THE FRONT PAGE
US, 1974, 105 minutes, Colour.
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, Susan Sarandon, Harold Gould, Vincent Gardenia, Martin Gabel, Allen Garfield, David Wayne, Austin Pendleton.
Directed by Billy Wilder.
Writer-director, Billy Wilder (often in association with I.A.L. Diamond) has given us most enjoyably tart and bitter comedies: The Apartment, Fortune Cookie, Avanti. Here he uses the 30s nostalgia and effective re-picturing of a period for a black comedy on newspaper ethics, conventions and behaviour. This is devastatingly satirical (Walter Matthauls editor even mouthing Nixonian tape material). The situation is the coverage of a hanging, and the grotesqueness of news scoops, political intrigue, social hypocrisy, the subordination of feelings, reporter 'types' and editors are all highlighted. Jack Lemmon is all right as the central reporter, but Matthau shines as the relentless editor. Trenchant social satire.
1. Was this an enjoyable film? The quality of the humour? The quality of the acting? the nostalgic recreation of a period ? The satire and the cynicism? Which aspects predominated?
2. Why the use of wide screen? The meticulousness of the re-creation of the twenties? The prison setting? The fact that the film was based on a play? Was this evident? The atmosphere of newspaper production? The station? The trains? The atmosphere of clothes, music etc.?
3. How much did the film rely on communication from wit? How sharp and telling was the wit? How good the wise cracks? How typically American? Acceptable for American audiences? (The use of the Nixon atmosphere and quotations from his tapes?) What kind of audience was wanted? What response was wanted from them?
4. How well did the film satirize the newspaper industry? Did it give due credit to the role of the newspaper? The goal of a newspaper? The effect of the newspaper on the public? The focus on the men who ran the newspaper? From the credits to the life in The Examiner's office, to the work rooms? To the reporters? What effect did working on a newspaper have on people's lives?
5. The focus on the newsroom at the prison? The immediate impact of the card players, their callous attitudes, their rushing to the phone, their stealing one another' stories? The various personalities in the newsroom? Their interacting on one another? The emphasis on Benzinger? exaggerated? What value would he have added to the film? The role of Rudy? Was he necessary? As a foil to the other writers? The irony of all that happened in the newsroom? The fact that so much of the drama happened in this room?
6. How central was Hildy Johnson for the film? The film's presentation of him as a man, his relationship to his fiance, his burnt-out attitude towards his work? The quality of his talent as a news-man? The fact that the news men could take over? Its affect on his relationship to Peggy and how he changed? His relationship to Burns? His defiance of Burns, yet Burns' power over him? His reaction to Keppler? To Benzinger? His esteem for the newsroom men, his despising them? His using of Earl Williams? Did he have any sympathy for him? Did he have any sympathy for Molly? How much satire was there in the character of Johnson? The seemingly sentimental ending at the station? The ironic twist?
7. How does Burns compare with Johnson? The relentless editor? His tricks? His bullying? His use of illicit photographs? His using the prison, the prisoners, politics? The influence he had in jail? His callousness at the end? Although a caricature, how much insight into a real editor did this portrayal give?
8. How did Peggy belong to a different world from the newspaper? The recreation of her organ playing, the detail of the bouncing ball on the screen? The trick that Burns played on her? about the probation officer? The hectic attitude of the packing? And her trying to persuade Hildy to come? The waiting, the taxi? The farewell at the train? What would have been the effect of Burns' trick?
9. How much sympathy was there for Earl Williams? Was his a comic role and a pathetic role? The atmosphere of the hanging and the scaffold going up? The interview with the newsroom men? His encounter with the doctor and the irony of this? The irony of his simple escape? His being wounded and hiding in the newsroom? Molly's loyalty to him? The finale?
10. How important a character was Molly? What kind of woman in herself? The strength of her attack on the reporters? Her helping Earl Williams, especially by her fall? The irony of her character? Carol Burnett's performance compared with the others?
11. How much satire was there in the presentation of the Sheriff? As a dumb sheriff, his lack of P.R. and finesse, his political views, the way he conducted the interviews, Earl Williams using his gun, his going to the Mayor, his being outwitted by Burns? What comment on politics and its administration ?
12. The comment on politics and administration in the presentation of the mayor? Being a pal of the Sheriff etc? His treatment of the man with the reprieve? The irony of his turning on them?
13. The satire in the psychiatry? The emphasis on sexuality and masturbation and the irony here? His being taken to the hospital?
14. How serious was the hanging atmosphere of the film? How did this give a black humour to the proceedings? How effective and ironic was this?
15. The insight into politics, the prisoner's, jails? The contrast with the bordello and the mayor running this? The comment on the corruption in high places?
16. How black was the theme of using people, callous attitudes, the squashing of human interest eg. in Burns' remarks, his attitude towards his men?
17. Were the farcical elements too farcical, the chasing of the cars down the streets and the speeding up etc.?
18. What is the value of a satirical and humorous approach to important themes like this?
