The Front Page ***** (1931, Adolphe Menjou, Pat O’Brien, Mary Brian) – Classic Movie Review 1988

Producer Howard Hughes’s and director Lewis Milestone’s 1931 original first movie version of the enduring Charles MacArthur-Ben Hecht classic newspaper satire stage hit is a richly enjoyable and hugely rewarding sophisticated comedy entertainment. Its biting, sarcastic wit and its well-aimed barbs at the expense of tabloid journalists and crooked politicians remain fresh and relevant.

Adolphe Menjou (replacing Louis Wolheim who died suddenly just before filming was to start) is as sharp as nails as the cynical, grouchy tabloid newspaper editor Walter Burns. An irredeemable character somehow made human, he schemes to force his ace reporter Hildy Johnson (Pat O’Brien, also perfectly cast and stupendous) into covering one more final story before he quits to get married to his sweet and patient fiancée Peggy Grant (Mary Brian).

Hildy is understandably fed up with the rotten bosses, bad attitudes and worse pay of newspapers and plans to move to New York for a higher paying advertising job. The film also makes the makes the whole group of cynical newsmen seem likeable.

That one more final story for Hildy is the hanging of Earl Williams (George E. Stone), who easily escapes from the custody of inept Sheriff (Clarence H Wilson). After Hildy stumbles onto the bewildered escapee and hides him in a roll-top desk in the press room, Burns arrives to help. Hildy has used his $260 honeymoon money to get the scoop on the escape but Burns delays paying Hildy back to make him stay on the story,

The fast and furious performances are matched by Milestone’s breathlessly madcap direction. Though the movie is made only a couple of years after the talkies had come in, the early sound techniques hardly date it all, and the great pleasure it brings remains splendidly undiminished.

The starry character actor support cast all get their chances to shine, particularly Edward Everett Horton, Walter Catlett, George E Stone, Mae Clark, Slim Summerville, Matt Moore, Frank McHugh, Clarence H Wilson, Fred Howard, Phil Tead, Eugene Strong, Spencer Charters, Maurice Black and Effie Ellsler.

Remakes: the 1940 His Girl Friday, Billy Wilder’s The Front Page (1974) and the 1988 Switching Channels. It is a testimony to the greatness of the play that all four films are different kinds of delights.

The original Broadway stage version opened at the Times Square Theatre on 14 August 1928 and ran for 278 performances with Lee Tracy and Osgood Perkins as Johnson and Burns. Pat O’Brien had also played Walter Burns on stage and someone in the Howard Hughes organization got their wires crossed and signed him for Hildy Johnson.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1988

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