By Richard Harland Smith
Bannerline
Brief Synopsis
An idealistic small-town reporter tries to fight corruption.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Don Weis
Director
Keefe Brasselle
Mike Perrivale
Sally Forrest
Richie Loomis
Lionel Barrymore
Hugo Trimble
Lewis Stone
Josh
J. Carrol Naish
Frankie Scarbine
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Oct
12,
1951
Premiere Information
Los Angeles opening: 10 Oct 1951
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 27m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,825ft
(9 reels)
Synopsis
Carravia Clarion cub reporter Mike Perrivale yearns for a chance to prove his mettle on a major story, but editor Roy and publisher Stambaugh will not give the college-educated Mike a chance. Still optimistic that he can do something more than cover the local garden club, Mike plans to marry his school teacher girl friend, Richie Loomis, within a year. Richie's mother is against the marriage, even though she is fond of Mike, because she fears that Richie will be confined to a life of privation, just as she had been. The idealistic Richie is committed to Mike, though, and refuses to consider anyone else. One night, Richie suggests that Mike ask Stambaugh to let him write a story about Hugo Trimble, the high school's longtime history teacher, who is near death in the hospital. Stambaugh and Roy are unenthusiastic, but as they, like the rest of the town, were taught by the tough, but fair Trimble, they agree to allow Mike to write a small piece after interviewing Trimble and his wife Margaret. The devoted Margaret admires her husband for his idealism and hard work, but sadly says that Hugo is a failure, because he never convinced the people of Carravia to take action against gangster Frankie Scarbine, who runs the town. When Mike interviews Hugo, he is inspired by the eloquent teacher and wonders what it would be like if the town would take Hugo's advice and follow the principles of the Founding Fathers. Knowing that the disillusioned Hugo has only a day or two to live, Mike proposes to Stambaugh that they create a phony front page proclaiming changes in the town leadership and indicate that Scarbine is on his way out. At first reluctant, Stambaugh eventually agrees and he, Mike, Roy and Josh, an elderly former reporter who now heads the paper's morgue, work all night on phony stories about grand juries and resignations of the corrupt city officials. Each takes a souvenier copy, and Mike makes sure that one is delivered to Hugo. Next morning, when Mike goes to the hospital, Hugo is touched by Mike's gesture, but reveals he knew instantly that it was a ruse as the townspeople are too apathetic to take action against Scarbine. Mike begins to think about the ideas expressed in the phony front page and, when at the Club Africa, a gambling joint run by Scarbine's henchman Floyd, he encounters Josh. As they drink together, Josh, who wasted his once brilliant career on alcohol, is convinced by Mike to take the already set front page and print it on all of the next day's papers. While the printers are on their dinner break, Josh and Mike fix the presses and the next morning every issue of the Clarion carries the phony front page. When Mike wakes up with a terrible hangover and sees the paper, he remembers what he has done and fears that he will lose his job. Stambaugh, who is honest, but weak, does not fire him, because no one in the apathetic town was inspired by the headline. Scarbine then enters Stambaugh's office to complain. When Mike stands up to him, Scarbine is impressed and asks him to take him to see Hugo. At the hospital, Hugo admits to liking Scarbine, who can be charming, but warns that someday a runaway grand jury will stop him. Later, Floyd suggests killing Hugo and Margaret, but Scarbine, remembering Margaret's kindness to him and his family when he was a child, refuses to allow it. He does say that Mike might someday get a "rap in the mouth," which Floyd interprets as an order. Meanwhile, Mike goes to the library to read up on runaway grand juries and proposes to Stambaugh that they try to convince the present head of the town's grand jury, Dick Moore, to take action. Stambaugh is on the verge of agreeing, when Scarbine calls to say that Mike must be fired. That night, Richie says that she will follow Mike anywhere, and Mrs. Loomis finally accepts their impending marriage. To celebrate, Mike goes out to buy a bottle of champagne, but on the drive back, is forced over by a car and confronted by Floyd and his thugs, who mercilessly beat him. Later, when Scarbine finds out what has happened, he is enraged that Floyd misinterpreted him. When Josh learns about Mike, he drags Stambaugh out of bed and together they successfully approach the grand jury. Next morning, the badly injured Mike is in the hospital, where he finds out that the town has finally been inspired to take action. The mayor and city council resigned after the grand jury issued subpoenas to them, and Scarbine and his gang have left town. Sadly, Margaret informs Mike that Hugo died, but not before learning of the changes in Carravia. Stambaugh then informs Mike that he is being given a large raise for more important assignments, thus enabling him and Richie to marry.
Director
Don Weis
Director
Cast
Keefe Brasselle
Mike Perrivale
Sally Forrest
Richie Loomis
Lionel Barrymore
Hugo Trimble
Lewis Stone
Josh
J. Carrol Naish
Frankie Scarbine
Larry Keating
Stambaugh
Spring Byington
Mrs. Loomis
Warner Anderson
Roy
Elisabeth Risdon
Mrs. Margaret Trimble
Michael Ansara
Floyd
John Morgan
Al
Mari Blanchard
Eloise
Tom Murray
Policeman
George Magrill
Policeman
Jack Shea
Policeman
David Macmahon
Fireman
Allan Ray
Intern
Larry Dobkin
Doctor
William E. Green
Doctor
William Schallert
Cass
Joan Blake
Girl
Betty Erbes
Girl
Janice Carroll
Girl
Phyllis Woodward
Girl
Sumner Getchell
Eddie
Ida Moore
Mrs. Small
Bob Alden
Waiter
Helen Winston
Opertor
Jeanne Dante
Mrs. Ella Stambaugh
Harry Cheshire
Mayor
Budd Fine
Chief of police
David March
Photographer
Nolan Leary
Dick Moore
Harvey Dunn
Clerk
Rhea Mitchell
Maid
Virginia Farmer
Madame chairman
James Base
"Gorilla"
Phil Bloom
"Gorilla"
Betsy Stoddard
Genevieve Bell
Helen Dickson
Nikki Juston
Sylvia Andrew
Jesse Arnold
Crew
Henry Berman
Producer
Norwood Fenton
Sound
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Sydney Guilaroff
Hair styles Designer
Rudolph G. Kopp
Music
Harold Lipstein
Director of Photography
Arthur Lonergan
Art Director
Samson Raphaelson
From a story by
George Rhein
Assistant Director
Charles Schnee
Screenwriter
Douglas Shearer
Recording Supervisor
Al Shenberg
Unit Manager
Fredrick Y. Smith
Film Editor
Alfred E. Spencer
Set Decoration
William Tuttle
Makeup
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Oct
12,
1951
Premiere Information
Los Angeles opening: 10 Oct 1951
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 27m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,825ft
(9 reels)
Articles
Bannerline
Best remembered as a reliable director on such well-regarded television series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, and Batman, Don Weis got his start as a gopher at Warner Brothers before his wartime service with the motion picture unit of the US Army Air Corps gave him the training to call the shots behind the camera. A two-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put the 31 year-old Weis in the canvas chair for Bannerline (1951), the story of a cub reporter (Keefe Brasselle) who mocks up a phony newspaper front page to comfort his dying mentor (Lionel Barrymore) only to see the stunt backfire and bring down the vengeance of a local gangster (J. Carrol Naish). Bannerline was based on a stage play by Samson Raphaelson, who adapted his short story "Day of Atonement" as the Broadway hit The Jazz Singer, source of the 1927 early talkie starring Al Jolson. Later a respected screenwriter in his own right, Raphaelson enjoyed a long association with Ernst Lubitsch, contributing to the scripts for Trouble in Paradise (1932), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), and Heaven Can Wait (1943), while also helping to write Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) and George Sidney's The Harvey Girls (1946). Originally slated to direct but settling for screenplay credit, Charles Schnee had already co-written Red River (1948) for Howard Hawks and The Furies (1950) for Anthony Mann and would go on to win an Academy Award for scripting Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) the following year.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Bannerline
Best remembered as a reliable director on such well-regarded television series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, and Batman, Don Weis got his start as a gopher at Warner Brothers before his wartime service with the motion picture unit of the US Army Air Corps gave him the training to call the shots behind the camera. A two-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put the 31 year-old Weis in the canvas chair for Bannerline (1951), the story of a cub reporter (Keefe Brasselle) who mocks up a phony newspaper front page to comfort his dying mentor (Lionel Barrymore) only to see the stunt backfire and bring down the vengeance of a local gangster (J. Carrol Naish). Bannerline was based on a stage play by Samson Raphaelson, who adapted his short story "Day of Atonement" as the Broadway hit The Jazz Singer, source of the 1927 early talkie starring Al Jolson. Later a respected screenwriter in his own right, Raphaelson enjoyed a long association with Ernst Lubitsch, contributing to the scripts for Trouble in Paradise (1932), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), and Heaven Can Wait (1943), while also helping to write Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) and George Sidney's The Harvey Girls (1946). Originally slated to direct but settling for screenplay credit, Charles Schnee had already co-written Red River (1948) for Howard Hawks and The Furies (1950) for Anthony Mann and would go on to win an Academy Award for scripting Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) the following year.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Bannerline marked the M-G-M producing debut of Henry Berman and the first film as a director by Don Weis (1922-2000), who had previously acted as a dialogue director on many productions. Weis went on to direct several films for M-G-M in the 1950s, then turned to television, where he directed numerous episodes of popular series for more than thirty years, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Remington Steele. According to an M-G-M press release, Bannerline was intended as the directing debut of Charles Schnee, but Schnee only wrote the screenplay.
