The Sellout

In a small town a newspaper editor risks everything he has to expose a corrupt sheriff. What faces him is not one man but the part of the town that does business with him, so publishing alone is not enough. The film gives journalism not as heroism but as work that carries a cost. The account works with the moulds of film noir and builds the town like a closed order. The editor’s family and circle are drawn into the pressure as well. The sheriff’s power comes not from the law but from habit. It is one of the works of American cinema of 1952 to take up corruption. Walter Pidgeon and John Hodiak appear in Gerald Mayer’s eighty three minute American film, completed in 1952.