The Story on Page One (1959)

A courtroom drama from the pen of Clifford Odets, produced by Jerry Wald and released through 20th Century-Fox, Story on Page One was the second and last movie that Odets, famed playwright of Golden Boy and Clash by Night, directed. The first had been None but the Lonely Heart in 1944 with Cary Grant and Ethel Barrymore. Rita Hayworth gives a restrained, simple and unadorned performance as a bourgeois housewife married to a detective who is accused of plotting his murder with lover accountant Gig Young; her part was offered to Marilyn Monroe who did Some Like it Hot instead. It's a welcome departure from the usual glamorous roles Hayworth was given to play throughout her career.

After the first act, the leading man and several supporting players take over while Hayworth sits on the sidelines; all whom were connected to the New York theater. Anthony Franciosa plays Hayworth's lawyer astonishingly well with great force; he was at the height of his career coming off an Oscar nomination for A Hatful of Rain. Mildred Dunnock is Gig Young's Violet Venable -ish mother; her performance should have netted an Oscar nomination. She originated the role of Linda Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman on Broadway and film.  Famed gay acting teacher Sandford Meisner is a terrorizing prosecutor on hunt. Man, was Meisner a powerful actor! Sexy too. He also should have been nominated by the Academy. However, this was his first movie role and the only other movie appearances he made were in the 1962 flop adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night and Elaine May's Mickey and Nicky. New York based, he had no ties to the industry - which could explain his snub- besides having been an acting teacher for many well known actors.

At the time of The Story on Page One, Gig Young was married to future Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery, daughter of 1930's-40's film star Robert Montgomery. Reportedly, he abused Montgomery during their marriage. Young later won an Academy Award for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? playing a boozed-up emcee. He had a serious alcohol problem in real life too and later took his own life, and his fourth wife's, in 1978.

The great James Wong Howe is the cinematographer.

You can watch The Story on Page One via Hulu by clicking here.