Synopsis
H.R. Manley (Cochran) has two interests: his scandal magazine and his mother (Rambeau), who disapproves of the magazine. The magazine has been slowly losing readers and to increase circulation Manley wants to print a sensational story about a public figure. One of his reporters has received a tip that Scott Martin (Johnson), a puppeteer who has just gotten the lead on a children's television series, has scandalous information about a famous and beloved movie star, and Manley intends to get the story from him.
Manley invites Scott's wife Connie (Blyth) to his office and threatens to print a story about her husband's arrest and imprisonment at age nineteen if he does not tell the story about the movie star. Connie urges Scott to tell, but he refuses, so she leaves him. When the story is featured on the cover of the magazine, Scott is fired from his TV gig. The other schoolchildren taunt Scott's son (Eyer) about his criminal father, and, rushing to confront them, he dashes in front of a car and is killed. Scott and Connie are devastated, and Scott goes on a popular news show to tell his story and denounce the magazine. Manley is delighted by the free publicity that his magazine is receiving. His mother, however, is anguished by the death of the child and her son’s heartless response. She puts an end to his unfeeling treatment of other people by murdering him.
Discussion
Slander is a drama contrasting good and evil. Scott Martin is a decent and hard-working family man who has paid the penalty for a crime of his youth. H.R. Manley is a cold and ruthless exploiter who is unconcerned by his part in the death of Scott's son. Manley's scandal magazine is the agent and symbol of his unscrupulousness. In the end, wickedness is harshly stamped out, but not before many innocent lives have been destroyed.
The film is based on the television play A Public Figure (1956) starring James Daly, Mercedes McCambridge, and Shepperd Strudwick, that was presented in the eighth season of Studio One in Hollywood (1948-58).