The Front Page

Director: Lewis Milestone
Year Released: 1931
Rating: 2.5

First forty-five minutes are a drag, with a cynical troupe of journalists bickering, griping and filling their time with poker and cigars; it isn't until Adolphe Menjou arrives that everything starts really moving at hyper-speed, with the dialogue delivered in an equally rapid-fire manner. Not Milestone's best film - it's a little dry and often dull - but filmed many, many times (as His Girl Friday, Switching Channels and the Billy Wilder remake) so obviously Hecht and MacArthur's 'realistic' script had a legion of admirers.