A highly praised classic romantic comedy 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’s certainly 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 words per minute delivery, this is probably one of the most wordy movies ever produced. Speaking of “talking heads”! Both Cary Grant (as manipulative and exploitative newspaper editor Walter Burns) and Rosalind Russell (as ambitious reporter Hildegaard ‘Hildy’ Johnson), as well as all the other characters, compete with each other to deliver truckloads of treble. replies, jokes and snide comments at the speed of a red-hot machine gun. Words cascade from all of them in a relentless torrent of head-splitting verbiage. One wonders how many pounds the actors collectively must have 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. It doesn’t have a single scene that isn’t deep in the exposure business.
3) From a directing standpoint, this is one of the shockingly 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 and Hildy Johnson’s fiancé, insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).
Then, without warning, the scene shifts to a newsroom and the antiques of a group of grumpy old poker-playing, cigar-chewing reporters covering the story of a death row inmate about to be hanged the next day. in the plaza just below her window. Hildy is at the center of this long “Act Two” during which the character of Cary Grant is completely absent.
If you’re looking at His Girl Friday as a “Cary Grant movie,” and we must, you’re going to be sorely disappointed in this nearly half-hour-long intermission during which we almost forgot about Walter Burns.
When Walter returns in the third act, he’s his old mouthy trying to get the story to his paper first while forcing the crooked sheriff and mayor to back down on their threats to jail him.
The plot itself is not that complicated. Walter Burns (Grant) is an ambitious and unscrupulous Chicago newspaper editorial director for whom “getting first” and getting ahead of other newspapers is more important than telling the truth. He’s a shrewd but charming and cunning operator who’s trying to win back his ex-wife and A-list newspaper reporter, Hildy Johnson (Russell).
Knowing that in his heart of hearts Hildy doesn’t care about anything in life as much as journalism and the thrill of pursuing an exclusive story, Walter plays on his weakness to win her back while pretending he’s resigned to his new life with her. Baudouin.
In the end, Hildy manages to hide the escaped convict (who she claims is innocent and killed a cop by mistake) inside a roll-up desk in the media room and gets an exclusive for Walter’s newspaper, leaving all her 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. Besides, 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. It seems to me that it was yesterday.
Walter: Maybe it was yesterday, Hildy. Have you been seeing me in your dreams?
# # #
Hildy: Listen to me, you big headed 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 intricate lines smoothly without sacrificing the comedic physical details packed into every scene. Two scoundrels who know each other better than anyone, and a well-meaning 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 testimony 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.
