Review of His Girl Friday (1940) by Dfh D — 03 Jan 2008

Hilarious without being overdone, farcical without being stupid, charming without pretension.

If you want to defend The Hollywood Studio Era-- in the least as an era for the costume designers and the writers specifically here--, this is the film to do it with. One of the cleverest scripts I've ever seen with overlapping dialogue that anticipates Altman, but does it in the more smooth, formal style that you'd expect from a movie like this. The dialogue is break-neck and sometimes to the point of incomprehensibility, but that just enhances the satirical environment and hilarity. What's more, it has something of substance too, and simply doesn't come off as frivolous banter. The dark points add great contrast and drama; without those parts the film might just seem like divorcees bitching at each other for 90 minutes. But still, said banter was extremely clever.

They don't make pictures like that anymore!