Review of His Girl Friday (1940) by Thomas D — 10 Nov 2015

It's always interesting to watch classic films that have a very different tone and feel to anything that comes out in today's world. His Girl Friday is very much a screwball comedy, and that genre in itself is a product of its time. It still holds up 70 some odd years later, but films just aren't made this way anymore. It's a fast talking and dialogue driven film about a man who is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his ex-wife and former reporter from marrying an insurance man.

Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, the editor of the Morning Post., while Rosalind Russell plays his ex-wife and reporter Hildegard 'Hildy' Johnson. It's based on a play, but Howard Hawks, the director, made one bold but brilliant move by switching the sex of the Hildy character. I'm not sure how the play was written, but the dynamic between Hildy and Walter creates not only immensely funny moments, but also a relationship you root for in a film. Normally, it's not easy to root for a character who wishes to break up a soon- to-be marriage, but Grant brought a great sense vulnerability that proved to make it easier to feel for his character. It doesn't hurt that Cary Grant is one of the most charismatic actors of all time.

What I found most impressive wasn't the acting or the notably funny script, it was the direction of Howard Hawks. I had seen a few of his films in the past including The Big Sleep and one of my favorite films of all time, Bringing up Baby, but it was his direction here that caught my attention the most. It's very difficult to keep an audience's attention without any real action or a ton of physical comedy like his other films, but Hawks uses these dialogue driven scenes in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming, instead, it proved to be very entertaining. I understand that the invention multi- track recording wasn't developed yet, so he told the sound mixing crew to turn the overhead microphones on and off throughout the film to create the final product. It's that dedication and attention to detail that makes Hawks one of the most celebrated filmmakers of all time.

As I said before, this film is a product of its time in the way it's made. If you look at the editing for films that come out today, it's smoother and the cuts aren't usually very noticeable. In His Girl Friday, you can tell that the technology wasn't available for them to make each cut appear as seamless as they should be. It doesn't necessarily dampen the film's greatness, it's just a way of telling when it was made. In comparison to other comedies close to its release, such as The Philadelphia Story, another one of Grant's remarriage films, I think His Girl Friday has a much lighter tone. The sub-genre of screwball comedies known as the 'comedy of remarriage' has turned out some great entries like Holiday and Bringing up Baby. The ladder being far more like a Chaplin comedy than this film was in its humor. But His Girl Friday proves to be lighter, wittier, and probably aesthetically more important for its significance historically.

The narrative focuses a lot on getting a 'scoop' as most of its main characters are writers of some sort. While newspapers are nowhere near as popular as they were during that time, I think the days of getting 'scoops' have returned. Whether it's breaking the latest in a political race, what the Kardashians have been up to, or dropping the latest scoop on the next superhero movie, the media is still obsessed with being first at something, except now it's on social media. So in a way, that's an argument against that His Girl Friday is a product of its time and more so proof that this film is important and should be taught today.

The film is brilliant with its comedic timing. Whether it's the delayed reactions between each of the fast talking characters, or the insane and hectic phone conversations the writers are having throughout the picture, His Girl Friday has plenty of entertainment. You can definitely tell that it's based off of a play through the line delivery and its far-fetched plot, but everything works. It did a lot for films at the time as well. Hawks' big change from the play was the decision to make Hildy a woman. Not many films did something like that, if at all. Even today, you see far too little female roles on screen and His Girl Friday was one of the few films to change the story and add a female because it makes the plot far better. It's that type of progressive work that makes His Girl Friday a very important film then and now.

+Grant is perfect.

+Witty.

+Phone conversations.

8.5/10.