Star Reporter / Headline Crasher (DVD)

STAR REPORTER (1939): After his father's bloody execution by mobsters, John Randolph inherits the family newspaper, "The Star Tribune." Seeking to continue work on the expose that caused his father's death, young Randolph investigates District Attorney William Burnette and his connection to imprisoned gangster Joe Draper. With hitmen out to permanently silence the newspaper and its new publisher, Randolph races to publicly expose the murderers who are corrupting the ideals of the city.

HEADLINE CRASHER (1947): After a decade of incarceration, mobster Tony Scarlotti is parolled. Bitter from his years behind bars, the one-time Public Enemy's only thoughts are of exacting a revenge on Senator Tallent, the man who put him away. Plotting a kidnapping, Scarlotti dispatches his floozy gun-moll girlfriend to ensnare the Senator's, impetuous hothead son, James (Frankie Darro). Luckily, the Senator's influence has kept his son's scandal-plagued adolescence out of the headlines. However, that is poised to change when Senator Tallent's arch rival, Atwood, uses his vast fortune to take control of "The Morning Herald." Atwood dispatches his mud-raking reporters to smear the Senator as a delinquent parent unfit for public service. With an election year looming, and James held prisoner in Scarlotti's clutches, the brazen youth must escape his captors and keep his reckless adventure out of the papers in a noble attempt to defend his father's political career.

• mystery
• thriller