Overview | 1920s | 1930-35 | 1936 | 1937-39 | Citizen Kane | 1940-45 | 1946-49 | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s
I do not host or maintain any of these online films myself; these pages just link to publicly available trailers, clips and full-length films at YouTube and Vimeo. If full-length films are posted without authorization, the links will be disabled after the service determines there is a problem.
The 1960s saw some international journalists in film… and some not always sparkling views of American society. (Students may want to search YouTube, Hulu, etc., for clips, trailers or more from some of these.)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Gene Kelly left his dancing shoes at home to play “E.K. Hornbeck of the Baltimore Herald,” a thinly disguised representation of H.L. Mencken of the Sun, whose words of wisdom include a line he may owe to F.P. Dunne’s “Mr. Dooley,” on the relationship of newspapers to “the afflicted” and “the comfortable.”
Breathless (1960)
Godard’s sociopath pursues a young woman the Internet Movie DataBase describes as “a hip American girl studying journalism at the Sorbonne…” Hmmm. Woody Allen’s “Scoop” is also about an American journalism student abroad.
La Dolce Vita (1960)
I’d forgotten that Fellini’s tale of hedonism in Rome centers on a gossip columnist with some idea of being more of a journalist.
State Fair (1962)
Bobby Darrin is the reporter romancing farmer’s daughter Pamela Tiffin, but Pat Boone (as the farmer’s son) and Anne Margaret get top billing in this remake of the 1933 dual-romance film and 1945 musical. Darrin is Jerry Dundee, whom TCM calls “a brash and cocky television interviewer.” Previous versions put the reporter character at a newspaper and featured the daughter’s romance with him as much or more than the other couple’s romance. Compare several radio adaptations.
Shock Corridor (1963)
Sam Fuller, former crime reporter and World War II soldier, puts an ambitious reporter inside a mental hospital to find a murdere, win a Pulitzer, or go mad himself among inmates tortured by thoughts of war, the bomb, race and sex.
My Favorite Martian (1963-66 TV)
Before he became The Hulk, Bill Bixby played a newspaper reporter harboring his “uncle” from Mars.
Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
Loosely based on Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown’s book, framing it in the tale of a tabloid journalist trying to get a story about her.
Black Like Me (1964)
James Whitmore in awkward blackface, based on the true story of a reporter who took an “undercover” approach to telling whites about black lives. (Compare “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), which has a gentile “passing” for Jewish.)
Darling (1965)
A beautiful model falls for a TV journalist, among others.
In Cold Blood (1967)
The film based on Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, the writing of which is central to two later films about him, Capote (2005) and Infamous (2006)
Fame is the Name of the Game (1966)
A made-for-TV movie about an investigative reporter inspired a TV series featuring that character and others working for a magazine company’s various titles, including one called “People” before that magazine existed.
The Name of the Game (TV series 1968-1971)
Globe-trotting reporters and editors were featured in this anthology TV series, which alternated stars week to week as magazine company’s staff members working on varied writing assignments, from crime to features.
Medium Cool (1969)
A television photojournalist gets involved in the chaos of 1968’s Chicago Democratic Convention riots.
Z (1969)
Not about American journalism like most of the films here, but read about the role and ( ahead of his time? ) ultimate fate of the photojournalist character in the Wikipedia page linked above. Haven’t seen it in years, but adding to my “find it on next visit to the library” list.
Bob Stepno's Other Journalism 
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