Some Reel Law

If you are interested in the image of media law in film, check out movies like The Front Page, first filmed in 1931, and based on the Ben Hecht play. It was remade in 1945 and in 1974, and as His Girl Friday in 1940 with Rosalind Russell in the role of the journalist who simply can’t walk away from the big story (in this case an execution) and as Switching Channels with Kathleen Turner in the Rosalind Russell role. It’s also been adapted for television. The journalists in The Front Page and its adaptations push the First Amendment to its limits, as do the newspapermen and women in movies like Libeled Lady (1936), a farce featuring Spencer Tracy as a big city editor threatened with a defamation action by socialite Myrna Loy. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) dramatizes the well-known Supreme Court case as well as lesser known events in Flynt’s life. All the President’s Men (1976), based on the Bob Woodward/Carl Bernstein bestseller spotlights the Watergate break-in and the Washington Post‘s relentless coverage of the resulting coverup. Reckless Disregard (1985) features Leslie Nielsen in a dramatic role as a journalist accused of defaming a physician in the course of reporting a story about drug trafficking. Absence of Malice (1981) centers on a young reporter (Sally Field) who writes a provocative story about a liquor distributor suggesting that he may be involved in the disappearance of a crime figure. The US attorney has used her to leak the information and the distributor (Paul Newman) threatens a lawsuit. The little known Word of Honor (1981) stars Karl Malden as a journalist who promises not to reveal his source for a story in spite of the fact that the defendant may go free. Quiz Show (1994) dramatizes the true story of the scandal surrounding the game show Twenty-One. The wonderful film Roxie Hart (1942) features a down-on-her-luck entertainer (Ginger Rogers) who admits to a murder in order to get some helpful publicity. It was adapted into the musical Chicago and ran for months on Broadway, then was filmed with Renee Zellweger in the Ginger Rogers part and Richard Gere as her lawyer, the very slick Billy Flynn. Gere is quite enjoyable to and others in the Oscar winning film are also good, including Catherine Zeta-Jones as Zellweger’s eventual partner Velma Kelly. The amount of pretrial publicity surrounding Roxie’s trial would put the current celebrity proceedings in the news to shame and Flynn is eager to chase down even more. Roxie Hart is loosely based on the real trials of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan. For more on journalists in popular culture see the website maintained by the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California.