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His Girl Friday (1940)
His Girl Friday (1940) is Howard Hawks' speedy and hysterically
funny, modern-style screwball comedy, and one of the best
examples of its kind in film history. Although it has an
92-minute running time, the breath-taking, fast-paced film has
more than enough dialogue for a 3-hour movie. The film marked
the beginning of a number of screwball comedies in the 1940s
that emphasized the conflict for women in deciding between
love/marriage and professional careers.
The original film version of His Girl Friday was director Lewis
Milestone's big hit The Front Page (1931), produced by Howard
Hughes and released by United Artists. [Milestone had won the
Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards for the previous
year's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).] This second
screen version's screenplay, again by Charles Lederer,
brilliantly transformed Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's
newspaper classic - the George S. Kaufman-directed 1928 Broadway
smash-hit play The Front Page, with a major script change.
One of the main male characters in the earlier film, Hildebrand
'Hildy' Johnson (played by Pat O'Brien), became female - renamed
Hildegard Johnson (played by Rosalind Russell), to star opposite
the major actor, Cary Grant. [Grant was the leading man from
Hawks' two previous films: the male-dominated action film Only
Angels Have Wings (1939), and the screwball comedy Bringing Up
Baby (1938), and had appeared in other romantic comedies at the
time (i.e., The Awful Truth (1937), The Philadelphia Story
(1940), and My Favorite Wife (1940)).] Other changes in the
script involved removing topical references to the 1920s, and
jokes about Prohibition.
The gender swap brought an entirely new angle to the film,
making it more than a satirical view and social commentary on
the operation of a newsroom under the management of a
hard-boiled, smart-alec managing editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant
in this version, Adolphe Menjou in the earlier film), and
providing an additional feminine-romance angle.
This madcap, giddy film - originally titled The Bigger They Are,
is best remembered for its overlapping dialogue and simultaneous
conversations, rapid-fire delivery, breakneck speed, word gags,
sexual innuendo, plot twists, "in" jokes, mugging, jousting,
sarcastic insults, frantic pace and farcical script. With its
plot about a ruthless editor, a marriage renewed by divorce and
the threat of re-marriage, a politically corrupt city, and a
questionable judicial system, the romantic comedy is both a love
story and a sophisticated battle of the sexes (and duel of
wits). But this screwball masterpiece lacked even a single
Academy Award nomination.
Cary Grant's un-nominated performance as the suave, calculating
and exploitative managing editor, who attempts to lure and
maneuver his ex-wife (and star reporter) back with the
opportunity to write a breaking, front page news-story, is a
tour de force of comedy - combining cartoonish faces,
silent-film pantomime, slapstick, witty word-play, and irony
into one remarkable characterization. Likewise, Rosalind
Russell's role as the ace news-reporter to her ex-husband and
ex-managing editor, who is wooed back from marrying a staid,
dull, but devoted insurance salesman named Bruce Baldwin (Ralph
Bellamy), is her greatest comedic portrayal, following her
similar role in The Women (1939). Film posters exclaimed how she
holds up as Grant's equal: "SHE LEARNED ABOUT MEN FROM HIM."
Director Billy Wilder attempted a remake with a third film
version: The Front Page (1974) with Jack Lemmon (as Hildy
Johnson) and Walter Matthau (as Walter Burns). It was again
remade (with the same gender twist, but newspapers were updated
to a TV news environment) as Switching Channels (1988) by
director Ted Kotcheff, with Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner in
the lead roles.
After the credits, the film begins with a prologue - typed and
superimposed over a page of newspaper:
It all happened in the "dark ages" of the newspaper game - -
when to a reporter "getting that story" justified anything short
of murder. Incidentally, you will see in this picture no
resemblance to the men and women of the press of today. Ready?
Well, once upon a time - -
In the film's opening scene, a long traveling shot tracks from
right to left within the newspaper offices of Chicago's Morning
Post to display the working world of journalism. It moves past
reporters typing, speaking on phones or writing at their desks.
One editor calls out to a "copyboy," as the scene dissolves to a
shot of female telephone operators at a switchboard in the outer
office. As the camera moves further to the left, it rests on the
elevators in the lobby.
Two individuals emerge from one of the elevators: Hildy Johnson
(Rosalind Russell), wearing a striped suit and matching hat, and
her overly-attentive fiancee Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).
After telling Bruce to remain in the front waiting room behind
the wooden railing and "NO ADMITTANCE" sign, Hildy is tracked
back to the right as she enters the offices and speaks to the
two switchboard operators:
Tell me. Is the Lord of the Universe in?
She notifies Bruce that she will "be back in ten minutes." He
thoughtfully responds in a slow drawl about the length of her
absence. Unaccustomed to being "spoiled," she curtails her fast
pace and asks for her affectionate fiancee to repeat himself:
Bruce: Even ten minutes is a long time to be away from you.
Hildy: (She pauses and walks backwards to him.) What did you
say?
Bruce: What?
Hildy: Go on. (He laughs sheepishly) Well, go ahead.
Bruce: Well, I just said, 'Even ten minutes is a long time to be
away from you.'
Hildy: I heard you the first time. I like it. That's why I asked
you to say it again.
Hildy turns and strides through the working offices from left to
right. The camera tracks her movement as she extends hellos, a
pat on the back, exchanges of information, and smiles to her
co-workers. She enters the inner office of her ex-boss (and
ex-husband), big-city newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary
Grant). In Walter's office are two of his buddies: gangster-type
Diamond Louie (Abner Biberman) and managing city editor Duffy
(Frank Orth). The latest news story, delivered by Duffy, is that
the governor has refused to sign a reprieve for the execution of
a mentally-disturbed murderer named Earl Williams (John Qualen).
Burns has an idea that he wants Duffy to send to the governor:
"Tell him if he'll reprieve Earl Williams, we'll support him for
senator. Tell him the Morning Post will be behind him hook,
line, and sinker."
After dismissing his buddies, Hildy remarks: "Walter, I see
you're still at it." Although he takes a seat for himself, she
must ask for the simplest common courtesy for herself: "Do you
mind if I sat down?" She plops herself on a desk and then asks
for one of his cigarettes ("Oh, may I have one of those?"). He
tosses her a cig
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