His Girl Friday

A very, very funny movie, this rapid-fire farce combines a terrific cast, a great script, and a plot that lends itself wonderfully both to comedy and satire. There are more funny lines and good gags than you can count, even when you've already seen it a few times.

Cary Grant is excellent at this kind of manic comedy, and Rosalind Russell gives what had to be one of her very best performances, as a worthy foil for Grant's domineering character. Ralph Bellamy is also ideal as the naive insurance salesman, and they are backed up by a cast filled with fine comic character actors. Some of the supporting cast do a terrific job of getting laughs with very limited screen time. They all get great material to work with, too. The dialogue is just amazing, with funny, creative lines coming constantly - sometimes literally on top of each other. The setting and the plot create hilarious situations and some great opportunities to satirize politicians and the news media. If anything, the satire is even funnier and more appropriate as regards today's institutions than it was in 1940.

"His Girl Friday" is absolutely hilarious, a classic comedy that you can watch and enjoy over and over.

"His Girl Friday" is a romantic comedy that belongs almost entirely to the screwball tradition. The screenplay is adapted from the 1928 play "The Front Page" by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. This is the second, and by far the most successful, film adaptation of that story.

We follow former star reporter Hildy Johnson, who is about to marry insurance agent Bruce Baldwin. Their plan is simple: to start a family and settle into a quiet life in Albany. But there's a catch-Hildy happens to be the ex-wife of Walter Burns, a ruthless and manipulative newspaper editor determined to derail their plans. Walter convinces Hildy to cover just one more story before she leaves with Bruce. The case seems simple-a chance killing-but beneath it lies a tangle of political corruption. Hildy agrees, on the condition that Walter buys a life insurance policy from Bruce, but by doing so she steps straight into Walter's treacherous game...

Howard Hawks directs with a whirlwind pace: the lines are exchanged at lightning speed, often without pause, like bursts of rapid-fire. This rhythm adds energy to the comedy and makes the escalating entanglements feel endless. Hawks was known to allow improvisation, cutting a scene only when it was necessary to move on to the next sequence. The result is that the audience feels immersed in the true circus of a newsroom. The camera faithfully follows the protagonists, while close-ups highlight the irony and satirical edge of their relationships. Romance here takes a back seat, almost as if life itself is unfair to Hildy. It's clear, however, that ambition drives every character forward.

Thematically, the film exposes corrupt politics and the sensationalism of the press, through the fate of a condemned man abandoned by the justice system. Its characters move through a sharp, cynical game that raises questions about ambition, marriage, emancipation, and honesty in relationships.

Cary Grant is outstanding as Walter Burns-manipulative, unscrupulous, and yet irresistibly charming. He is both an editorial demon and a slippery seducer, and yet the audience can't help but root for him. His charisma makes us sympathize with him, even when we cannot fully grasp his motives. Once again, Grant is flawless in his element.

Rosalind Russell plays Hildy Johnson, the beating heart of the film. Hildy is smart, witty, and resourceful-a woman torn between her desire for domestic peace and the irresistible pull of reporting. She holds her own against Walter in every exchange, and their chemistry, especially in their quarrels, is nothing short of electric.

Ralph Bellamy, as Bruce Baldwin, is the good-natured, gentlemanly fiancé who is hopelessly out of place in the chaos of journalism. His character is the complete opposite of Walter and Hildy, providing a perfect counterbalance that deepens the comedy. Bellamy is superb in the role, though one might joke that his fans should start a petition never to cast him opposite Grant again-because no one escapes Walter's tricks unscathed.

"His Girl Friday" is a film about the speed of life, the power of words, and the manipulative games that unfold within the noisy world of politics and journalism. Love and professional passion collide in a single point, while truth remains as slippery and fleeting as a tabloid headline. For lovers of romantic comedy, this film is essential viewing and stands as one of the finest examples of the genre from the 1940s.

Charles McArthur and Ben Hecht met when both were reporters in Chicago during the 1920s. They created two of the funniest farces in American drama, TWENTIETH CENTURY (about theater people) and THE FRONT PAGE. The latter was based on their experiences as news reporters in those crazy days in Chicago, where the newspapers concentrated on sensationalism and the politics was thoroughly corrupt. The resulting play is hysterically funny and yet remains timely. For all the exaggeration of how Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson manipulate police, politicians, reporters, and civilians to get their scoop, the story remains relevant for several reasons. The political balance in a big Mayoralty election is precarious due to the Earl Williams case. Williams has shot a policeman who is African-American, a big local voting block, and they want him punished. The corrupt Mayor and his idiot jail warden are willing to execute him for the votes needed to stay in office, but the Governor (who is from the rival party) believes the killer is insane (or at least mentally deficient). So already (as you see) race, politics, and the validity of the death penalty get pulled in. Soon we also see examples of nepotism and corruption in the police, and City Hall, cynical politics based on a man's life, and questions about privacy and a free press. For a play from 1931 this one still has relevance.

There had been an earlier version of the play in the 1930s called THE FRONT PAGE, starring Adolphe Menjou as the conniving and devious Walter Burns, and Pat O'Brien as ace reporter Hildy Johnson. It is a good version, and both stars do well with their parts (and both have the verbal speed necessary for the dialog to flow over the ears of the audience). But when the film was remade in 1940, Howard Hawks decided to redraw Hildy Johnson into a female reporter (and previous wife) of Burns. His casting of Cary Grant was radically different too. Burns is a nasty, conniving s.o.b. who would kill for a good story. Menjou was somewhat dapper (he was usually dapper) in the role, but the hardness under the presentable shell was there. And by changing Hildy from a guy to a gal, and Walter's former wife, you had to make Walter look more interesting. So Walter is turned into Cary Grant. There was a search for Hildy, involving Jean Arthur and Irene Dunne as possibilities. Neither ended up playing him. Instead it went to Rosalind Russell.

It has to be admitted Russell had the vocal abilities to push the dialog at the proper clip. Possibly Jean Arthur could have done that just as well, but Arthur did not have the apparent physical strength behind the stylishness that Russell showed. She really does balance well (in this film) with Grant, given their characters.

Motivation changes a little. This Walter Burns still wants to get his scoops, but there are moments of fragility when he realizes he may forever lose Hildy to her fiancé Bruce (the ever helpless Ralph Bellamy). And they oddly work (Hawks manages to keep them under control). Also, as the story is now twelve years older than the original play, certain changes occur in Walter's political views. He does dislike the gang (led by Clarence Kolb and Gene Lockhart) running the city, and points out to Hildy that they have a chance to help give the city the sort of government New York City has under La Guardia. This does not end his joy at scooping the opposition, but it does suggest that Burns has more depth.

It is now generally believed that this is the best of the film versions of THE FRONT PAGE, and one of the funniest films ever made. The entire cast shines (look at the scene where Helen Mack confronts the reporters who have made her look like a tramp, and have told lies about John Qualen (Williams) - she is in a state when Russell takes her out of the press room, and the reporters are thoroughly ashamed of herself - and Russell comes back looking at Regis Toomey, Porter Hall, and the others, and says "Gentlemen of the Press!" with heavy cynical irony). And also note Billy Gilbert's immortal Joe Pettibone, the most hopeless monument of total befuddlement in movies. It is one of the few film comedies of that period that retains it's laughs one viewing following another.

As if creating one comedic masterpiece with 1938's BRINGING UP BABY was not enough, director Howard Hawks returned to the same genre a scant two years later - and he somehow managed to rival even his own previous masterwork. Nominally a reworking Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play THE FRONT PAGE, HIS GIRL Friday manages to surpass it's classic source material and emerge as one of the screen's finest comedies. The film is also perhaps the perfect example of Hawks' trademarked rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue, which has never been as fast nor as furious anywhere else before or since. This is certainly one of the fastest moving comedies ever filmed, and the whole cast never misses a beat.

Walter Burns, the conniving, self-serving newspaper editor, is a character that could have easily come off as a tyrannical jerk. As portrayed by the suave Cary Grant, however, the pompous, arrogant Burns actually becomes (gasp!) likable! It is a difficult balancing act that Grant must perform as teetering between the two extremes of the character, and he is arguably the only actor imaginable with the skill and charisma to pull such a tricky characterization off this successfully. And the one-and-only Rosalind Russell is every bit his match - full of verve and aplomb, Russell's Hildy is an independent career woman, brimming with intelligence and class, that impressively pre-dates the major feminist movement of the mid-sixties by a good 25 years.

The film's supporting cast is no less impressive, with every single role cast to perfection. This is particularly true of Ralph Bellamy, who (along with his Oscar-nominated performance in 1937's THE AWFUL TRUTH) proves once again that he is the ultimate straight man. The film contains some grim subject matter that may seem like unlikely fodder for a screwball comedy (murder, attempted suicide, and public execution are all touched upon), although the film somehow manages to deal with such topics respectfully and without sacrificing any laughs. In the end, HIS GIRL Friday is an absolutely unbeatable romantic comedy that remains wildly hilarious and comes as close to sheer perfection as any motion picture could ever hope to.

This screen adaptation of the Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play "The Front Page" was adapted for the talents of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell -- there is no such character as Hildy Johnson (Russell) in that play.

Director Howard Hawks wanted to show the whirlwind pace of the newsroom in the criminal courts system so he had his actors overlap their lines -- so much so that at times it seems as though everyone is talking at once; it even gets difficult to understand all that is going on.

He also had the cast move FAST so the film looks totally frenetic from scene to scene with no respite -- either from the laughs or from the action.

There are two really good "inside" jokes in the script: The first is where Walter Burns (Grant) is describing Hildy's fiancee and says that "he looks like that guy in the movies -- Bellamy," Well, it WAS Ralph Bellamy playing that part!

The other is when Burns says something about someone he once knew named "Archie Leach" which just happens to be Cary Grant's real name.

This is one of the true gems of Hollywood's most prolific era. It has incredible pacing, acting, photography and an authentic gritty feeling that would be associated with hard-boiled, "anything for a story" newspaper people.

It has long been one of my favorite films and deserves to be watched over and over again -- just for all the dialogue and great acting that may have gone by so fast you missed it the first time.