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Newspaper headline - 'Richard Mason Assaulted'


It is beyond belief that a Los Angeles daily newspaper would carry a front page headline stating that some complete non-entity of a student had been assaulted accompanied by a large photo of the battered and bruised face of that person!!!!!

Such an event would hardly warrant the front page headline of a small town weekly newspaper!!!!

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He was the quarterback of the UCLA football team. It would be on the front page of most local newspapers. It also doesn't say much for UCLA football that their quarterback was beaten up by a 50 year old Bogart.

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How do you know that? The movie never mentioned it, unless it was in the newspaper article and I didn't notice. He certainly wasn't built like a college football quarterback. Besides, in 1950 college football players weren't nearly the celebrities they are now. Even today, the headline would probably say something like "UCLA QB Mason Assaulted", or something like that.

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The newspaper said exactly that, I guess you didn't read fast enough and yes star quaterbacks were celebrities in the 50's just like now.

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The newspaper said exactly that, I guess you didn't read fast enough and yes star quaterbacks were celebrities in the 50's just like now.
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I saw the movie recently and it did NOT say that he was a quarterback on the newspaper. The page was only shown for a second or two and it only said he played football for UCLA. Besides when he confronted Humphrey Bogart he was shorter and thinner than him and looked a wuss,

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And I'm old enough to remember the late 50s and I don't recall college football players, even star QBs, being so famous that they would be known just by name on a headline by the general public.

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Well, I'm looking at the dvd paused on the newspaper headline and what it actually says is:

Above the picture:

"John Mason (not richard) Brutally Beaten"

Below the picture it says:

U.C.L.A Football Star Beaten
by Unknown Assailant

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In real life, "UCLA Football Star Beaten" would have been the first line and "John Mason Brutally Beaten" second. Plus, it would have made the front page, but it would not have been the headline. College football just was not as big in 1950 as it is today. Besides, I agree with Altho73 that he was way too puny to be a football star. Then again, so is Adam Sandler and they've put him in two football movies.

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Thanks pmiano.

My point in making my initial post was to show how ridiculous Hollywood movies are in their standard screening of events that would never happen in real life and one of the most ridiculous is the deaths, assaults etc of non-entities warranting front page headlines in newspapers.

Assaults do not warrant front page headlines, not even in small town weekly newspapers where the front page headlines are more likely to be 'Supermarket site approved by Council' or 'Mayor says no to more pedestrian crossings'.

Even in cases of murder (that do warrant front page headlines) the names of the victims are certainly not included. The headline would state 'Beauty therapist found murdered' rather than 'Susan Jones found murdered'.

Another scenario that REALLY annoys me is the sight of a movie character driving to a hotel/restaurant etc in the evening and not only being able to park his car on the street but able to park it directly in front of the main entrance door. Oh please!!!!!

P.S - I could have sworn in Court and passed a polygraph test that the student attacked was named Richard Mason!!!!!

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Me too. I remember that the parking cliche has always been a pet peeve of yours. Mine has always been the stories where the inconsequential nobody hero or heroine is able to outfight and outsmart police, government agents,spy agencies, terrorists, professional killers, criminal gangs, etc. with ridiculous ease. Also, I'm sick of the recent trend of skinny, model-type women who are super-fighters able to defeat 12 big men at a time in as many seconds. Surely someone would get a gun and shoot her. But then, we've been doing this for nearly four years in "The Third Man", haven't we?

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What's more Humphrey Bogart got away with it as well!!!!!

He was never charged with beating up that student and there was no indication that the police found out who it was.

Very unusual for a movie made during the period when the Hays code was very much in force.

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Excellent point. It wouldn't have been hard to track Bogart's character down, even then.

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Very true, Bogart's car wouldn't have been too difficult to trace and once tracked down the paintwork of Bogart's car could have been compared to traces of paint from the collison found on Mason's car (and vice versa). Also neighbourhood garages could have been checked for rushed repair jobs for collision damage.

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Yes, it did. I caught it, too.

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"in 1950 college football players weren't nearly the celebrities they are now."

In the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s, college football stars were bigger celebrities than pro football players. They were as big or bigger stars than college players are today.

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