The Front Page

     

The Front Page is a 1974 comedy film set in the 1920s about a newspaper company and the lives of one of its most infamous reporters, Hildebrand Johnson. I think watching the film from a viewpoint from my generation can make the film feel just a bit outdated. This is because we see most of our characters in a newsroom writing their stories on a typewriter while being connected to the telephone waiting to get more information on their story. This seems outdated because although newsrooms still exist today, people type their information out on computers and can publish their stories online in seconds for the world to see, instead of waiting for a paper to be published which can take up to twenty-four hours to complete. As for how the reporters behave, I don't think they could get away with this today. For example, at the beginning of the film, the reporters are celebrating with Hildebrand for being engaged with alcohol in the office, drinking themselves into intoxication. I understand that this was for a celebratory purpose, but I don't think that most news companies would want their employees to be under the influence while doing the
their work.

    The state of journalism in the film period of the 1920s was at an all-time high. This was due to inventions at the time such as the radio and historical events such as women receiving the right to vote. The 1920s also had a cultural shift as well with films becoming a popular source of entertainment as well as the rise of new music such as the Jazz Age.

   Something interesting that I thought while watching the film was seeing how the men were treating the women. Throughout the entire film, there are only two women that are shown on screen. Those two women are Peggy, Hildebrand's fiance, and Mollie, a prostitute. We are first introduced to Peggy when Hildebrand is talking about her to his boss Walter Burns. Walter thinks that Hildebrand is making a big mistake by marrying Peggy since it is what is motivating Hildebrand to quit his job for him. This already paints Peggy in a negative light to the audience since she is pulling Hildebrand away from his work. Regardless of this Walter sees how much Peggy and Hildebrand are in love and gives his blessing to them in the end. As for Mollie, she is treated with nothing but disrespect by all of the news reporters. She is constantly being objectified and being told that she is simply nothing, but her body. Although Mollie is treated negatively, she does help Hildebrand hide prisoner Earl Williams from the police, but for different reasons. Hildebrand's motive for hiding Earl is to get information out of him to write his report about him, but Mollie's motive is to simply protect Earl out of the goodness of her heart. I think Mollie doing this, shows more depth in her character than she does by portraying that she cares about others, even when a group of men are saying nasty things to her.

    Overall I thoroughly enjoyed watching The Front Page. This film gave me an insight into what the newspaper industry and journalism was like in the 1920s. In a world today where everything seems to be digital I think that it is important that we should go back and watch films such as The Front Page to be able to properly understand and comprehend what life was like when we didn't have access to the most current events in the palm of our hand.