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- 1931
- Approved
- United Artists
- 1 h 41 m
- 1931
- Approved
- United Artists
- 1 h 41 m
Summary An investigative reporter sees an opportunity for the story of a lifetime when an accused murderer escapes hanging.
Directed By: Lewis Milestone
Written By: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Bartlett Cormack, Charles Lederer
- 1931
- Approved
- United Artists
- 1 h 41 m
- 1931
- Approved
- United Artists
- 1 h 41 m
The Front Page
76
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Summary An investigative reporter sees an opportunity for the story of a lifetime when an accused murderer escapes hanging.
Directed By: Lewis Milestone
Written By: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Bartlett Cormack, Charles Lederer
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
76
88% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
76
88% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A vigorous, manic drama, this Lewis Milestone classic about newspapers and newsmen wonderfully preserves a host of Depression-era attitudes and a glorious headline era.
This first film version, a milestone work in every sense, helped, through its fast, wise-cracking dialogue and rapid editing, to change the sight and sound of the new talkies. Adolph Menjou as the suave, double-crossing editor Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien as his star reporter head a great cast. [17 Dec 2006, p.8]
Lewis Milestone preserves more of the original play than Hawks in His Girl Friday, but it's a much thinner movie: more mechanical, less chilling or ripe in its cynicism, the pace less nimble and charged. Still, the dialogue is gritty, magical, top-flight. Modern screenwriters, see this and weep. [25 Jul 1999, p.43C]
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's perennial stage comedy about yellow journalism in Chicago hasn't much to offer in the way of action, but in this 1931 adaptation director Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) manages to inject a fair amount of visual energy to complement the firecracker dialogue.
Milestone’s direction is only sporadically inspired.
Milestone's direction, veering between stagey two-shots and extravagant but purposeless camera movements, doesn't help either.
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Production Company
The Caddo Company
Release Date Apr 4, 1931
Duration 1 h 41 m
Rating Approved
Tagline A Picture That Has Cracked This Shock-Proof Town Wide Open! (Print Ad- Albany Evening News, ((Albany NY)) 8 June 1931)
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 3 Nominations
National Film Preservation Board, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
