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The Front Page

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The Front Page

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• Comedy
• Crime/detective

• 1931
• Lewis Milestone
• 102 mins
• PG

Summary

Comedy drama starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien. Ace Chicago reporter Walter Burns is poised to go to New York to get married and begin a straightforward advertising job, but his hard-nosed editor has other plans.

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Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Adrian Turner

Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's stage success of 1928 was a natural for a movie adaptation: set mainly in the pressroom of a Chicago court-house, it's a gift for actors. Adolphe Menjou plays the powerful editor, Walter Burns, and Pat O'Brien is his ace reporter, Hildy Johnson. Then condemned prisoner George E Stone gives Hildy a scoop, diverting him from his fiancée. Spraying smart dialogue at the speed of Chicago's machine guns, it carries its age with dignity. Remade - with a sex-change operation (Hildy becomes a woman) - as His Girl Friday in 1940, by Billy Wilder in 1974, and again in Switching Channels in 1988, by this time set in a TV newsroom.

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6.7/10

How to watch

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Streaming

• Prime Video

Credits

Cast

rolenameWalter BurnsAdolphe MenjouHildy JohnsonPat O'BrienPeggyMary BrianBensingerEdward Everett HortonMurphyWalter CatlettEarl WilliamsGeorge E StoneMollyMae ClarkePincusSlim Summerville

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Crew

rolenameDirectorLewis Milestone

Details

Theatrical distributor

United Artists Corp. Ltd

Languages

English

Formats

Black and white

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