THE POWER OF THE PRESS
Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Jobyna Ralston
HARRISON'S REPORTS
December 1, 1928
A good entertainment. The spectator is held in pretty tense suspense all the way through, and his sympathies are appealed to. There is some comedy here and there, too, and some thrills. The thrills occur toward the end, and although they are of the "hokum" variety, they are effective, just the same. They are caused by the villains in an automobile trying to capture the hero, a cub reporter, who had captured their leader and had been taking him to the office of his newspaper for a big story. This villain had killed the district attorney at the orders of a candidate for mayor, who was fighting the heroine's father, who, too, was running for mayor. This all happened a few days before the election, the object of the villainous candidate being to kill the chances of the heroine's father for his election; he had made it appear as if the heroine had illicit relations with the dead man. The hero, thought of as a "dumbbell," had become very popular with his editor for having scooped all other reporters on his paper, as well as the reporters on the other papers, and secured a story connecting the heroine with the district attorney. But afterwards, he had fallen into bad graces with him for having demanded the retraction of the story because the heroine had convinced him that she was innocent, and that his story had brought disgrace upon her and upon her innocent family. The hero is discharged. But soon afterwards he follows a clue and gets the real murderers. The big story he obtained as the result of his having followed up his "hunch" re-instates him in the graces of the editor and he is given his job back. He wins also the heroine.
The story was written by Frederick A. Thompson. It was directed
by Frank Capra. Mildred Harris, Philo McCullough, Wheeler Oakman,
Robert Edeson, Charles Clary, Del Henderson and others are in
the cast.
For more information, see "The Power of the Press" as our "Feature of the Month"