When I read that someone had written a column on what he thought were the best newspaper movies of all time, I quickly went there to see if my favorite all-time newspaper movie was on the list. It was. “Call Northside 777,” which features Jimmy Stewart as a Chicago reporter looking for “an angle” on a story about a guy in prison and his floor-cleaning mother who is trying to free him, is a classic, for sure. The name Wanda Skutnik has reverberated in my mind since I first saw that movie as a kid.
Some of the movies on this guy’s list don’t do much for me. Several of them are just vaguely newspaper movies and are more like reporter movies. If those are eligible for consideration, then I offer another one of my favorite all-time movies, periodL “Roman Holiday.” It features the exploits of Gregory Peck as a scheming wire service reporter and Eddie Albert as his freelance photographer buddy in a scoop feeding frenzy, that is until they have a change of heart. What I love about the movie, though, is how it captures the feel of Europe as it was coming out of its post-war doldrums and beginning to live again.
