film that has touches of comedy, action and drama and Fuller brings them all together very well. Apparently Fuller put up $200,000 to make this film his own and eventually lost all his money but he certainly gave us a good film. Apparently fifty years worth of newspaper material is shown within a two month stretch where The Globe is trying to get the Statue of Liberty up. The violence in the film is pretty graphic for its time and the actors, all character actors, come off great with Evans turnings in a really powerful performance. I've mentioned the film being bizarre a couple times now but this is where the movie really works because you never quite know where it's going or what it's trying to do. The technical achievement of the film is also very high because there are some incredible shots done here, which are a good fifteen-years ahead of their time. All of the film was shot on a small set but the way the camera is constantly moving makes you feel as if you're looking at an entire world.
0 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Great film but Unknown until Recently, 24 January 2008 Author: whpratt1 from United States
Enjoyed this great newspaper story which took about three months to produce for a budget of about Three-Hundred & Fifty Thousand Dollars by Samuel Fuller the Director and Producer. Fuller was able to give a fifty year history of the newspaper business within this very film and it deals with two main characters, Phineas Mitchell, (Gene Evans) who decides to create a newspaper called the "Globe" with a group of other newspapermen who need work and they all get together to make this possible. The other person in this film is a woman named Charity Hackett, (Mary Welch) who is the editor of the "Star" which is a very established newspaper and they are a powerful voice in New York City on Park Row. The Globe's front page headline is about a man who jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge which is a leap of 120 feet into the East River. The Globe begins to over power The Star and Charity Hackett begins to get very upset because she realizes that her paper needs a complete change in is obtaining good news stories and things of interest for the public. The Globe was able to get an inventor who created the Linotype Machine for printing and they also started to raise funds for the land in which the Statue of Liberty would be built on. This is a great film and whenever you get a chance, don't miss this film.
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