Review of His Girl Friday (1940) by Kay T — 30 Jul 2010

My absolute favourite. I saw it about five times now, and each time I discover something new, something I didn't quite catch before due to its spitfire pace.

The dynamic of the dialogue creates a highly energetic enviroment in which our hero and his heroine reign brilliantly. Cary Grant is the absolute star of the show, with Rosalind Russell matching him quip-for-quip. Grant delivers every line with unapologetic, brazen sharpness, but also with irrefutable charm that will endear you to Walter Burns, a complete scoundrel of a newspaperman who gets away with everything short of murder to deliver his stories.

Russell's Hildy Johnson, a brilliant newspaperwoman who has ?had enough of the newspaper game?, is Burns' newly engaged ex-wife. Her fiance is a soft spoken insurance seller Bruce Baldwin, brilliantly played by Ralph Bellamy. As Burns gets to know Hildy's new beau over lunch (and a bunch of well-aimed quips courtesy of his unimpressed ex), you get a wonderful sense of foreboding that has you waiting for his next scheme and Hildy's quick retaliation. Burns uses every trick up his sleave to keep Hildy from settling down and leaving him forever. It will take saving a mad man from gallows, sending Baldwin to jail once or twice and unmasking corrupted city officials, but their inevitable reconciliation concludes the film and banishes from Hildy's mind any ludicrous thoughts of a dependable spouse and a secure home.

No one makes them like this anymore. What million-dollars worth of special effects does today, mere dialogue could do in 1940. Because really, you would do the film more justice to label it an action film than a romantic comedy. I wish everybody would take the time to see this film. Comedy at its wittiest.