★★★
Four years after The Jazz Singer, Lewis Milestone and Nate Watt pack The Front Page from start to finish with nonstop, fast dialogue. It’s a smart, fun movie that takes joy in skewering public and domestic institutions with wit and satire, all the while feeling like the directors are trying to make up for the previous silent decades by keeping dialogue going at a wild pace. The Front Page is one of the earliest screwball comedies and sets a standard to judge the rest by.
The satire here is as funny as it is over-the-top. The press is a cynical lot whose reporters embellish events with outrageous false information and, when they can’t get a story, simply make one up with extensive verbal dexterity. They criticize whatever they encounter and pass their time in self-absorbed card-play if they’re not making the dullard jailer go out to get their lunch. They cynically demand that an execution occur earlier in the morning so they can make their reporting deadlines, scoff at the sadness of the woman whose friend is facing execution, berate every government official they encounter and mock institutions from family to respect for the elderly. However, they do all this with such joyful abandon that the audience can’t help but laugh. Among them, Edward Everett Horton’s Bensinger stands out as a gullible hypochondriac, but it’s Adolphe Menjou’s Walter Burns whose merry disdain for decency lights up many scenes. This editor ceaselessly promotes his newspaper and does everything he can to undermine the life of his reporter, Hildy, in order to keep him working at the Post. Burns’ relish in sabotaging Hildy at the end of film brings an especially big smile.
Beyond the press, The Front Page takes aim at government and municipal elections. A corrupt mayor and incompetent sheriff want to hang an innocent man to shore up their support in an upcoming election. The sheriff falsely links the man with Bolshevism – to the delight of the sensationalist press -- and when a pardon arrives from the governor, both try to suppress the news until after the execution. They fawn over higher authority, bully their underlings and make error after error when pursuing the convict the sheriff has inadvertently let escape. Government here is as bungling as it is self-serving.
The Front Page is a lot of fun, but it’s not without its drawbacks. While it condemns hypocrisy and ineptitude, it doesn’t know what to do with goodness. Molly’s suicide, for example, injects stakes into the movie that makes the film’s overall satire feel trivial. And we discover a complexity to Earl, who is both innocent because he’s mentally ill but also dangerous that doesn’t fit into the good guy/bad guy ethical structure of The Front Page’s mockery. And on a technical level, the film begins to seem monotonous at its midpoint due to the consistently high-pitched banter of the characters. The movie could benefit more vocal variety for its first two-thirds.
But overall, this is a fun and funny film, many of whose satirical flourishes still feel timely. And it sets up the genre of screwball comedy well.
Four years after The Jazz Singer, Lewis Milestone and Nate Watt pack The Front Page from start to finish with nonstop, fast dialogue. It’s a smart, fun movie that takes joy in skewering public and domestic institutions with wit and satire, all the while feeling like the directors are trying to make up for the previous silent decades by keeping dialogue going at a wild pace. The Front Page is one of the earliest screwball comedies and sets a standard to judge the rest by.
The satire here is as funny as it is over-the-top. The press is a cynical lot whose reporters embellish events with outrageous false information and, when they can’t get a story, simply make one up with extensive verbal dexterity. They criticize whatever they encounter and pass their time in self-absorbed card-play if they’re not making the dullard jailer go out to get their lunch. They cynically demand that an execution occur earlier in the morning so they can make their reporting deadlines, scoff at the sadness of the woman whose friend is facing execution, berate every government official they encounter and mock institutions from family to respect for the elderly. However, they do all this with such joyful abandon that the audience can’t help but laugh. Among them, Edward Everett Horton’s Bensinger stands out as a gullible hypochondriac, but it’s Adolphe Menjou’s Walter Burns whose merry disdain for decency lights up many scenes. This editor ceaselessly promotes his newspaper and does everything he can to undermine the life of his reporter, Hildy, in order to keep him working at the Post. Burns’ relish in sabotaging Hildy at the end of film brings an especially big smile.
Beyond the press, The Front Page takes aim at government and municipal elections. A corrupt mayor and incompetent sheriff want to hang an innocent man to shore up their support in an upcoming election. The sheriff falsely links the man with Bolshevism – to the delight of the sensationalist press -- and when a pardon arrives from the governor, both try to suppress the news until after the execution. They fawn over higher authority, bully their underlings and make error after error when pursuing the convict the sheriff has inadvertently let escape. Government here is as bungling as it is self-serving.
The Front Page is a lot of fun, but it’s not without its drawbacks. While it condemns hypocrisy and ineptitude, it doesn’t know what to do with goodness. Molly’s suicide, for example, injects stakes into the movie that makes the film’s overall satire feel trivial. And we discover a complexity to Earl, who is both innocent because he’s mentally ill but also dangerous that doesn’t fit into the good guy/bad guy ethical structure of The Front Page’s mockery. And on a technical level, the film begins to seem monotonous at its midpoint due to the consistently high-pitched banter of the characters. The movie could benefit more vocal variety for its first two-thirds.
But overall, this is a fun and funny film, many of whose satirical flourishes still feel timely. And it sets up the genre of screwball comedy well.
