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The Front Page |  | Director: Billy Wilder
Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Susan Sarandon, Vincent Gardenia, David Wayne
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy New: $7.00
as of 11/22/2009 10:04 CST details
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Rating:  16 reviews
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD27329D
ISBN: 1417043571
UPC: 025192732928
EAN: 9781417043576
Theatrical Release Date: December 17, 1974
Release Date: May 31, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Hildy johnson is the top reporter on a chicago newspaper. Tired of the whole game he is determined to quit his job to get married. His scheming editor has other plans though. It is the day before guilty murderer earl williams is due to go to the gallows and burns tempts johnson to stay and write the story. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/31/2005 Starring: Jack Lemmon Carol Burnett Run time: 105 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Billy Wilder
Amazon.com
Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht's classic newspaper comedy--about a conniving editor who talks his star reporter out of getting married long enough to cover a big story--has survived lesser adaptations than this one. (Ever see Switching Channels?) But few have been more disappointing. Billy Wilder teamed Walter Matthau (as the unscrupulous editor) and Jack Lemmon (as the fast-talking reporter), who try to get the scoop on everyone else in the story of a convicted killer who escapes on his way to the electric chair. But Matthau and Lemmon, as good as they are, succumb to the temptation to do shtick--and Carol Burnett shows up in a florid, unfunny performance as a hooker. An attempt to bottle the same lightning that struck with The Sting--but Wilder, Lemmon, and Matthau just can't do it. --Marshall Fine
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
It works well even if it doesn't exceed any expectations... April 10, 2009
Andrew Ellington (Mulholland Drive)
Critics had mixed feelings about this 1974 newspaper comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. I too have them. The fact is that `The Front Page' works, at times very well, but in the end the truth remains that it never exceeds its limitations. It never becomes something great, rather sufficing to stay merely good.
Hey, that's better than being content with mediocre.
So, in the film Hildy Johnson is Walter Burns best reporter, but when Hildy wants to quit so he can move and get married, Walter loses it. He needs Hildy to stay, at least for a little while, since the biggest story they'd ever get is just about to break; but Hildy is determined. So Walter maneuvers things so that Hildy is basically forced to stay and cover the story; and when actions within their own building force the action inside, well then there is no way that Hildy is going to let just any other reporter steal his thunder.
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are an undeniably impenetrable team. They work very, very well off one another and it shows in every scene they share. Sadly, Matthau isn't in a lot of the movie. He's absent through a lot of the middle, surfacing on a few telephone conversations really, and then he makes a larger appearance at the end of the film. This is one of the rare times where I feel Matthau upstages Lemmon, so I was saddened to see so little of him. Lemmon is great here, but Matthau is slightly better. The cast is rather diverse, so much so that I was really expecting great things. What I got was a lot of good things, but nothing really jumped out at me as spectacular. Susan Sarandon is sorely underused, but she had yet to really prove herself as an actress (and what an actress!); and Carol Burnett is far below her own standards (even she has reportedly panned her own performance). I was really looking forward to Vincent Gardenia and Charles Durning, but neither of them wowed me like I was hoping. Gardenia has his moments, and is probably the most entertaining of the supporting players, but he never really capitalizes on his character. Durning is nothing but background noise, which is sad because he's probably my favorite supporting actor of the 70's. He could have really done so much more, but they gave his so little.
I know that last paragraph sounds like one long complaint, but seriously it is a minor one when you look at the overall picture. It is a good film. It is funny and entertaining; the point I was trying to make is that it never becomes more than that. It's just simple fun entertainment.
There's nothing wrong with that; right?
 classic! March 12, 2009
Ioannis Kioleoglou (Greece)
There are no words for this dynamic duo! This is one of the last movies they worked together in the "good old days" - A classic one you should not miss. (It is actual my second best after the "Fortune cookie")
Pleased with item and Amazon January 28, 2009
Carlos V. Bonner
Very pleased with the DVD [Front Desk] and the service I received from Amazon.
Carlos Bonner
Front Page December 29, 2008
Jonathan Chen (Hong Kong)
I love it. It's funny as hell! I must have watched the movie for at least 5 times in the past 7 years.
Front Page November 14, 2008
Marvin Hirschfield (Eugene, OR)
This a classic, from the Ben Hecht, James McArthur play of the same name.
With Jack Lemmon as Hildy Jhonson and and Walter Mathau as his editor
Walter Burns, it is a laugh a minute.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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