This first filmed version of The Front Page is a good one. It's one of the first screwball comedies, an early experiment with making use of fast-paced comic dialogue in a plot-driven film. The sound and picture quality reflect the early technology, but the performances are polished to a shine. In particular, Adolphe Menjou, as Walter Burns, is terrific.

The film came a few years before the Hays Code (read: censorship office) was established. Consequently, the play's famous closing line is preserved intact, but notice how, to smooth it over, Menjou elbows a typewriter at a key moment.