I was really taken aback by some of the dialogue; someone asks George Sanders about a male colleague, and Sanders drawls back, “How should I know? I’m not sleeping with him.”
It’s like Carry On Up the News Room, except this is supposed to be a semi-serious movie.
Also surprising is what an unconvincing drunk real-life alcoholic Dana Andrews is in this film. Maybe he was afraid if he was too believable, people would “find out” (what they already knew anyhow.)
It’s clearly Lang’s intention to show that the folks on the trail of the sex-crazed killer (played by Drew Berrymore’s dad) are in their own ways as sexually brazen and amoral as he is.
Also weirdly modern is the “serial killer profiler” character.
If you like crime procedurals and/or “big city newspaper” movies, check it out.
(Also: Note that the media conglomerate logo looks like Charles Foster Kane’s personal monogram):
