The Girl on the Front Page
Cast & Crew
Harry Beaumont
Edmund Lowe
Gloria Stuart
Reginald Owen
Spring Byington
Gilbert Emery
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Joan Langford takes over her father's newspaper after he dies, much to the disgust of the chief editor, "Hank" Gilman. Langford had stipulated that if Joan decided to sell the paper, she could only sell it to Hank and the reporters. Hank, a tough cookie, rebels against working for a "nitwit female" and tells second-in-command Thorne that he will quit if Joan so much as comes into the office. Joan overhears this and resents his chauvinist attitude toward her. In a scheme to prove him wrong, Joan disguises herself as a dowdy college graduate named "June Robbins," and asks Hank for a job, giving him a letter written by Joan asking him to hire her. Hank reluctantly hires her and sticks her in a far desk, with a first assignment to report on a litter of puppies, but when he compares June's and Joan's handwriting, he realizes that they are the same woman. Wise to her ruse, Hank sends her out on the most arduous stories, and Joan works as hard as any other reporter. One night after Joan has collapsed on her bed, Hank calls her and asks her to immediately investigate the shooting death of a local butler who worked for Joan's wealthy friends, the Danwells. Joan falls asleep, and the next morning, Hank reveals that he has known of her disguise all along, and only let her stay because he thought she was in earnest about wanting to learn the business. Ashamed, Joan quits, but when Hank later calls up to invite her out, she pretends her butler Biddle is the Earl of Deinster, whom she had been dating in England. She continues the farce at lunch with Hank, who photographs her with Biddle. Joan is unaware that Biddle is the president of "The Thursday Club," whose members are servants specializing in theft and blackmail. Hank and Joan fall in love over a romantic dinner, but when she asks him to drop his investigation of the Danwell case, he is offended and quits. Joan is forced to rehire Hank after receiving resignations from all the staff reporters, and promises not to interfere with newsroom business. Knowing that the real Earl of Deinster is in England, Hank prints the picture of Joan and Biddle, which prompts Biddle to have one of his men threaten to reveal a supposed affair between Joan and the butler if she does not pay him. This is the tip-off Hank has been waiting for, as he has suspected Biddle all along, and Hank tells Joan to bring Biddle with her to the appointment with her blackmailers. Once there, Joan is bound and gagged, and Hank is knocked unconscious. Biddle pretends to come to her rescue, but when Hank revives, he forces a confession out of the butler by tickling him mercilessly. Joan immediately reports the news over the phone to the paper, and Hank authorizes them to print it under her byline, June Robbins, saying he will make a newspaperman out of her even if he has to marry her.
Director
Harry Beaumont
Cast
Edmund Lowe
Gloria Stuart
Reginald Owen
Spring Byington
Gilbert Emery
Robert Gleckler
Clifford Jones
Maxine Reiner
Sylvia Andrew
Frances Gregg
Joe North
George Sorrell
David Nowell
Earl Eby
Mrs. Wilfred North
Edythe Elliott
Laura Treadwell
Tom Moore
Forbes Murray
Monte Vandegrift
Larry Mcgrath
Lee Prather
Don Roberts
Jack Egan
Desmond Gallagher
Jack Gardner
Ted Thompson
Buddy Roosevelt
Harrison Meeker
Frank Holliday
Nolan Leary
James Macklin
Archie Robbins
J. Anthony Hughes
Max Wagner
Lillian West
Horace Murphy
Marla Shelton
Fred Toones
Crew
Philip Cahn
Marjorie Chanslor
Roy Chanslor
Harry Clork
John P. Fulton
Herman Heller
Phil Karlstein
Milton Krasner
Alice D. G. Miller
Jack Otterson
George Owen
Austin Parker
Albert R. Perkins
Robert Presnell
Robert Pritchard
Jean Raymond
Charles R. Rogers
Charles Stallings
Homer Tasker
Gilbert Valle
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to Universal records, the film's pre-release title was Rich and Reckless. An article in Variety notes that Broadway star George Jessel received $25 from Universal for titling this film.
