The Power of the Press (Silent)

Clem Rogers is a cub reporter writing obituaries and weather reports, until he gets his chance at a story so big he'll get the front page for sure! It looks like Jane Atwell, the daughter of the front runner for mayor, might just be involved in the murder of the District Attorney. When Clem quits basking in his own success he starts to doubt the facts of his report but can he get to the bottom of the true story before Jane and her father are ruined?

Presently unavailable for public reappraisal, the biting and cynical melodrama POWER OF THE PRESS would seem to be a precursor to such Frank Capra talkies as PLATINUM BLONDE and MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN. Cub reporter Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) wants a "big scoop" more than anything else in life. Alas, he stumbles onto a hot news story that implicates his sweetheart Jane Atwill (Jobyna Ralston), daughter of mayor candidate Atwill (Edwards Davis), in a murder. Putting his job and his future on the line, Clem endeavors to help Jane prove her innocence, and together they begin to see a connection between the murder of the district attorney and the political ambitions of her father's political rival. Curiously, Capra never mentions POWER OF THE PRESS in his autobiography.