The 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur has been adapted for the screen four times but its second film version, 1940’s His Girl Friday, is certainly the most consequential. That’s because director Howard Hawks had the inspired idea to change one of the central characters, Hildy Johnson, into a woman, completely changing the story’s dynamic. Instead of simply a story of a weary reporter trying to turn over a new leaf, we get that plus all sorts of mid-century gender dynamics! It’s a good time now hurry up and get in here.
Rosalind Russell stars as Hildy Johnson, the best reporter at a paper run by Walter Burns (Cary Grant), a sleazy, hard-boiled editor. Hildy used to be married to Walter, and on this very day she’s come to the office to give him quite the scoops: she’s retiring from the paper to get married to an insurance salesman named Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and move to Albany. Tomorrow. Walter playfully snipes with Hildy but when he realizes he’s against the clock, he gets to work.
Walter clowns hard on Bruce when the three go for an impromptu lunch, but does offer to buy a sizable life insurance policy, and thus deliver the newlyweds a huge commission. His condition: Hildy has to go cover the execution of Earl Williams (John Qualen), a man Walter believes should be spared for insanity and is instead being sacrificed to win over voters. Hildly agrees and immediately shows us she’s got the goods, while Walter continues scheming and sends goons to ruin poor Bruce’s day. When a jailbreak occurs, everything is thrown into chaos.
His Girl Friday is an extremely fast-paced comedy, especially when you consider that its still relatively early on the history of movies even having sound. Hildy and Walter trade barbs like they need to pass some words per minute minimum and its a joy. The movie was even advertised as “The fastest comedy in years” which I can’t imagine would get many people to the cinema today. I wish I could list some of my favorite quotes here but they all flew by so quickly I didn’t have time to take notes.
My only problem was the ending, which was a little too Phantom Thread for me. Some people love it when two nasty little gremlins realize they can match each other’s freak, but I feel bad about how doomed things definitely were for those lovebirds. And all the side characters got it really rough too! But I can’t say enough nice things about Rosalind Russell, who I’d never seen in a movie before. She just owns this role and even makes Cary Grant look… we’ll I don’t want to say unimpressive but she could do better. We can all do better!