Review of His Girl Friday (1940) by Carl M — 04 Apr 2008

I was rather disappointed by Hawks' His Girl Friday. I pressed 'play' with rather high expectations, and although it turned out to be a well executed Screwball comedy I still felt short changed in the end.

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel play some great roles as two fiery news reporters, and the premise is good, but the seriousness of the backdrop doesn't lend a hand to the comedy. It feels like the film can't make up it's mind if it should take an innocent mans' death sentence seriously, or with a sense of black humor.

Instead it meanders back and forth, and the characters do little to carry the entire emotional spectrum which might have been called for. The film also does a bad job in instilling sympathy for the innocent man, which becomes a problem when he is such an integral part of the story.

In the end you have to look at the film as a screwball comedy, and little more. The high speed delivery of lines between characters emulate the old black and white news reels of old, and also makes the conversations more lively and funny.