Before His Girl Friday was released, Hollywood was struck with a serious intervention; Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. This was a PR firm that enforced good behavior among stars and confirmed that every Hollywood film that needed to be screened had to follow the Production Code of ethics and morals. This, believe it or not, benefit Hollywood because now there was an important urgency for creative writers. This gave birth to Screwball comedy. Screwball comedy involved sparring and witty dialogues. The main plot was the battle of the sexes and it supplanted real sex. These movies also increased the importance of women both as actors and citizens; this was because it portrayed women as smart and equal, and sometimes better, than men. His Girl Friday is one of these films. It is a classic example of Screwball comedy and a leader of its pack at that.
His Girl Friday was released in 1940 by director Howard Hanks. It stars Cary Grant as Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson and features Ralph Bellamy as Bruce Baldwin. The main plot of the film revolves around Walter and Hildy. Walter is Hildy’s Ex. They both work at a News Paper firm, but Hildy is moving on with her life after their divorce and now wants to move away with Bruce and get settled in Albany. Walter takes this as a challenge as he still has feelings for his ex-wife. What extent will he go to in order to stop her from leaving? Well, one must watch the film to find out.
Article
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).
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." [Ironically, Grant's other film in this same year, The Philadelphia Story (1940), had a similar plot about him trying to win back his ex-wife (Katharine Hepburn) from her very soon-to-be-wed fiancee.]
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, and a frosted-haired Christopher Reeve as the third individual in the love triangle, a New York millionaire.
Summary of the Article
In this article, we learn that Howard Hank’s His Girl Friday was actually the third attempt at making a film on the play entitled The Front Page. It goes on to call the film one of the best screwball comedies. The writer of the article praises Cary Grant’s master performance and finds it shocking that the film didn’t even receive a single nomination for an academy award. The article also mentions how the role of Hildy is actually originally a male character in the play, a great decision that increased the authenticity of the project. It later says that there have been numerous attempts to remake, not the film, but the play (some with the same name of the play and some with original titles). Most recently however, there was a live action play that featured a similar plot.
Relation of the Article to the Screening
The article mentions how Cary Grant tries to lure Hildy, his divorcee, to get back with him; which is practically the major plot of the film. Cary Grant, numerous times in the film, tries to make Hildy’s next interest or future husband look foolish so Hildy would realize that he is not fit for her. Also, he keeps reminding her that she has a gift of being a great journalist; which is something she cannot pursue if she marries this guy. Besides this, everything else in the article does not apply directly to the screening.
Critique of the Film
My opinion of this film is like many other critiques, a positive one. The film had amazing dialogues and like the article says, the performance of the actors was simply amazing. In fact, I could honestly say that such talent does not exist in today’s cinema. Also, the writing was brilliant; like the article says, it has over 3 hours worth of dialogues which the film manages to fit in 92 minutes, which is a soaring accomplishment considering it was done in a fantastic way. Also, I must mention that the idea of changing Hildy in to female character was a brilliant idea and worked perfectly. All in all, if I was asked to recommend a screwball comedy, I would have His Girl Friday on the tips of my tongue and I can agree with the professor for including this film in the curriculum because it is a move from the history that deserves attention and recognition.
