Déjà vu, Redux-Howard Hughes Presents “The Front Page” (1931)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Film Critic Sandy Salmon 

The Front Page, starring Adolphe Menjou, Pat O’Brian, produced by Howard Hughes (yeah, that Howard Hughes, the airplane guy who had his fingers in film back in the day), based on the play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, 1931   

Hey, am I having a senior moment didn’t I review this film already. I know the plot of the film under review 1931s The Front Page seems very, very familiar. And I don’t mean that I have reviewed the play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, weren’t they Algonquin Roundtable guys with Dorothy Parker, on which this film is based. I am not that senior moment bound or that old to have reviewed a 1920s Broadway play.

Let me give a rundown and maybe I can refresh my memory about where I have seen this story line before. A bunch of old time police beat reporters, print reporters if you remember that dying profession in the age of 24/7 cable niche and blog citizen reporting, are doing “death watch” duty in the press room of the local law enforcement building in Chicago, Chi town so watch out. The death watch is for the execution of Walter Mitty-type cop-killer Earl Williams who is set to fry, set to be hung out to dry for the dastardly deed come midnight unless the governor grants a pardon based on him being a cuckoo who had delusions of grandeur. A run of the mill story for the cynical boys who man the crime beat desk (in those days really mostly men so “man.” Except a funny thing happens to upset that very applecart. Earl, while being examined by a shrink to see if he really was cuckoo, escaped the clutches of the law.

Now that is big news, front page news I would say even in a jaded age like today. In those days, like today as well, the reporter and newspaper of whatever ilk who can get a an angle, get the scoop on the magical realistic escape of a cop-killer, an anarchist cop-killer when the word anarchist had even more sinister implications than it does today to boot, would certainly get a boost in circulation. Enter one Hildy Johnson, played by Pat O’Brian, who had supposedly given up the racket to go find Elysian fields in an easier more regular hours line of work with a “civilian” sweetheart. Well almost given up the racket except he was there in the press room when Earl sprung himself loose. And guess where baffled cuckoo bird Earl landed in his escape. Yeah, that very press room. So Hildy, once a newspaper man always a newspaper man, cajoled by his tyrannical boss Walter Burns, played by Adolphe Menjou, “postponed” his wedding plans for just a minute to grab one last glory by-line headline.           

The whole trick for Hildy and Walter is to keep those other newshounds cut out of the scoop, and to see what makes this Earl Williams tick. Along the way Hildy found out two important pieces of news, well three really. First Earl’s escape was aided by the incompetence of the sheriff and his minions who are part of that well-known and oiled Chicago political hack machine which Burn’s newspaper was interested in getting the goods on. Second the Governor has sent one of his minions to grant Earl a pardon which that corrupt machine is set on intercepting to avoid looking stupid and even more corrupt than normal. Third Earl didn’t do any dastardly deed he was “framed” for his political views. Naturally ace reporter Hildy solved all those mysteries and tied them with bows in this screwball comedy. Meanwhile his sweetheart was getting short shrift. Oh well it will all turn out for the best.      

Hey, wait a minute, I knew I knew that plotline from somewhere. Sure except it was from the distaff side, nice word right, from Howard Hawk’s His Girl Friday where Rosalind Russell was Hildy and Cary Grant the newspaper boss. That one was classic with the added twist of a little off-hand romance since Hildy and Walter in that one had been divorced and Hildy was supposed to get re-married to some safe insurance salesman. That’s the ticket.  

(I really am losing it. Of course a remake of the film was done in the 1970s with Jack Lemmon as Hildy and Walter Matthau as Burns going back to the guy thing. Enough of this plotline. No more reviews-deju vu redux is enough