SWITCHING CHANNELS
The machinery still works. Sixty years after The Front Page hit Broadway, the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur farce retains its manic energy and toxic bite. Gags still pinwheel out of the plot -- the one about a managing editor trying to scoop the world on a big story while keeping his ace reporter from deserting him to get married. And, as three previous movie incarnations have proved, The Front Page turns briskly whether the reporter is a man (Pat O'Brien in 1931, Jack Lemmon in 1974) or the boss's ex-wife (Rosalind Russell | in the 1940 His Girl Friday).
This...