Cary Grant wears an unidentified watch

Howard Hawks took The Front Page, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's 1928 play about a newspaper editor trying to keep his best reporter from quitting, and changed the reporter from a man to a woman. That single decision turned a workplace comedy into a romantic comedy and gave Rosalind Russell the best role of her career. Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, the editor and ex-husband who will say or do anything to prevent Hildy Johnson from marrying bland insurance man Bruce Baldwin and catching the four o'clock train to Albany.

The film is famous for its pace. Hawks told his actors to overlap their lines, and the result clips along faster than almost anything from the era. Grant wears a watch appropriate for a 1940 newspaper publisher, though the brand is not identifiable in the available stills. Walter is too busy getting people arrested, hiding fugitives in rolltop desks, and lying to everyone in earshot to check it very often.