The Front Page
This version of "The Front Page" was the first to mention the city by name and use actual Chicago newspapers. Billy Wilder felt that Chicago was the most exciting newspaper town in the country.,Hildy reminds Jenny, the cleaning woman, that he got her husband on The Amateur Hour. Major Bowes' Amateur Hour premiered as a local show in New York in 1934, and on the NBC Network in 1935, six years after this movie was set.,[last lines]
Walter Burns: That train that just left, what's the first stop?
Telegrapher: Gary, Indiana.
Walter Burns: All right. Send a message to the police chief at Gary, Indiana. Tell him to meet the midnight train to Philadelphia and arrest one Hildy Johnson.
Telegrapher: Hildy Johnson?
Walter Burns: Yeah. Son of a bitch stole my watch.,The closing credits sequence began by scrolling up photos of the major characters, flanked by printed info on what happened to each character. The acting and music credits followed.,Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Billy Wilder (1986),Button Up Your Overcoat
By Buddy G. DeSylva (as B.G. DeSylva), Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson
© 1928 by B.G. DeSylva, Brown & Henderson Inc.
© Renewed Assigned to Chappel & Co., Inc.
Published in U.S.A. by Chappel & Co., Inc. and Anne-Rachel Music Corp.
Performed by Susan Sarandon,I'm sure that the reason for Billy Wilder to do a remake of The Front Page is the fact that around the time this was made, politicians running for office on 'law and order' platforms was suddenly coming into vogue. The chief example among these was Richard Nixon and we all know what happened to him in 1974. Seemed like a case of perfect timing to me.

The original material that Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur wrote in the Twenties was perfect for Billy Wilder's cynical mind. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were born to play the roles of Hildy Johnson and Walter Burns.

Of course other things now that the Code was lifted could also be made more explicit. David Wayne's character of Benzinger is quite openly gay in the film. It's an interesting characterization he does. Of course he's the butt of all the jokes in the press-room, but I thought it rather funny when at the end when title cards show what happened to all the principal characters, he was the only one with a happily ever after ending. He settled down with a life partner and ran an antique store. A rather subtle comment on the sanctity of heterosexual marriage decades before gay marriage was an issue.

Carol Burnett was a big fan of Billy Wilder and it is mentioned in a recent biography of Wilder that she wanted very much to be in one of his films. Carol got her wish and did very well as Molly the prostitute who befriends poor Earl Williams, the anarchist who accidentally killed a policeman and is sentenced to be hung.

Austin Pendleton is all right as Williams, but no one ever played the role quite like John Qualen in His Girl Friday. Qualen had a patent on those little men up against the system parts. This version of The Front Page is also the farewell performance of Allen Jenkins playing a small role as a telegrapher.

Speaking of His Girl Friday, my favorite part in all versions of The Front Page is that of the messenger from the governor carrying Earl Williams reprieve. No one will ever top Billy Gilbert in His Girl Friday though Paul Benedict of The Jeffersons gives a good account of himself as well.

Sad to say that demagogic politicians who bray about law and order are still among us. Maybe it's time for another remake of The Front Page.,