It all started with a great play by Ben Hetch and Charles McArthur written in 1928: ‘The Front Page’, a comedy in which a reporter sees the opportunity of a lifetime when a man accused of murder escapes from the gallows. In 1931 the director brought it to the screen for the first time with the title of ‘A great report’, with Adolphe Menjou, Pat O’Brien, Mary Brian and Edward Everett Horton. It was a huge success and the work of Hetch and McArthur is taken to the radio and later to the incipient American television. But Howard Hawks discovers that there is a great comedy there and in 1940 he takes over the rights and makes ‘New Moon’, he changes the sex of one of the protagonists and it becomes one of the 10 best comedies in history. But the work of Ben Hearch and Charles MacArtur continues to give a lot of play. In 1974 it will be Billy Wilder who pays attention to it again, and recovering the original script makes its two main actors, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the absolute protagonists. And there will still be another adaptation to the big screen in 1988, ‘Interferences’, which changes the journalistic world for that of television, with Kathleen Turner, Burt Reynolds and Christopher Reeve, under the direction of Ted Kotcheff. Of the four adaptations, there seems to be unanimity that ‘New Moon’ is the best. It is available on Filmin, Film Box and Classix, and for rent on Apple TV and Amazon.
It was quite a success that Hawks changed the sex of one of the characters, changing the leading journalist for a female journalist, which allowed him to combine romantic comedy with black humor, depth charges and the acidity of the original work.. In Spain was launched with the phrase “The most comical romance linked with the most extraordinary adventure”, which perfectly defined the essence of the film.
In 1939, while filming ‘Only Angels Have Wings’, Howard Hawks asked Harry Cohn, one of the bosses of Columbia Pictures, to do a new version of ‘The Front Page’. Cary Grant was cast almost immediately in the film, but Cohn initially intended for Grant to play the reporter, with radio commentator Walter Winchell serving as the newspaper’s editor. Hawks intended to do a simple adaptation of ‘The Front Page’, with the editor and reporter being men, as in the play. But during the auditions, Howard Hawks’s secretary, a woman, read the reporter’s lines and Hawks liked the way the dialogue coming from a woman sounded, resulting in the script being rewritten to make the journalist a female. woman, ex-wife of the newspaper and this happened to be played by Cary Grant. Although Hawks considered the dialogue in ‘The Front Page’ to be “the best modern dialogue ever written”, more than half of it was replaced with what Hawks believed to be better lines. The other half of the original dialogue remained the same, as did the names of all the characters, with two exceptions: the journalist’s fiancé was given the name of Bruce Baldwin, and the name of the messenger who brought the governor’s pardon was changed. from Pincus to Pettibone.
Difficulties in choosing cast
Hawks had a hard time casting. While the choice of Cary Grant was there from the start, the choice of Hildy was a longer process. At first, Hawks wanted Carole Lombard, but the cost of signing her in her new superstar status proved too high and Columbia couldn’t afford her. Successively, Jean Arthur, Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Margaret Sullavan, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne were offered the role, but all turned it down. Dunne turned it down as she felt the role was too small and needed to expand. Jean Arthur was removed from the studio when she refused to accept it. Joan Crawford was also considered without a positive result. Hawks last resorted to Rosalind Russell, who had just finished ‘The Women’ (1939). Russell was upset when he discovered in a New York Times article that Cohn was “hooked” on her after trying to cast many other actresses.
Finally, after several turns, the script in which Charles Lederer and, uncredited, Ben Hecht participated, ended up like this: Walter Burns (Cary Grant), the cheating editor of The Morning Post, finds out that his ex-wife and former star reporter , Hildegard ‘Hildy’ Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is about to marry an insurance agent named Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and establish herself as a homemaker in Albany. Determined to sabotage these plans, Walter convinces a reluctant Hildy to cover one last story: the upcoming execution of Earl Williams (John Qualen), a timid and diffident bookkeeper convicted of murdering a cop. Hildy agrees on the condition that Walter purchases a $100,000 life insurance policy from Bruce so he can receive a commission of one thousand. Meanwhile, she bribes the warden into letting her interview Williams in jail. Williams says that he shot the police officer by accident. Walter does everything he can to stop Hildy from leaving, first accusing Bruce of stealing a watch and forcing Hildy to bail him out of jail. Exasperated, Hildy quits, but when Williams escapes, her journalistic instincts take over. Walter frames Bruce again and he is immediately sent to jail. Hildy realizes that Walter is behind the rackets, but Hildy prioritizes her journalistic vocation and decides to cover the rapidly escalating Williams story rather than rescue Bruce again.
Williams sneaks into the deserted press room and holds Hildy at gunpoint; the lure of a big scoop proves too tempting for her to resist. Williams’ girlfriend, Mollie Malloy (Helen Mack), comes looking for him. When the other reporters return, Hildy hides the fugitive in a rolltop desk. Mrs. Baldwin (Alma Kruger), Hildy’s future mother-in-law, walks in on her and scolds her for the way she treats Bruce. Being hounded by reporters for Williams’ whereabouts, Mollie jumps out of the window to escape. The reporters run off, saving Williams from being found. Walter arrives and has a worker kidnap Mrs. Baldwin. Bruce walks into the press room, wires Albany for his bail, and asks for the whereabouts of his mother. Hildy is so busy writing the story that she hardly notices; Bruce realizes that her cause is useless and leaves. Meanwhile, the crooked warden and sheriff need the publicity of the execution to keep their jobs in the upcoming election, so when a courier brings them a pardon from the governor, they try to bribe the man to leave and come back later, after you’re done. Too late.
After discovering Williams at the desk, the sheriff handcuffs Walter and Hildy. However, the messenger returns with the pardon, just in time to save Williams from hanging. Walter uses the messenger’s statements to blackmail the warden and sheriff into releasing him and Hildy. She gets a call from Bruce, back in jail due to the fake money Hildy unknowingly wired to him from Walter. Hildy breaks down and admits to Walter that she was afraid he would let her marry Bruce without a fight. After bailing Bruce out of jail again, Walter asks Hildy to marry him again, promising to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls. Then Walter learns that there is a strike in Albany, which is on its way to Niagara Falls. Hildy agrees to the honeymoon in Albany and accepts that Walter will never change.
repeat shots
The film, which initially had the provisional title of ‘The Bigger They Are’, is finally called as the play, ‘The Front Page’, and in Spain it took the title of ‘New Moon’. Filming began on September 27, 1939 at Columbia studios, with some additional takes by a second unit at Columbia Ranch, and wrapped on November 21, seven days behind schedule. Hawks gave the actors the freedom to improvise some of his lines and actions, as he did with his other comedies. Due to the numerous group scenes, many retakes were necessary. Also, Hawks added some supporting characters to balance out the main characters. Unusually for its time, the film hardly contains any music, except for the ending of the film. Hawks achieved one of the best comedies in history, of great brilliance, in which the characters speak so quickly that they step on each other’s dialogue. Both Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell literally rocked their respective characters. The film is a devastating portrait of sensationalist journalism where everything is possible to get news and get ahead of competitors, as well as a fierce criticism of demagogue politicians, a devastating denunciation of corruption, injustice, dehumanization and corruption, a comedy in its purest form narrated at a dizzying pace.
Its premiere was several weeks ahead of schedule, taking place at a gala at Radio City Hall in New York on January 11. 1940, and in the rest of the United States a week later. He arrived in Spain on October 27, 1943 in Barcelona and on January 3, 1944 in Madrid. Surprisingly ‘New Moon’ did not win any Oscar and was not even nominated, remaining as one of the great injustices of these awards. But the film, which would see numerous reruns, is today one of the titles preserved by the United States Congress.
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