The Front Page (1931 film)
The Front Page is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien. Based on a 1928 Broadway play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Charles Lederer, and distributed by United Artists. The supporting cast includes Mary Brian, George E. Stone, Matt Moore, Edward Everett Horton and Walter Catlett. At the 4th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Milestone for Best Director, and Menjou for Best  Actor. In 2010, this film was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is in the public domain. Two versions of the film currently exist, each made up of different takes, one for the international market and director Lewis Milestone's preferred version for its original U.S. domestic release. Both versions are available on home video. Plot. The film, considered a screwball comedy, centers on a reporter, Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson (Pat O'Brien) and his editor (Adolphe Menjou), who hope to cash in on a big  story involving an escaped accused murderer, Earl Williams (Stone), and hide him in a rolltop desk while everybody else tries to find him. Preservation. "The Front Page" was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016. Adaptations. In addition to this film, the play has been adapted on several other occasions. CBS radio turned it into a one-hour June 28, 1937 episode of "Lux Radio Theatre" with Walter Winchell and James Gleason, and a half-hour June 22, 1946 episode of "Academy Award Theater" with O'Brien and Menjou reprising their original roles. NBC radio ran a one-hour May  9, 1948 episode of the "Ford Theater" starring Ed Begley and Everett Sloane. The story was adapted for Howard Hawks's comedy "His Girl Friday" (1940), in which Hildy was recast as a woman played by Rosalind Russell, the ex-wife of Walter (Cary Grant), giving the story a romantic spin. There was also a 1974 remake of "The Front Page" starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau; and another version was made as "Switching Channels" (1988) with Burt Reynolds, Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve.