A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

In the 20's, the controversial New Yorker journalist Walter Winchell (Stanley Tucci) begins his career writing gossips about his acquaintances. He is hired by the New York Daily Mirror and using inside information from informers, he becomes the first American gossip columnist. He becomes successful and is invited to host a successful broadcast show in the radio. In the 30's, he attacks Adolf Hitler and befriends President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Christopher Plummer). After the World War II, Winchell attacks the communists and becomes a collaborator of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Winchell is not able to adapt his show to the audience of television and when McCarthy is censured by the Senate, Winchell becomes unpopular and his career virtually ends."Winchell" is a good HBO movie about the polemic columnist Walter Winchell, who was feared by the powerful and famous in the 30's and 40's. Along the years, Winchell hires a ghost-writer, Herman Kurfeld (Paul Giamatti), who admires him and has a lover, the showgirl Mary Louise "Dallas" Wayne (Glenne Headly) that likes him. Winchell is shown as a manipulative man that uses his personal dossier to force people to provide inside information for his column and his radio show; a man that neglects his family and has a wrong move supporting the McCarthyism and denouncing people. In the end, he pays a high price for his mistakes, and is forgotten by the public opinion He ends his life alone, without family or friends, and his son commits suicide. The last scene with his mentally disturbed daughter attending his funeral alone is one of the saddest conclusions of a film (and a life) that I have seen. Stanley Tucci gives one of his best performances in the role of Winchell. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Poder da Notícia" ("The Power of the News")

The movie "Winchell" starring Stanley Tucci is based on the true story of Walter Winchell a famous journalist in the 1930's and 1940's.We see brief periods in his youth, including how he got hurt badly by a horse, eventually this incident would give him the skill to read lips (he sees his mom talking through a glass about him and reads her lips).From age 20 he got a job writing newsprints although many of his prints were lies against his friends.Then in 1929 in New York , Winchell get a bigger job writing "Winchell's Column" ,this time though writing real news column on everything from politics, to gossip.Including his print on Robert Bellamy a producer who with another executive are having affairs behind their wives back. Glen Miller "Stardust" pg 2 5 senators and 2 congressman drinking from a bathtub that where a young hooker is naked in.Winchell wanted to expose these crooked politicians, but his boss (caring more about the interests of the politicians) tells Winchell not to publish the story ,however he does manage to get a date with the young girl who was in the bathtub.This girl ,Dallas Wayne, eventually ends up working for Winchell, uses her beauty and charm to get information.The info he is seeking is on someone named Vincent Coll and another politician Winchell suspects is cheating on his wife.This story is also killed by his boss, who is obviously getting a money from these politicians and who doesn't have the guts to expose.Winchell gets a radio job from a wealthy tobacco company to cover news for both the rich and poor,adding his brash of humor and honest into every broadcast.For instance in one of his funny broadcast , he remarks how "every mother's first child, is her husband."Soon Winchells loud and honest sense of journalism gets him very popular and powerful and soon everyone, from politicians to music performers is asking him for favors, like a Godfather in a way.Then he starts to investigate other people like Randolph Hearst who is having sexual relations with a young girl.Hearst would eventually hire Winchell for his radio program and column.Winchell caught the eye of an aspiring writer named Herman Klurfield.The movie is based on the novel by Herman Klurfield "Walter Winchell:His Life and Times".Klurfield shows up to his office to hear his Boss beat up on Winchell verbally:but Klurfield defends Winchell astoundly with these wordsThen Klurfield gets a job with Winchell, being the head writer for him.What elevated Winchell from a good journalist, to a world renowed journalist would be his report on who tried to kill Fraklin D. Roosevelt.With the help from his friend Herman Klurfield and Lawrence Newman whom he question the shooter ,Joe Zangara, after Winchell threated to expose how his daughter was in a sanitarium.His outspoken, brave, and truthful words against Adolf Hitler would elevate Winchell into a patriot. He describes Hitler and Nazis as: "The Tyranny that destroys from the top down", and how "the memory of a people oppressed is always longer than the road to glory."Winchell being a Yiddish man, knew Hitler was killing many Jews , yet this wasn't covered by the press until after Hitler took over poland.Winchell describes how Jews were often drag from the beds and business and taken through the night by German soldiers.Then as a true patriot Winchell describes how the US "Our country stands for freedom, tolerance, and the dignity of man", totally opposite of what Hitler and German stood for during WWII.In fact , as the movie depicts he meets Franklin Roosevelt ,played by Christoper Plummer,and Roosevelt admired him because he was the reported who answered to no one, which was one reason many people admired Winchell. He did speak for the public on many levels, and he had the guts to do so.The movie then tells the events of WWII how Roosevelts says how the US was attacked by Japan in Dec 1941 "A date that will live in infamy".Winchell served in WWII as he stationed in Brazil and yet managed to speak out against Hitler and Mussolini.The movie then chronicles the famous Josephine Baker incident which would damage Winchell's reputation even though his reputation was solid. Baker was singing at the Apollo Theater in 1951,where she got a generous review by Winchell.Everyone thinks Josephine Baker, a highly respected singer was honest, but the movie reveals how she and the NAACP lied about Winchell being a racist, because she didn't get served at a restaurant by a white waiter.Winchell was in the same restaurant, but he didn't see what was taking place, if he did he would have done something about it.Finally, the movie chronicles Winchell's alliance with Joe Mccarthy and how he tried to set up people to make them look like communists, which they weren't.This would prove to be the nail in the coffin for Winchell.There are other noteworthy scenes in the movie like when Winchell talks to Mayor Laguardia that how his column "showed you into office and and his column can show h=you out again"A tremendous movie that you have to see because it will open you're eyes to the world of dirty politics, dirty journalism, patriotism, doing what you believe in and much more.Tucci would win a Golden Globe award for best actor for "Winchell".Director Paul Mazursky does a good job here, and Fried Films production, the production behind the movie.Winchell is a piece of American History that hasn't really talked about until now.Highly recommeded.

Stanley Tucci leads a super ensemble cast, in this HBO movie biography of Walter Winchell. His knack for sensationalism, gossip mongering and trademark rapid fire bark zoomed him to a pinnacle of media influence. His heavy handed approach brought the news to many, and the ire of many, as well. His tirade over the differences over FDR, as opposed to Harry Truman, really nailed home the notion of Winchell's megalomania. His ghost writers (who did an inordinate amount of the work he claimed) argued the resulting event was the same. Winchell rattled on about the difference in "finesse." Mr. Tucci makes his subject a sympathetic, zealous and outrageous character. An excellent perormance. The supporting cast is above par, with Glenne Heady, Christopher Plummer and Kevin Tighe as W.R. Hearst (who could use a biopic of his own...oh, that's right...a movie HAS been made about him! *wink, wink*). The stand out is truly Paul Giamatti, as the talented and much-abused Herman Klurfeld, whose book was the basis for this movie. The only detractions is that some other characters are not well developed, and seem to suffice as only background setting. The business relationship between Winchell and FBI Chief Hoover would've been interesting to delve into. Also, Winchell's family life and the tragedy of his son, would've been interesting to explore. Of course, with that said, this movie is still very interesting, and well worth your time.

The pickings at the Video store have for me been slim. Slimmer in fact than the theatres. I did however rent WINCHELL an HBO movie starring Stanley Tucci in his Emmy Award winning performance as Walter Winchell the famous newspaper columnist and radio commentator of the 30's through the 60's. I did not know much more than that about WW, but after seeing this film I learned a great deal. HBO's attention to historical detail in costumes and art direction are superb. Stanley Tucci proves once again that he can't do a bad performance. Paul Giamatti as his head press agent is marvelous. This is an excellent rent.