-30- (film)

For the British TV series, see Deadline Midnight (TV series).

-30-
Film poster
Directed by	Jack Webb
Written by	William Bowers
Produced by	Jack Webb
Starring	Jack Webb William Conrad Whitney Blake
Cinematography	Edward Colman
Edited by	Robert M. Leeds
Music by	Ray Heindorf
Production company	Mark VII Limited
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	November 11, 1959 (1959-11-11) (New York City)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

-30- (released as Deadline Midnight in the UK) is a 1959 film directed by Jack Webb and starring Webb and William Conrad as night managing editor and night city editor, respectively, of a fictional Los Angeles newspaper, loosely based on the real-life (and now defunct) Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

The title is a reference to -30-, a notation used in journalism to indicate the end of a story or article.

Plot

Managing editor Sam Gatlin and his staff assemble the early edition of the Examiner, a morning newspaper in Los Angeles. During a particularly active news night, Gatlin and his wife Peggy disagree about adopting a child, as Peggy is infertile. Gatlin is hesitant to adopt because his young son from his first marriage had been killed several years before, presumably in some sort of accident.

Longtime reporter Lady Wilson's grandson pilots a military bomber from Honolulu to New York, intending to set a speed record. A child is lost and feared drowned in the L.A. sewers during a torrential rainstorm, and Gatlin composes a provocative headline for the news story. Copy boy Earl Collins considers quitting after failing to place a $1 bet for city editor Jim Bathgate about how many babies a pregnant Italian actress will birth. Bathgate would have won $50, so he demands an IOU from Collins but then tears it into pieces, smiling to himself on his way out of the newsroom.

Cast

• Jack Webb as Sam Gatlin
• William Conrad as Jim Bathgate
• David Nelson as Earl Collins
• Louise Lorimer as Lady Wilson
• Nancy Valentine as Jan Price
• Whitney Blake as Peggy Gatlin
• James Bell as Ben Quinn
• Joe Flynn as Hy Shapiro
• Richard Bakalyan as Carl Thompson
• Dick Whittinghill as Fred Kendall
• John Nolan as Ron Danton
• Richard Deacon as Chapman
• Howard Culver as Walt Ashton
• Fay McKenzie as Mrs. Jason
• Ronnie Dapo as Billy
• William Tracy as Unnamed Writer
• Phil Gordon as unnamed character
• Mark Scott as unnamed character
• Olan Soule as Vince
• Dick Cathcart as unnamed character
• Marshall Kent as Mr. Jason
• Alan Reynolds as Newspaper Employee
• Donna Sue Needham as Lucille Greghauser
• John Truax as Newspaper Employee

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson wrote: "[T]he picture sorely lacks the pounding, graphic drive of Mr. Webb's previous directional efforts. Even worse, about 80 per cent of the dialogue is a wearying exchange of stale wise-cracking—the kind of sophomoric newspaper lingo that went out with prohibition. It is Mr. Webb who outcracks everyone. And somehow, with all the crass yammering, a paper actually emerges, headlining a child's rescue from a sewer. ... Mr. Webb has used for his title the traditional newsman's sign-off symbol. But his picture, crammed with so much smart-alec nonsense, is rarely as authentic."

See also

• List of American films of 1959

External links

• -30- at IMDb
• -30- at AllMovie