Événement

THE FRONT PAGE - 35mm Restoration at the Music Box

The Front Page Chicago Restoration Premiere in 35mm
Music Box Theatre 3733 N. Southport Ave.
General Admission: $7

Monday, January 23 @ 7:00 PM / Chicago Restoration Premiere
THE FRONT PAGE
Directed by Lewis Milestone 1931
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthurs 1928 play is one of the most durable comedies in the American repertory, and Lewis Milestones brash and brisk screen adaptation deserves a place of pride alongside it. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, this cynical valentine to the ink-stained wretches of the world chronicles ace reporter Hildy Johnsons fitful efforts to get married, settle down, and leave his yellow profession behind. But Hildys hard-assed editor, Walter Burns, cant lose his best scrivener, especially when the imminent execution of a Red rabble-rouser is worth its weight in column inches. The play would be adapted for the screen another half-dozen times (including formidable efforts by Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder), but Milestones 1931 version with Pat OBrien and Adolphe Menjou comes closest to matching Hecht and MacArthurs devil-may-care immediacy; its not a period piece, but a vulgar salute ripping through the air. Contemporary reviewers lavished The Front Page with superlatives: Harry Alan Potamkin anointed Milestone the first major cinema innovator since D. W. Griffith, and Pare Lorentz urged his readers to see this extraordinary movie before Mr. Hays, Mr. Akerson, or the Republican Committee on Humor burn all the available prints. No prints were burned, but weve had to suffice with a toned-down version prepared for European audiences from alternate takes until now. Finally restored to the original American release version for the first time in decades, The Front Page is a pre-Code marvel with a machine-gun stride. (KW)
Restored in 2016 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. Elements for this restoration provided by The Howard Hughes Corporation, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Fine Arts, Department of Film and its Howard Hughes Collection at the Academy Film Archive.
98 min The Caddo Company 35mm from Academy Film Archive
Film Stock: Kodak Lab: Fotokem
Preceded by: Betty Boop in Admission Free (Dave Fleischer, 1932) 16mm 7 min