Movie – The Front Page

The Front Page (1974) – In 1920’s Chicago a newspaperman must decide between marriage and the biggest story of his career. a convicted murderer escapes the night before his execution and falls squarely into the reporter’s lap.  The problem is that he is supposed to have quit the paper and prepared to leave for Philadelphia, marriage and a new career.

Billy Wilder wrote and directed this re-make and Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon lead a great cast.  So you might expect great things from it.  Sadly, it comes up short.  This is the third movie of the original 1928 play and it’s actually Wilder that makes this version stumble.  Because he wanted all the lines to be clearly heard by the audience he had the actors slow their reactions to their cues.  Actors learn to begin their line on top of the last word or so of the cue line, it’s called “stepping on the line”.  It creates a naturalistic tempo to the conversations.

For this story each line should have tumbled over its predecessor.  The dialogue should crackle, delivered at a breakneck tempo.  Instead we get a very measured cadence that just makes everything drag and the jokes fall flat.

Wilder later said that he was disappointed in the movie and regretted going against his basic distaste for remakes.

The other great disappointment in the movie is the comic great Carol Burnett.  She has never liked her work in this movie and I’m afraid I have to agree.  Her role feels tacked on here, Burnett never really finds a rhythm for the prostitute love interest of the prison escapee.  You never quite figure out if her role is serious, comic or tragic.

Why I Liked It : The cast is a filled with great character actors.  Susan Sarandon, David Wayne, Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton, Vincent Guardinia, Harold Gould and more.  The names may not mean anything to you but you’ll recognize the faces.  Just fun to watch them have some fun.

Why You Will Like It – For all the plodding tempo there are some great moments (including a wonderful closing line) and the cast gives some fun performances along the way.

Rated PG.

The movie was a modest box office hit.

Rating – ** 1/2 Almost Worth a Look