Married B’way playwrights with nearly a score of lightweight comedies from the late ‘20s to the early ‘60s, Bella & Sam Spewack hit the jackpot with BOY MEETS GIRL. Even that work nearly forgotten today, so they’re only known for writing the ‘book’ to Cole Porter’s KISS ME, KATE. This one, a fast-paced farce copying Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur’s newspaper classic THE FRONT PAGE, but with a Foreign Correspondent digging up the scoops, had a modest 93 show run. With catch-as-catch-can plotting as messy as THE FRONT PAGE is meticulously structured, it’s still a fun watch. Mile-a-minute dialogue and reverses of fortune as our fearless reporter fights off rival scribes and desperate dames on assignment in Russia where his currently tarnished reputation needs an exclusive interview with General Secretary Joseph Stalin to recover. But the real reason to have a look is that B’way lead Thomas Mitchell, who wouldn’t get to Hollywood for another year, has his role taken by none other than THE FRONT PAGE's original Hildy Johnson on B'way, Lee Tracy (rumpled of face/nasal of voice/rat-a-tat-tat delivery) in the first of his M-G-M films. Hollywood did well by THE FRONT PAGE/’31, but here’s a chance to see the original in essentially the same part. It’s also a chance to check out the final film of George W. Hill, the top action-oriented director at M-G-M, recently divorced from top Hollywood scripter Francis Marion. Only 39, he’d die by his own hand next year.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *And for the template the Spewack’s followed - THE FRONT PAGE/’31. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-front-page-1931.html
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