Amazon.com essential video: The Front Page, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's classic 1928 newspaper play, has had three official film versions and contributed structural DNA to half the movies ever made about professional camaraderie and fierce love-hate friendships. Lewis Milestone's 1931 movie is well respected (Billy Wilder's 1974 version isn't), but this is one case where the remake towers brilliantined head and blocked shoulders above the original.
Howard Hawks had the inspired notion of making Hildy Johnson--the ace newsman whom demonic editor Walter Burns is trying to keep from quitting and getting married--a she instead of a he. What's more, she's not only Walter's star reporter but also his ex-wife. When Hildy (Rosalind Russell) comes to tell Walter (Cary Grant) she's leaving the newspaper business, he bamboozles her into carrying out one last assignment--a death-row interview with a little nebbish (John Qualen) convicted of killing a policeman. It sounds like a snap, but before you can say screwball comedy, the press room of the Criminal Courts Building has become ground zero for all the lunacy a jailbreak, a shooting, an impromptu suicide, a corrupt city administration, and the most Machiavellian "hero" in the American cinema can supply.
His Girl Friday is one of the, oh, five greatest dialogue comedies ever made; Hawks had his cast play it at breakneck speed, and audiences hyperventilate trying to finish with one laugh so they can do justice to the four that have accumulated in the meantime. Russell, not Hawks's first choice to play Hildy, is triumphant in the part, holding her own as "one of the guys" and creating an enduring feminist icon. Grant is a force of nature, giving a performance of such concentrated frenzy and diamond brilliance that you owe it to yourself to devote at least one viewing of the movie to watching him alone. But then you have to go back (lucky you) and watch it again for the sake of the press-room gang--Roscoe Karns, Porter Hall, Cliff Edwards, Regis Toomey, Frank Jenks, and others--the kind of ensemble work that gets character actors onto Parnassus. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - His Girl Friday
Carey Grant and Rosselyn Ruselle are perfection in this movie!! They embody the strife of the women's movement clashing with the men!
Rating: - Fastest smartest dialogue there is. The screwballiest of the screwballs
Get a load of the title--pure irony. I mean, yeah, OK, Cary Grant DOES manage to get Rosalind Russell to revert back to her old newspaper ways, in spite of her initial adamant refusal to do so...but she ... Read More
Rating: - His Girl Friday
ESSENTIAL MOVIE!!! Cary Grant was a comedic genius with near impeccable timing. Rosalind Russell was perfect counterpoint. The repartee between the two is fast, furious & witty. The director Howard Hawks ... Read More
Rating: - "I often wish you weren't such a stinker!"
Cary Grant is such a great comedic actor! He doesn't even need to say anything - those facial expressions! Hilarious!
Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is the editor of the Morning newspaper and boss of his ex ... Read More
Rating: - Okay Movie, Poor DVD Transfer!
Unlike your earlier screwball comedy movies, this one has a little dark edge to it as it covers issues such as the death penalty for innocent people and police and government corruption. For its time, it was ... Read More
- His Girl Friday
- Fastest smartest dialogue there is. The screwballiest of the screwballs
- Okay Movie, Poor DVD Transfer!