THE FRONT PAGE (1974) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Billy Wilder
Jack Lemm0n, Walter Matthau, Susan Sarandon,
David Wayne, Vincent Gardenia, Allen Garfield,
Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton, Herb Edelman,
Martin Gabel, Harold Gould, Carol Burnett
Walter Matthau plays wheedling editor Walter Burns and Jack Lemmon plays wiseguy star reporter Hildy J0hnson in Billy Wilder's adaptation of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play. It really feels m0re like a play than a movie, with the actors shouting their lines, a sense of timing that's both severe and flat-footed, and most of the action confined to a couple of sets. The slapstick stuff with Martin Gabel as a gunshot victim on a runaway gurney looks like something out of Blake Edwards. Viewers with a particular interest in old-school printing should at least catch the opening credits.
