:
Adolphe Menjou,
Pat O'Brien,
Mary Brian,
more...
:
Lewis Milestone
see all cast/crew...
: Madacy
: Classics, Comedies, Classic Comedy, Classic Comedy, Pre-Code, Precode
: 103 min.
see additional details...
Recently Rented By Brujaria
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This first of four film versions of the Ben Hecht/Charlrd MacArthur Broadway hit stars Adolphe Menjou as explosive Chicago newspaper-editor Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien as his star reporter Hildy Johnson. Hildy is on the verge of getting married and retiring from Burns' dirty little tabloid, but he agrees to cover one last story: the politically motivated execution of convicted cop killer Earl Williams (George E. Stone). Thanks to the stupidity of the police, Williams manages to escape, and Johnson hides the wounded fugitive in a rolltop desk in the prison pressroom. Burns enters the scene, senses a swell story (and also a means of keeping Johnson on his payroll), and conspires with Johnson to keep Williams out of sight until they can secure an exclusive interview. Burns will do anything to keep Johnson on the scene, including having the reporter's future mother-in-law kidnapped. Complicating matters are Johnson's fiancée Peggy (Mary Brian), Williams' girlfriend Molly Malloy (Mae Clarke), and the corrupt mayor (James Gordon) and sheriff (Clarence C. Wilson), who have railroaded Williams to the death house in order to win votes and are now trying to suppress the news that the governor has commuted Williams' sentence. The Front Page was remade by Howard Hawks in 1939 as His Girl Friday, with the symbiotic relationship between Burns and Johnson changed to a sexual one by transforming Hildy Johnson into a woman (played by Rosalind Russell) with Cary Grant as her old flame Walter. It was again remade by Billy Wilder in 1974 with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, and a young Susan Sarandon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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| Great Movie, Lousy DVD
by Brujaria
October 12, 2003 - 5:30 PM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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This is a great little fast-paced newsie comedy that is all about the snappy patter...
Unfortunately this budget DVD is such a piss-poor transfer that the snappy patter sounds like your speakers are submerged underwater while locked in another room.
The audio is so severely muffled that no amount of replaying of the dialogue makes anything remotely comprehensible.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those uber-whiney DVD nerds who demand absolute perfection, this disc is just unbearable. So bad that I couldn't even make it past the 10 minute mark.
I guess I'm off to e-bay to see about a VHS version!
Since I am forced to give this a rating, I have to give it a low score due to the quality of the disc. If the disc was decent, I'd give it a 10. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 5.62)
8 Votes
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