The Front Page movie synopsis. Hildy Johnson, newspaper reporter, is engaged to Peggy Grant and planning to move to New York for a higher paying advertising job. The court press room is full of lame reporters who invent stories as much as write them. All are waiting to cover the hanging of Earl Williams. When Williams escapes from the inept Sheriff, Hildy seizes the opportunity by using his $260 honeymoon money to payoff an insider and get the scoop on the escape.
However, Walter Burns, the Post’s editor, is slow to repay Hildy back, hoping that he will stay on the story. Getting a major scoop looks possible when Hildy stumbles onto the bewildered escapee and hides him in a roll-top desk in the press room. Burns shows up to help. Can they keep Williams’ whereabouts secret long enough to get the scoop, especially with the Sheriff and other reporters hovering around?
The Front Page is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien. Based on a 1928 Broadway play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Charles Lederer, and distributed by United Artists. The supporting cast includes Mary Brian, George E. Stone, Matt Moore, Edward Everett Horton and Walter Catlett. At the 4th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Milestone for Best Director, and Menjou for Best Actor.
In 2010, this film was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The film is in the public domain. Two versions of the film currently exist, each made up of different takes, one for the international market and director Lewis Milestone’s preferred version for its original U.S. domestic release. Both versions are available on home video.
In addition to this film, the play has been adapted on several other occasions. CBS radio turned it into a one-hour episode of Academy Award Theater with O’Brien and Menjou, a June 28, 1937 episode of Lux Radio Theater with Walter Winchell and James Gleason, and a May 9, 1948 episode of the Ford Theatre starring Ed Begley and Everett Sloane. The story was adapted for Howard Hawks’s comedy His Girl Friday (1940); a 1974 remake of The Front Page starred Jack Lemmon; and Walter Matthau and another version was made as Switching Channels (1988) with Burt Reynolds, Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve.
The Front Page (1931)
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Adolphe Menjou, Pat O’Brien, Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Catlett, George E. Stone, Slim Summerville, Mae Clarke, Frank McHugh, Clarence Wilson, Fred Howard
Screenplay by: Bartlett Cormack, Charles Lederer
Production Design by: Charles Stallings
Cinematography by: Glen MacWilliams
Film Editing by: W. Duncan Mansfield
Art Direction by: Richard Day
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: April 4, 1931
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