Based on the Hecht-MacArthur play, a newspaper editor and his ace reporter battle each other while fighting civic corruption in Chicago. You better be in good shape if you wanna survive this one. Is it just me or did I miss something here? Nearly two hours of badly recorded shouting in this early talkie with barely intelligible dialog, absolutely exhausting. But perhaps it's just the bad transfer on the DVD.<br /><br />The fact that this film received three academy award nominations, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture, is illustrative for the difficulties regarding sound in the these early stages of sound in film-making. These technical deficiencies came with the period and might be easily forgiven, if there was something of cinematic interest to be found, but this is not film-making. It's a filmed play and a bad one at that. Badly shot, badly lit and the stagy acting style doesn't help either, with just about everyone shouting their lines to the ceiling or the windows, wherever the microphones are hidden. I guess the material is OK, based on the later adaptations of he piece, but it's almost impossible to figure it out, so distracted is the viewer by the constant clamoring. I know it's an early talkie but that's no reason to ignore the far too many shortcomings of this film. <br /><br />If you like the material, remade infinitely better by Howard Hawks as HIS GIRL Friday (1940), better but not brilliant by Billy Wilder as THE FRONT PAGE (1974) and yet again as SWITCHING CHANNELS (1988) with Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve. Save yourself a headache and watch these instead.<br /><br />Camera Obscura --- 3/10