The Front Page (1931)

Newspaper man "Hildy" (Pat O'Brien) is heading to New York with his fiancée "Peggy" (Mary Brian) to take a better paid job in the advertising world. His editor "Burns" (Adolphe Menjou) has one last story for him to cover and has to play quite a clever game to ensure that his best reporter takes on the story. It's all about convicted killer "Earle Williams" (George E. Stone) who manages to escape from death row. "Hildy" spends his honeymoon fund to tap up an insider and to track down the man - only to conclude that maybe he didn't actually commit the crime for which he is to hang, after all. He now concocts a clever plan to hide the man - in a bureau, whilst he and his editor try to get to the bottom of the real crime. With the sheriff getting ever closer and with his fellow press hounds on the trail too, what now ensues is a quickly paced and fast-talking look at press journalism. Most of them are hacks, making up what they don't know, safe in the knowledge that the only scrutiny will come should the circulation drop. There are a few pithy one-liners too - not least from a recent visitor to the grotty prison who wonders how the prisoners stay alive long enough to be hung! What does work here is the cynicism. The writing takes a swipe at just about everyone from the press to the police; the courts and the system. Corruption and back-handers are rife up and down the greasy pole and the humour here is a little more sophisticated than in your face. I did find, however, that there is way too much dialogue and the investigative elements border on the farce a little too much for my liking, but it's still a cleverly constructed story of cats, mice and balls of wool that shows off the talents of the often under-rated Menjou well.