Front page

Primera flata (The Front Page) is a 1974 American film directed by Billy Wilder and Based on the play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. It had previously been brought to the screen by Lewis Milestone in 1931 (A Great Reportage) and Howard Hawks in 1940 (His Girl Friday).

Summary of the film

Chicago Examiner reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson (Jack Lemmon) has just quit his job to marry Peggy Grant (Susan Sarandon) and embark on a new career to the desperation of its director Walter Burns (Walter Matthau), a ruthless and selfish man, capable of anything for a moment. news. Hildy is in jail saying goodbye to his colleagues in court reporting when Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton), a convicted murderer, escapes from death row hours before his execution. Earl is a poor devil, a left-wing typographer whose only crime had been stuffing fortune cookies with messages calling for the release of Sacco and Vanzetti, but the Chicago tabloids have portrayed him as a dangerous activist sent by Moscow, and as a consequence the citizens are eager to see him executed.

But Earl hasn't escaped prison, he's just gone into hiding, and he walks into the media room looking for a way out when only Hildy is there. Hildy can't resist getting what would be the biggest scoop of his career just before its end, further ridiculing the police forces and other journalists, and asks Peggy to go to the train by herself while he finishes the job. Before the rest of the journalists appear, he helps Earl hide in a secretaire in the same press room and contacts Walter, and tries to mislead journalists and prison officials to keep the exclusive. Only Mollie Malloy (Carol Burnett), another self-described wretch as "a two-dollar whore from Division Street" is aware of the situation, and when the reporters insist on using Earl's secret desk, Mollie jumps from the third-floor media room window to create a diversion so Hildy can get Earl out of the room. hurry.

Earl is eventually caught by the police, and Hildy and Walter are charged with aiding and abetting the fugitive, but are released when it is discovered that the prison warden and county sheriff had concealed the governor's pardon for their political benefit. Walter reluctantly accepts the departure of his star reporter, giving her a watch as a token of appreciation. Hildy and Peggy take the train to their wedding, and meanwhile the incorrigible Walter telegraphs to the nearest station demanding that the police arrest the man who has stolen his watch...

Between the lines

This film makes us see that the press is not always truthful and objective. It does not seek the truth, but the most exclusive, what the public likes best and the sale of newspapers based on lies, false news and illegally obtained scoops. In the film, the journalists spend the afternoon playing cards and drinking alcohol, while only one or two search and investigate. When one of the journalists who does work calls the newsroom of his newspaper to report what he has seen, the others who listen take advantage of him and call their corresponding newspapers giving a distorted version of what the first journalist has said. It is an exaggeration of reality, but not as exaggerated as one thinks. Journalists communicate by phone or in person.

It also shows in the form of a parody the time in American history of strong repression of social movements known as the Red Scare, together with the political and police corruption of the 20s, in the figure of the sheriff and the mayor (one incompetent and another, ambitious, greedy and user of an oriental brothel).

Curiosities

The film Some Like It Hot (1959) also starring Jack Lemmon is quoted when some journalists tell Hildy "don't try to mislead us like in the Valentine's Day massacre", referring to the fact that his character and that of Tony Curtis in the aforementioned film manage to mislead some gangsters by disguising themselves as women.

In the office where most of the film takes place, there is a photograph of Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), the thirty-first president of the United States.