Word: mullen
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CORNELL (73): Carla Kelly 1-2--4; Tracy Sullivan 7-6--20; Patti Froehlich 5-6--16; Kathleen Geils 1-4--6; Mary Browne 4-1--9; Rachel Gabato 1-0--2; Gloria Peele 2-5--9; Jonelle Mullen 3-0--6; Jennifer Cochran 0-0--0; Vajezatha Payne...
Defense of the Realm follows Nick Mullen (Gabriel Byrne), an ambitious young reporter on a story that could make his career. A series of anonymous tips leads Mullen into a spate of stories linking Dennis Markham (Ian Bannen), a prominent Labor Party member of Parliament, to a communist spy ring. The stories--racy Fleet Street stuff filled with call girls and foreign agents--first destroy Markham's marriage, then his career as he is forced to resign his office...
...only doubt in Mullen's mind is provided by Vernon Bayliss (Denholm Elliott), a washed-up old timer on the newspaper staff who insists Markham was framed. Bayliss was pals with Markham in the Communist Party back in the old days, though, and Mullen finds this plus his own obsession with front page stories reason enough to ignore the old man's pleadings...
Bayliss' death awakens Mullen's lingering doubt, as he pursues a new story of sinister government machinations to hide the truth. The predictable series of close calls and astonishing revelations continues on schedule, until the eventual triumph of truth as guaranteed by a free-if imperfect press...
...linotype room, stuffy British parlors and subtle jabs at clumsy American diction--but the picture plays like a second-rate TV drama. Wrapped up in the perceived all-importance of his plot, director David Drury neglects such film elementals as character development and cinematography. Although the picture revolves around Mullen, we learn next to nothing about him as a person, save what can be gleaned from his decor (most notably graced by classical records and a synthesizer...