Film Forum to Screen 35mm Restoration of THE FRONT PAGE

Lewis Milestone's THE FRONT PAGE (1931), starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien in the first, most faithful, and most purely cinematic adaptation of Hecht & MacArthur's classic play, will have a special screening at Film Forum on April 27 at 4:50pm and 7:50.

The quintessential newspaper comedy, with cynical reporters, corrupt politics, bone-headed cops, sensation-seeking editors, a murderer in a roll-top desk, as Adolphe Menjou's Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien's Hildy Johnson keep the wisecracks, insults, and un-p.c. slurs flying at machine gun pace. While Menjou and O'Brien replaced Broadway stars Osgood Perkins and Lee Tracy, The Front Page remains more faithful to the original play than the more-famous His Girl Friday, with several cast members carried over from the stage production, as well as dialogue and action that you could only get away with in a pre-Code adaptation (including a reporter giving the finger).

The Front Page was restored in 2016 from a 35mm safety composite print and sound on disc elements. The restoration is based on the original American domestic release version, which differed from the film's international release version, with more sophisticated picture and sound editing, alternate dialogue, and different scene composition. In 2010, The Front Page was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Original U.S. release version, restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

Approx. 101 Min. | 35mm

Director: Lewis Milestone

Screenplay: Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur

Cinematography: Glen MacWilliams

AT 3:50 & 6:50

PRESENTED BY BRUCE GOLDSTEIN

AlLen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Edward Everett Horton, Eugene Palette, Eric Blore, Charles Lane, Zasu Pitts, Hugh Herbert, Edna Mae Oliver, Frank McHugh, Hattie McDaniel, and on and on.... You may not always know their names, but they pop up in one classic movie after another like old friends, in everything from silent epics and salacious pre-code dramas to screwball comedies and iconic blockbusters like Gone with the Wind. Film Forum Repertory Program Director Bruce Goldstein presents this tribute to the real stars of Classic Hollywood, in an illustrated talk originally presented at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

http://filmforum.org/events/event/character-actors-101-presented-by-bruce-goldstein-event