Film Forum

The quintessential newspaper comedy, with cynical reporters, corrupt politics, bone-headed cops, sensation-seeking editors, a murderer in a roll-top desk, as Adolphe Menjou’s Walter Burns and Pat O’Brien’s Hildy Johnson keep the wisecracks, insults, and un-p.c. slurs flying at machine gun pace. While Menjou and O’Brien replaced Broadway stars Osgood Perkins and Lee Tracy, The Front Page remains more faithful to the original play than the more-famous His Girl Friday, with several cast members carried over from the stage production, as well as dialogue and action that you could only get away with in a pre-Code adaptation (including a reporter giving the finger).

The Front Page was restored in 2016 from a 35mm safety composite print and sound on disc elements. The restoration is based on the original American domestic release version, which differed from the film’s international release version, with more sophisticated picture and sound editing, alternate dialogue, and different scene composition. In 2010, The Front Page was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Original U.S. release version, restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

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