On F List of Movie Reviews

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The Front Page (1974)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 7/04, 4/21

4/21: Out of two versions (The Front Page and His Girl Friday), Billy Wilder's is the best.

To me, the purpose of a remake is correct the flaws of the original and further improve on the rest. It's exactly what happened for the second stab at The Front Page. With the exception of Carol Burnett who overacts, the cast is perfect, and the pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau for the respective roles of Hildy Johnson and Walter Burns is genius. Their comedic timing is unbelievable.

The problems with the original are leaden dialogue, lack of star power, and a long, boring middle. His Girl Friday is so fast paced that it's difficult to keep up with the overlapping dialogue. The star power of Cary Grant, not Rosalind Russell, is what helped the picture the most, but he's conspicuously missing for a long stretch of time.

The 1974 version of The Front Page fixes just about everything while solving the problem of the middle. As a result, it's a funny movie which has the right pace. Billy Wilder was smart enough to end the film by having Walter Matthau say, "The son of a bitch stole my watch." The dialogue is clear and never overlapping which is the chief reason why the concept finally worked.

All in all, I don't know why Billy Wilder regretted remaking The Front Page, but it's the best version I've seen.

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