A highly praised romantic comedy classic directed by Howard Hawks and written by Charles Lederer based on the play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.
Three immediate observations about this famous film:
1) It certainly is still a fun movie. I ended up laughing out loud in some scenes even though His Girl Friday was filmed 66 years ago! That says a lot about the staying power of this wacky comedy classic.
2) In terms of wpm delivery, this is probably one of the most wordy movies ever produced. Speaking of “talking heads”! Both Cary Grant (as manipulative and exploitative newspaper publisher Walter Burns) and Rosalind Russell (as ambitious reporter Hildegaard ‘Hildy’ Johnson), as well as all the other characters, compete against each other to deliver truckloads of sharps. answers, jokes and sarcastic comments at the speed of a red-hot machine gun. Words cascade from them all in a relentless torrent of head-splitting verbiage. One wonders how many pounds the actors must have collectively lost after finishing this one.
His Girl Friday definitely represents the ultimate antithesis of the modern taboo against “tell but don’t show” in movies. He doesn’t have a single scene that isn’t deep in the exposure business.
3) From a directing standpoint, this is one of the surprisingly unbalanced movies I’ve seen in a long time. It begins with a narrow focus on the Grant+Russell interaction and expands into the awkward triangle formed by the two of them and Hildy Johnson’s fiancé, underwriter Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).
Then, without warning, the scene changes to a newsroom and the antiques of a group of cranky old poker-playing, cigar-chewing reporters who are covering the story of a death row inmate about to be hanged the next day. in the plaza just below your window. Hildy is at the center of this long “Act Two” during which the character of Cary Grant is totally absent.
If you’re watching His Girl Friday as a “Cary Grant movie,” and we must, you’ll be sorely disappointed by this nearly half-hour intermission during which we almost forgot about Walter Burns.
When Walter returns in the third act, he’s his old loudmouth trying to get the story into his newspaper first while forcing the corrupt sheriff and mayor to back down on their threats to put him in jail.
The plot itself is not that complicated. Walter Burns (Grant) is an ambitious and unscrupulous newspaper editorial manager in Chicago for whom “getting first” and getting ahead of the other papers is more important than telling the truth. He is a cunning but charming and cunning operator who is trying to win back his ex-wife and A-list newspaper reporter, Hildy Johnson (Russell).
Knowing that deep in his heart Hildy cares about nothing in life as much as journalism and the thrill of pursuing an exclusive story, Walter plays on her weakness to win her back while pretending he’s resigned to his new life with her. Baldwin.
In the end, Hildy manages to hide the escaped convict (who claims he is innocent and that he killed a policeman by mistake) inside a roll-up desk in the newsroom and gets an exclusive for Walter’s newspaper, leaving all of his male colleagues behind. in the dust .
The wacky comedy is full of clever and hilarious exchanges like the following:
Hildy: I can, I can, and I like it, it’s more. Plus, he forgets about the office when he’s with me… he doesn’t treat me like an errand boy either, Walter. He treats me like a woman.
Walter: It does, right? How did I treat you, like a water buffalo?
# # #
Hildy: I spent six weeks in Reno, then Bermuda, oh, about four months I guess. I think it was yesterday.
Walter: Maybe it was yesterday, Hildy. Have you been seeing me in your dreams?
# # #
Hildy: Listen to me, you big stubborn bamboo!
# # #
Bruce Baldwin (speaking of Walter): He has a lot of charm.
Hildy: Yes, it comes naturally; her grandfather was a snake!
# # #
Walter: Let’s see this model of virtue! Is it as good as you say?
Hildy: Why, he’s better!
Walter: Well, then what does he want from you?
Hildy: Aha, you got me!
# # #
A beautiful film in which both Grant and Russell prove they have the manic energy and fluid skills to deliver their complicated lines flawlessly without sacrificing the comedic physical details packed into every scene. Two scoundrels who know each other better than anyone in life, and a well-intentioned insurance salesman who looks like a baby in the woods next to the two main operators.
Needless to say, it is also an eye-opening testament to the way the newspaper business was conducted in the 1940s. We are all lucky that the journalistic profession, for all its shortcomings, has much higher ethical standards today.
Year 8 or 10.