The Front Page

film by Milestone [1931]

Written by Lee Pfeiffer

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The Front Page, American screwball comedy, released in 1931, that is still widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s most accomplished farces.

The film centres on star newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson (played by Pat O’Brien), who is quitting his job in Chicago to move to New York City with his fiancée Peggy (Mary Brian), despite the insistent protests of his editor, Walter Burns (Adolphe Menjou). When Hildy shows up at the city courthouse after his last day of work, however, he becomes caught up in the hubbub surrounding the escape of a convicted murderer (George E. Stone) who is scheduled for execution that night. As Hildy ponders the situation in the press room, the criminal enters through the window, and Hildy, with later help from Walter, hides him in a rolltop desk in order to get an exclusive interview. After the ruse is eventually discovered, Hildy and Walter are arrested, and a furious Peggy breaks off the engagement. In the end, however, the newsmen are released, and Hildy and Peggy—reconciled—leave Chicago on a train.

The film was adapted from a hit play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, with much of their witty rapid-fire dialogue kept intact. Menjou, who often played high-class debonair characters, was honoured with an Academy Award nomination (one of three the film received) for his against-type performance. The story later served as the basis for Howard Hawks’s His Girl Friday (1940), and The Front Page was remade by Billy Wilder in a 1974 production starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.