Search - The Front Page on DVD

Movie Release: 1931 DVD Release: 05/08/2001 Format: DVD - Black and White Edition: Special Collection SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 43 mins Studio: Madacy Total Copies: 8 Genres: Comedy, Workplace Comedy, Media Satire

This first of four film versions of the Ben Hecht/Charlrd MacArthur Broadway hit stars Adolphe Menjou as explosive Chicago newspaper-editor Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien as his star reporter Hildy Johnson. Hildy is on the verge of getting married and retiring from Burns' dirty little tabloid, but he agrees to cover one last story: the politically motivated execution of convicted cop killer Earl Williams (George E. Stone). Thanks to the stupidity of the police, Williams manages to escape, and Johnson hides the wounded fugitive in a rolltop desk in the prison pressroom. Burns enters the scene, senses a swell story (and also a means of keeping Johnson on his payroll), and conspires with Johnson to keep Williams out of sight until they can secure an exclusive interview. Burns will do anything to keep Johnson on the scene, including having the reporter's future mother-in-law kidnapped. Complicating matters are Johnson's fiancée Peggy (Mary Brian), Williams' girlfriend Molly Malloy (Mae Clarke), and the corrupt mayor (James Gordon) and sheriff (Clarence C. Wilson), who have railroaded Williams to the death house in order to win votes and are now trying to suppress the news that the governor has commuted Williams' sentence. The Front Page was remade by Howard Hawks in 1939 as His Girl Friday, with the symbiotic relationship between Burns and Johnson changed to a sexual one by transforming Hildy Johnson into a woman (played by Rosalind Russell) with Cary Grant as her old flame Walter. It was again remade by Billy Wilder in 1974 with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, and a young Susan Sarandon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adolphe Menjou - Walter Burns
Pat O'Brien - Hildy Johnson
Mary Brian - Peggy Grant
Edward Everett Horton - Bensinger
Walter Catlett - Murphy

Lewis Milestone's 1931 adaptation of The Front Page comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Mono. There are neither closed-captions on this release. Supplemental materials include a newsreel, a blooper reel, and a trivia quiz. This is a fine release from Madacy that will be of interest to any fan of old time Hollywood entertainments. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide