the tar heel
11
Lemmon-Matthau muckrake
Thursday, June 5, 1975
Do anything for the almighty scoop, and
hang the ethics. '
That's just what happens, to the
misfortune of all involved, in Billy Wilder's
entertaining version of "The Front Page," a
clever period piece about the yellow
journalism of the 1920s.
It's the third time on the screen for the Ben
Hecht-Charles McArthur play, but it's a
story worth retelling. Hildy Johnson (Jack
Lemmon) is the best reporter that editor
Walter Burns (Walter Matthau) has on his
Chicago Express, one of a host of
unscrupulous Windy City papers which are
currently jockeying for the inside story on
the political hanging of one Earl Williams.
But on the evening before Williams'
execution, H ildy quits, telling the irate Burns
that he is going to marry Peggy Grant (Susan
Sarandon), who sings along with those
bouncing-ball songs at a local theatre, and
move to Pittsburgh that very night.
Or so he thinks. Thanks to fate and Burns'
heartless determination to keep his ace
reporter, front page stories just keep falling
into Hildy's lap, and Peggy is stuck in
Chicago with a fate worse than death:
marrying a newspaperman.
This is all very fast-paced, and a lot of fun,
with some terrific, hard-biting dialogue. This
is the newspaper world as the J-school never
taught it, the world of the scoop and deadline
frenzy and the what-you-don't-cover-you-make-up
mentality. Character assassination
is the rule. The technique of the guys in the
press room in "The Front Page" would even
make the "National Enquirer" blanch, and
should delight audiences of our gentler era.
But although the pace is fast, it is not crisp
enough. The movement is not quite sharp,
too often allowing the mind a split-second
cinema
by Mike McFee -
'The Front Page starring Walter Matthau and
Jack Lemmon. Written by Ben Hecht and
Charles McArthur. Directed by William
Wilder.
lag, like the pause between finger and a
typewriter key. We can attribute this slight
but major inconsistency to director Wilder.
His presence in the film is otherwise
minimal, like a copy editor without a pencil,
although he does tend to evoke the
undertones of nostalgia which arc
dangerously reminiscent of "The Sting."
Even the publicity poster, with Matthau
and Lemmon over a typewriter, borders on a
Newman-Redford-George Roy Hill
cuteness, if you squint. But the acting
doesn't; it makes the whoJe film worth it. As
the hard-nosed Walter Burns, Matthau
certainly has the right nose, even if the
mouth sometimes doesn't fit. He delivers
lines, which I'm sure Cary Grant would have
minced in "His Girl Friday." like his mouth
is full of newsprint. But this ponderous
approach works, and works wonderfully, in
his characterization of the callous editor.
Lemmon is likewise appealing as the dandy
Hildy. All he has to do is appear affable,
come over as shallow to Peggy, and type at
an impossible speed with two fingers, which
he does, and more. It is Lemmon who
actually carries the film.
The fellows in the press room, since they
are all stereotypes anyway the college
"greenhorn, the "sensitive" veteran, the
mindleslMegmen are correctly overplayed.
And Carol Burnett has a passable serious
role, as the xred-haired, red-gartered
"madonna of the pavement" Molly M alloy,
who is the only one to feel compassion for
poor little goony Earl Williams (Austin
Pendleton). " m
I don't know how "The Front Page"
compares with earlier movie versions, and
perhaps that is just as well. It is
entertainment enough in itself. With the
funniest closing biographical titles since
"American Graffiti" started that regrettable
practice, 1 left laughing and doubting that
anything has really changed about
journalism in 50 years.
Nobody reads the second paragraph.
And people still wrap the front page
around dead mackerels.
mmmm
mm vtim mjm
Silva to perform
Classical Guitarist Jesus Silva, a former
pupil of Segovia and a graduate of the
National Conservatory of the Institute of
Fine Arts in Mexico City, will perform at 8
p.m. June 6th in Hill Hall. Tickets are
available for $2 at the U nion desk and at H ill
Hall.
Formerly the head of the Guitar
Department at the Brooklyn Music School,
and a professor at the National
Conservatory of M usic and the U niversity of
r
We've Just Bought In
Another Clump Of
Fiction
Better check it over while
it's here!
THE OLD BOOK CORNER
1 37 A East Rosemary Street
Opposite Town Parking Lots
Chapel Hill. N.C. 27514
Mexico, Silva now teaches at the School of
the Arts in Winston-Salem.
The concert is sponsored by the
Department of Political Science and the
Dialectic and Philanthropic Literary
Societies. Proceeds from the concert go to
the Canadian Peace Research Institute for
the preservation of the Grindstone Island
Peace Research Center.
The Canadian Peace Research Institute is
a nOn-profit research organization which
specializes in writing about the causes of war
and the methods of bringing about peace in
the world.
CPRI sponsors a summer school in peace
research for students and non-students from
around the world who assemble in Canada
on Grindstone Island to study the
possibilities of world peace.
(
surra suriMYS
:
(Jl I
- Complete Brunch -
includes: Haitian Fruit Cocktail
Choice of Several French Orne&ti
or (
Homemade Cheese Blintzes h
Mocha Java Columbian Coffee
if
- 02.D0 - l
10 p.m.-2 a.m. 452 W. FRANKLIN Jj
r i
99C Books
And not a bad lot, at that.
Many originally priced a
whole lot higher, some used
texts, some hurt books, all at
large reduction in price.
The biggest batch is
downtown, with a good
selection at the Mall, too.
Mostly odd lots, so check out
both! , ,,
And, while you're at the Mall,
you might ask for the new
catalog of Frame House
Collector's Prints, free while
they last, in the Art Gallery.
Come browsing!
yon
at
the
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405 23 W. Rosemary St.
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