The Front Page is a 1974 American black comedy-drama film directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
In 1920s Chicago, Chicago Examiner reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson has just quit his job to marry Peggy Grant and start a new career as convict Earl Williams is set to be executed. Ruthless, egomaniacal managing editor Walter Burns, desperate to keep Hildy on the job, encourages him to cover the story, frustrating Peggy, who is eager to catch their train.
Earl is an impoverished, bumbling leftist whose offense was stuffing fortune cookies with messages, demanding the release from death row of equally overblown murder convicts Sacco and Vanzetti. After Williams accidentally kills a police officer, the yellow press has painted Earl as another communist threat from Moscow, so Chicago citizens are eager to see him put to death. Earl escapes from his prison cell, but enters the courthouse pressroom while Hildy is there alone. Hildy cannot resist the lure of what could be the biggest scoop of what remains of his career. When Earl is in danger of being discovered, Mollie Malloy, a self-described "$2 whore from Division Street" who befriended Earl, creates a distraction by leaping from the third-floor window.
When Earl is caught, Hildy and Walter are arrested for aiding and abetting a fugitive, but are released when they discover that the mayor and sheriff colluded to conceal Earl's last-minute reprieve by the governor. Walter grudgingly accepts that he is losing his ace reporter, and presents him with a watch as a token of his appreciation. Hildy and Peggy leave to get married, and Walter telegraphs the next railway station to alert them that the man who stole his watch is on the inbound train, and should be apprehended by the police.
In 1920s Chicago, Chicago Examiner reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson has just quit his job to marry Peggy Grant and start a new career as convict Earl Williams is set to be executed. Ruthless, egomaniacal managing editor Walter Burns, desperate to keep Hildy on the job, encourages him to cover the story, frustrating Peggy, who is eager to catch their train.
Earl is an impoverished, bumbling leftist whose offense was stuffing fortune cookies with messages, demanding the release from death row of equally overblown murder convicts Sacco and Vanzetti. After Williams accidentally kills a police officer, the yellow press has painted Earl as another communist threat from Moscow, so Chicago citizens are eager to see him put to death. Earl escapes from his prison cell, but enters the courthouse pressroom while Hildy is there alone. Hildy cannot resist the lure of what could be the biggest scoop of what remains of his career. When Earl is in danger of being discovered, Mollie Malloy, a self-described "$2 whore from Division Street" who befriended Earl, creates a distraction by leaping from the third-floor window.
When Earl is caught, Hildy and Walter are arrested for aiding and abetting a fugitive, but are released when they discover that the mayor and sheriff colluded to conceal Earl's last-minute reprieve by the governor. Walter grudgingly accepts that he is losing his ace reporter, and presents him with a watch as a token of his appreciation. Hildy and Peggy leave to get married, and Walter telegraphs the next railway station to alert them that the man who stole his watch is on the inbound train, and should be apprehended by the police.
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