"They Won't Forget" & Trial by the Media

They Won't Forget film poster

 They Won't Forget is a 1937 film starring Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Lana Turner and Edward Norris. The film is set in the South and on Confederate Memorial Day, where a young student, Mary Clay (Turner) was mysteriously killed at school. 

Lana Turner as Mary Clay

Throughout the film, the town is trying to figure out who killed Mary. The first suspect arrested was the black janitor, Tump Redwine (played by Clinton Rosemond) because he was at the school at the time of the murder, although we saw that he didn't even know Mary was in the school at the time.

Professor Hale was another suspect of Mary's murder. Originally from New York, the town began to turn on Hale due to him being from the North. I'm not going to spoil anything else for you all, so I do recommend watching it to see what happens.

The idea of yellow journalism was very evident in this film. Yellow journalism was coined in the 19th century and is a type of journalism that focuses on sensationalism. Reporters exaggerate stories to get the people's attention regardless if the story is true or not. (Check out my blog post about muckraking vs. yellow journalism here).

Yellow journalism wasn't the only thing at play; this film focused on "trial by media" too.

William A. Brock (played by Allyn Joslyn) was a reporter who covered the trial. Throughout the film, you can see Brock reporting his news to the townspeople. The local newspaper constantly wrote about the trial, which led to the townspeople taking sides and swaying their beliefs. 

We have seen a lot "trials by the media" in modern day journalism. One of the big issues revolves around police brutality and how social media plays into that. Derek Chauvin's case had us all glued to our phones or televisions, awaiting the conviction. 

The film ended on a somber note and left us wondering if the town didn't get involved, would it have ended another way?

Check out the trailer below!