Review of His Girl Friday (1940) by Sanity Assassin ! — 07 Jun 2010

Based upon the 1928 play The Front Page, written by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, which was made into a film in 1931. This take on it has the main character of Hildy Johnson was changed from male to female, and it works too.

The dialogue is fast and funny, and it takes a while to keep up with the film, but it makes for a good story. Set in one day, it has newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) learning that his ex-wife and ace reporter Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) the following day.

But Walter convinces Hildy to do one last scoop, and that's to cover the execution of murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen). Walter still has feelings for Hildy, and will do anything to stop her from leaving for a new life, and then Earl Williams escapes and finds himself holed up in the newspaper office, with the police surrounding him, and Walter and Hildy have to go to great lengths to hide him.

There's some brilliant moments in this, and the dialogue is brilliant, they don't make films as sharp and to the point as this anymore. Grant and Russell spark of each other, and Howard Hawks' direction is tight and fast, and very, very fast too.