Winchell

Walter Winchell, star gossip columnist/broadcaster from the '30s to the '50s here gets the telefeature treatment. Bit of a hero, bit of a heel, he seems an altogether more banal figure than the monstrous extrapolation played by Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success - which may have been less 'true' but which felt much more convincing. Superficiality is the rule, from Plummer's Santa Claus of an FDR to Tighe's lightweight Hearst. Tip for budding broadcasters: a bit before going on air Winchell would allegedly guzzle pints of water, so that the famous urgency with which he tore through his script was absolutely genuine.