The Front Page

1974
PG
1h 45m

IMDb RATING

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Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Front Page (1974)

Costume Drama Farce Period Drama Romantic Comedy Workplace Drama Comedy Drama Romance

A ruthless editor tries to get his top reporter to cover one more crime story before retirement.A ruthless editor tries to get his top reporter to cover one more crime story before retirement.A ruthless editor tries to get his top reporter to cover one more crime story before retirement.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

16K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 wins & 6 nominations

Photos159

153

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
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.

Goofs
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.

Quotes
[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.

Crazy credits
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.

Connections
Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Billy Wilder (1986)

Soundtracks
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

User reviews75

Review

Featured review

8/10

May the wind at your back never be your own.

Billy Wilder's remake of the Ben Hecht play is a little better than the 1931 original, but not as good as the 1940 Cary Grant version (The Front Page).

Still, Jack Lemmon (won an Oscar the year before for Save the Tiger) and Walter Matthau (The Fortune Cookie, Kotch) give excellent performances, and Vincent Gardenia (Oscar nominated the year before for Bang the Drum Slowly ) and Susan Sarandon (a relatively new actress) support them to the extent that this is still a superior film.

Funny, funny film about politics and newspapers and some the the early seventies best actors. Catch this one and also see The Front Page.