Roy Royland: Slander (1957) Starring Van Johnson & Steve Cochran

"For Entertainment Purposes Only. A successful smooth talking mogul (Steve Cochran) who makes his living publishing a "muckraking" magazine tries to blackmail an "up and coming" performer to get smut about another famous entertainer. Bad goes to beyond worse while Van Johnson and Ann Blyth struggle as victims. The story is as relevant today as ever. Really about libel (not slander)...

Source:Susie Robinson with a look at Slander (1957)

From Susie Robinson

From IMDB: 

"In an effort to improve the circulation of his notorious scandal magazine, unscrupulous owner, editor and publisher H. R. Manley spares nobody." 

Source:IMDB with a look at Van Johnson Ann Blyth & Steve Cochran.

From IMDB

So, you know it's a slow news day anytime you are seeing The New Democrat talk about a classic film, instead of President Trump's latest unconstitutional executive order, or who he threatened to lock up, if that person kept saying and reporting negative things about him. But it's Friday, the 2nd day of May, which feels like a summer day in Washington, D.C., which is pretty common for this time of year. And there just isn't much going on today. Besides, as it says on our home page, TND is about current affairs, sports, and entertainment... not just current affairs. 

So the more I see Van Johnson, the more I like him. He's the sort of classic, Classic Hollywood leading man and great supportive actor: 

Tall 

Good looking

Well built

Excellent sense of humor and comedic timing.

Van Johnson was the perfect actor for soap operas both in film and on TV in the 1950s and 60s, but go to the 1970s... even the 1980s as well. Even in his 60s, he would've been great on shows like Dynasty. He would've been a great late night talk show guest for the reasons I just gave as well. 

So Slander is not really what you would call a classic soap opera, but it has those elements: 

A big shot star (played by Van Johnson) that a tabloid reporter (played by Steve Cochran) wants to take down... or at least seriously hurt, because he can and it would sell a lot of paper for his publication. 

What I'm about to say, is not a newsflash for anyone who has a solid grasp of American history, or even Hollywood history. But well before what's called reality TV, the internet, blogging, or even the tabloid news magazine shows from the 1980s and 90s... this is how Americans got a lot of their news about their favorite stars... tabloid print publications. 

And like today with serious news organizations, or even 70 years ago, it was up to the individual reader to be able to figure out what was trash, what was incomplete, and what was real when it came to their news diet. 

And Slander is sort of about how people got their news back in the 1950s,  where you have a tabloid print reporter trying to take down a star, because he can and it will sell a lot of pint for him. And doing that with trash, or at best half-truths.  I'm going to watch it tonight and I might have more about on The New Democrat next week. 

You can follow me on Threads.