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The Front Page (1931)

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Movie Info & Cast

Director:

Lewis Milestone

Producer:

Howard Hughes, Lewis Milestone

Writer:

Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Bartlett Cormack

Release Date:

Apr 4, 1931

Runtime:

1hr 41m

Synopsis

A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.

Cast

  • Adolphe Menjou
  • Pat O'Brien
  • Mary Brian
  • Edward Everett Horton
  • Walter Catlett
  • George E. Stone
  • Mae Clarke
  • Slim Summerville
  • Matt Moore
  • Frank McHugh

Letterboxd User Reviews

3.3
6.4K
8.9K
979
RATINGS 3 FANS
3.3
  • Jul 1, 2025

    The play is extraordinary, one of the best in the American canon, and Mr. Milestone’s film is a sublime adaptation.  Almost a hundred years old and still delivers the goods.

    94 Likes
    carrieandtracy
    carrieandtracy
    Nov 17, 2015

    In pre-code movies the suggestive language and double entendres seem so much dirtier and funnier because of when the movies are from. However, the casual racism seems that much more sincere for the same reasons. Thankfully there is more of the former than the…

    83 Likes
    Chris
    Chris
    Feb 2, 2018

    The big change from the time of Front Page and His Girl Friday to today and films like The Post (2017): previously both politicians and journalists were out for themselves first regardless of the means. The journalists knew this and had no illusions; whereas the politicians…

    54 Likes
    Channing Pomeroy
    Channing Pomeroy
  •
    Jun 14, 2023

    “The son of a (typewriter dings) stole my watch!” Waiting for Hildy Johnson. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur ushering in the golden age of fast-talking newspaper room dramedies with their hit Broadway play adapted for the screen for the first time here. It’s both a…

    32 Likes
    Gentry Austin
    Gentry Austin
    Jan 13, 2024

    Wait, how old is she supposed to be?!

    32 Likes
    Neill Shaughness
    Neill Shaughness
    Mar 4, 2018

    33 Films x 6 Decades: 1930s Once I picked up the Criterion release of His Girl Friday in the last Criterion flash sale, it was imperative that I check out Lewis Milestone’s The Front Page, which was brilliantly packaged right alongside His Girl Friday as not just an…

    28 Likes
    Kevin Jones
    Kevin Jones
  •
    Jan 9, 2017

    This is the inventively staged and crisply acted first pass first version of Hecht and Kaufman's play. Remarkable in many ways, its unavoidable shortcoming is that it's not HIS GIRL FRIDAY. But it's in many ways a darker, meaner (and more Chicago-steeped) take on the…

    27 Likes
    Keith Phipps
    Keith Phipps
    Oct 11, 2025

    For some reason I thought this was a hard hitting drama against capital punishment but I realised two-thirds in that it’s actually a zany screwball comedy. Maybe it was the terrible sound on this Amazon version requiring the turning on of the subtitles, maybe it was all the…

    27 Likes
    Doctor_Doughnut
    Doctor_Doughnut
    Feb 14, 2021

    Watched in the context of today, or at least what came after, this picture can easily be found lacking. This first adaptation of the famous newspaper play will forever take a back seat to a markedly better treatment, "His Girl Friday," which hit theaters nine years later…

    25 Likes
    Todd Hill
    Todd Hill
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Queue Community Reviews

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Top Reviews
  • CvptvinHowdy
    CvptvinHowdy is "meh" on
    The Front Page

    Maybe I'm being unfair to this because I'm treating it as an obligation to watch because it came with a Blu-ray of "His Girl Friday." It's the first adaptation, so I can appreciate that, but the other is immensely more entertaining.

    9M
    Wagner Freitas
    Wagner Freitas loved
    The Front Page

    When the comedy is so subtle you could cry!

    1Y
View More Popular The Front Page Reviews on Queue

Atom Users Reviews

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Metacritic

76
metacritic
Based on 8 Critics
tbd

USER SCORE (1)

No score yet based on 1 Reviews
75

Lewis Milestone preserves more of the original play than Hawks in His Girl Friday, but it's a much thinner movie: more mechanical, less chilling or ripe in its cynicism, the pace less nimble and charged. Still, the dialogue is gritty, magical, top-flight. Modern screenwriters, see this and weep. [25 Jul 1999, p.43C]

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Metacritic review by Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
63

Milestone’s direction is only sporadically inspired.

View full review
Metacritic review by Carson Lund
Carson Lund
Slant Magazine
See All Critic Reviews on Metacritic.com

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is The Front Page (1931) (1931)?
The movie is 1hr 41min long.
What's The Front Page (1931) (1931) about?
A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.
Who's the cast of The Front Page (1931) (1931)?
  • Adolphe Menjou as Walter Burns
  • Pat O'Brien as Hildy Johnson
  • Mary Brian as Peggy Grant
  • Edward Everett Horton as Roy B. Bensinger
  • Walter Catlett as Murphy
  • George E. Stone as Earl Williams
  • Mae Clarke as Molly Molloy
  • Slim Summerville as Irving Pincus
  • Matt Moore as Kruger
  • Frank McHugh as McCue
Who's the director behind The Front Page (1931) (1931)?
Lewis Milestone directed The Front Page (1931) (1931).
Who produced The Front Page (1931) (1931)?
Howard Hughes and Lewis Milestone produced The Front Page (1931) (1931).