The Front Page

THE FRONT PAGE (1931) is a snappy, quick-witted comedy about a newspaper man trying to leave the business and get married while his peers scramble to cover the story of the year. The movie is based on a stage play, and the same story was adapted (with some tweaks) in 1940 for Howard Hawks's brilliant HIS GIRL_FRIDAY, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

I absolutely love HIS GIRL_FRIDAY and wasn't expecting much from this earlier and lesser-known version. But I must say that THE FRONT PAGE is itself a terrific film that, though slightly different (but mostly similar), is just as great as HIS GIRL_FRIDAY. (The wonderful humor must be inherent in the original play.)

The ensemble cast is superb, including Pat O'Brien as the soon-to-be-married star reporter, Adolphe Menjou as his big shot editor, Clarence Wilson as the harassed sheriff, George E. Stone as a condemned man, and a roomful of reporters including Frank McHugh, Walter Catlett, and Edward Everett Horton.

Made in 1931, early on in the sound era, the movie certainly looks pretty old. But I thought it was great. The script is very witty and the direction (by Oscar-winner Lewis Milestone) is good. I particularly enjoyed the direction in the pressroom scenes, with all of the reporters and all of the phones and the various snippets of conversation.

Also, being a "pre-code" comedy, there are some bits that might have been deemed too vulgar had the film been made only a few years later. There are some allusions to promiscuity, some almost swear words, and even a brief instance of "flipping the bird".

HIS GIRL_FRIDAY (1940) is an all-time classic screwball comedy. But if you enjoyed that film, you're sure to love THE FRONT PAGE (1931). The story is basically the same (there's less of a romantic angle as the star reporter is a man in this version), but a lot of the jokes are fresh. And this version offers wonderful performances by Menjou, Catlett, Horton, et al. Both movies are delightful comedies, and it's too bad that this earlier version isn't as well remembered as its remake.

THE FRONT PAGE is a classic in its own right, and was nominated for three big Academy Awards: Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. I'd definitely recommend checking it out whenever you can find it.

Newspaperman Hildy Johnson (Pat O'Brien) is quitting the business and getting married to Peggy (Mary Brian). But his unscrupulous boss Walter Burns(Adolphe Menjou) doesn't want him to quit. Also an innocent man is about to be hanged and Burns will do anything to make sure Johnson works on that story.

Fast and funny--the first cinematic version of this story. It shows its age at times and some of it is wildly overacted but O'Brien and Menjou are both just great in their roles. Also director Lewis Milestone uses some very unusual camera tricks to keep the story moving and there's lots of action and running around which is unusual for an early talkie.

This was remade in 1940 with a sex change making Johnson a woman. That was "His Girl Friday" with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. That one is better than this but this is better than the 1974 version (that had Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau) and 1988 remake called "Switching Channels" (with Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds). They're all good to varying degrees but this one came first. Worth seeing.

A bustling Chicago press-room is about to lose top "Examiner" writer Pat O'Brien (as Hildy Johnson), who wants to quit reporting after fifteen years, to marry Mary Brian (as Peggy Grant). But, managing editor Adolphe Menjou (as Walter Burns) wants Mr. O'Brien to stay, and cover stories like the execution by hanging of George E. Stone (as Earl Williams). The plot thickens when Mr. Williams escapes from jail, and tightens when O'Brien meets the convicted killer.

"The Front Page" was held in high regard for the way director Lewis Milestone made a staid, one-room stage play really MOVE on the big screen. There were "Academy Award" nominations for "Best Picture", "Best Director", and "Best Actor". The later went to Mr. Menjou, although O'Brien is arguably the film's leading actor. Menjou had taken over the role when Louis Wolheim died; either man would have been up for a "Supporting Actor" award, had they been given.

"This story is laid in a mythical kingdom," by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the writers who deserved "The Front Page" award.

******* The Front Page (3/19/31) Lewis Milestone ~ Pat O'Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton

While the staging was limited, the acting was believable and the camera work was great for the technology available. After watching "Front Page" again after watching "Girl Friday", I was struck by the original's emphasis on the role of the newspaper in revealing political corruption. But, the question remains, who's the girl? Not the actress but the girl in the picture hanging on the wall in back of Adolph Menjou's head during the final scenes... Since the movie was released in 1931, it can't be Jane Russell. She's to busty to be Katherine Hepburn (Howard Hughes' friend). The only reason I noticed it was that she appears nude and Howard Hughes probably put it there to see if the 'censors' would notice.

One of the biggest problems facing filmmakers in the early sound era was not a technical one, but one of what form the stories should take. Now that the spoken word was a means of expression, stage plays became a prime source for movie material. The only trouble was that, while the theatre is not necessarily an inferior medium, if you shoot a play simply as it is, no matter how good it would be in the theatre, on the screen it becomes static and dull. There are ways round this problem, and they demonstrate how much of a difference it makes the way in which a movie is filmed.

The Front Page's director, Lewis Milestone, was an ostentatious attention-grabber who liked to make every use of the technology at hand. But all his showing-off was for a purpose. As oppose to the limited dimensions of the stage, Milestone is always staging things in extremes of width and depth, especially when introducing major characters. A really neat manoeuvre is when a cop visits the newsroom during a game of poker. The camera sits on the middle of the small table and pans round as each reporter is harangued in turn. A man walking round a table is a fairly low-key bit of business, but this technique makes it simply whirl. There is only one point where I feel it's too much, when the camera "bounces" up and down on the faces of the reporters as they sing a taunting song. But the great thing is Milestone also knows when to tone it down and let the players shine. He often uses a long, still take for a key scene, such as Pat O'Brien and Adolphe Menjou's talk at the bar.

But an equally important contribution is the sense of realistic camaraderie between the principle members of the cast. The atmosphere in the newsroom straddles comedic exuberance and realistic banter, and as such is absolutely in the spirit of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's original work. Adolphe Menjou shows impeccable control, with movements that are almost cartoonish, such as the little backward lean into his stride off after announcing "I'll kill him!" It's a fresh approach, but one that would catch on, being very much the vein of Clark Gable's Oscar-winning performance in It Happened One Night (1934). Lead man Pat O'Brien is at his most extrovert and, in the process, his most likable. Walter Catlett is unflappably brilliant, and there is also a chance to see Edward Everett Horton honing the persona that would make him a fixture throughout the next decade.

The result is probably the most vibrant and effective stage adaptation of the early talkies, and it set the tone of much of what was to come, straddling the gap between the wild farce of the Marx Brothers and the sophisticated comedies like Dinner at Eight. Later directors (George Cukor, most notably) would learn to tone down Milestone's approach and create stage-to-screen adaptations that flowed smoothly and were purely cinematic, but The Front Page was nevertheless an important jolt to an industry still trying to find its way, and a lesson in how to make a script low on action and confined in space into something dynamic and brassy.