Bannerline (1951)
3/10
A bit heavy handed and overly sentimental
22 March 2014
Keefe Brasselle of all people stars in this film. His character, Mike Perrivale is an eager young reporter who is tired of handling dull stories. However, even when he is given more meaty stories, he's surprised to see that his editor (Larry Keating) is afraid to attack the real problem in the town--the mob boss, Frankie Scarbine (J. Carroll Naish). Mike becomes even more frustrated when he goes to visit a dying old teacher, Mr. Trimble (Lionel Barrymore)--a man who taught Mike and many others about good government and the like. So, to make Trimble's last days more pleasant, he arranges for a fake newspaper to be released just to Trimble announcing the investigation of Scarbine. However, Trimble sees through this...so what's next for Mike? Is he willing to put his life on the line to get the goods on Scarbine?

This film suffers from being way too sentimental and lacks realism. Everyone seems so earnest--unrealistically so. The film is poorly written and you could understand how this film didn't make Brasselle a household name.
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