In honor of this inaugural issue of The Harvard Press, I thought it fitting to match the theme of my DVD column to the occasion. Here are three great newspaper movies. Newspapers and reporters are everywhere in films, but few are the focus. The movies below all have the newsroom as their home base. When recommending DVDs I hope to come up with titles that might not be so well-known. But these three films are hardly sleepers:

His Girl Friday (1940): The quintessential rat-a-tat Howard Hawks comedy, starring Cary Grant at his Grantest, and the incomparable Rosalind Russell. Based on the play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, this buddy comedy was transformed into a romantic comedy by Hawks and Francis Lederer. This is the newsroom-as-center-of-the-world, populated with a glorious collection of character actors. The newsroom is such a typhoon of banter and scuffles and melodrama that only a soul as slick and detached as Grant’s editor Walter Burns can navigate it. And only someone as sharp-witted and thick-skinned as Russell’s Hildy Johnson can navigate Walter. He can fast-talk anyone into anything, except her. She’s leaving Walter and the paper, even though she’s the best reporter they’ve got. Now she’s set to marry safe, unassuming Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy at his most gee-whiz). Walter is determined to lure Hildy back. It’s a credit to Grant, Hawks and the writers that Walter can so effortlessly flummox the sweet Bruce, yet we remain on Walter’s side. More credit is due for the almost cavalier mix of screwball comedy and stark melodrama: this might have been the first American movie that shoved comedy and tragedy against each other and dared us to laugh.

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in All the President's Men. (Courtesy photo)

All The President’s Men (1976). With reporter Bob Woodward still decidedly relevant in political journalism, it is impossible to ignore how prescient this movie is. But All the President’s Men is not a masterpiece because of its subject matter. It is how—and how well — the story is told. Director Alan J. Pakula (Klute, Sophie’s Choice) made a major stylistic contribution to ’70s filmmaking with this film. He forced the standard movie score to the back, and brought ambient noise to the front. He wasn’t the first or only director to do it, but Pakula understood that sometimes the most effective soundtrack is a natural one. All the President’s Men manages to be deeply engrossing without turning self-important. It does not supply commentary through music, however: the lasting sounds are the hum of the newsroom, the clackety-clack of typewriters. Somehow Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman give pure movie-star performances as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. And even though the political events it explores seem awfully quaint by today’s standards, All the President’s Men remains a crackling presentation of investigative journalism, and a nice reminder of when we started to see just how dirty Washington, D.C., could get.

The Paper (1994): No, it is not in the same league as the two above, and in many ways Ron Howard’s film represents the scrubbed-clean efficiency of contemporary mainstream films. It is far less of a comedy than His Girl Friday, yet it fails to touch on anything terribly dramatic. But it is also an amped-up ensemble comedy that pays off. Michael Keaton is Henry Hackett, editor of a New York City tabloid. Marisa Tomei is his reporter wife on maternity leave. Robert Duvall is his worn-down publisher, Glenn Close his nemesis in the newsroom and Randy Quaid the loose cannon reporter. Hackett is faced with the opportunity of leaving his tabloid for a staid, easier job at a respected paper. But could he live without the thunderous pace of the tabloid world? The Paper is homage to hustling journalists, and their movie counterparts.

Honorable Mention: Between the Lines (1977). Directed by Joan Micklin Silver (Crossing Delancey), this is independent filmmaking of a different age. Between the Lines is spattered with a cast of terrific pre-fame actors, including John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jill Eickenberry, Jeff Goldblum, Bruno Kirby, Joe Morton and Marilu Henner.  As a bonus, it takes place in Boston, following the trials and tribulations of an underground newspaper. It is the messier, more insightful version of Howard’s film.  “Between the Lines” nearly won the Golden Lion at the Berlin Film Festival, but was overlooked in the United States. Even more disappointing, it is not available on DVD.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.