The Underworld Story

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The Underworld Story
The Underworld Story movie poster
Directed by	Cy Endfield
Produced by	Hal E. Chester
Written by	Craig Rice (story) Cy Endfield Henry Blankfort
Starring	Dan Duryea Herbert Marshall Gale Storm Howard Da Silva
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	July 26, 1950 (U.S. release)
Running time	91 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Underworld Story is a 1950 movie, shot in film noir style, starring Dan Duryea. Howard Da Silva plays the loud-mouthed gangster Carl Durham, one of his last roles before becoming blacklisted. This newspaperman Duryea plays is similar in tone (a reporter that does anything for publicity for himself regardless of ethics) to Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole. This B-movie was shot in black and white by director Cy Endfield and cinematographer Stanley Cortez.

Newspaper reporter Mike Reese (Duryea) loses his job at a big paper he finds that no one else will hire him. Reese borrows money from and gangster and buys half the interest in a small-town newspaper, The Lakewood Gazette, in the town of Lakeville. The newspaper is owned by Catherine Harris (Storm) and she immediately has differences with Reese on how the paper should operate. Reese, trying to use the paper as a step up, latches onto a murder of a woman who happens to be the daughter-in-law of a newspaper magnate. Reese turns the story into a media circus and soon his reporting is back in the spotlight again.