His Girl Friday
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Movie Reviews of His Girl Friday
Movie Review: A classic screwball comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie reminds us what movies used to be: fun.
Carey Grant is handsome and debonair (and all that stuff that drove women crazy) and downright evil sometimes in this movie. He is not above twisting arms (men or women's) to get what he wants and needs, but he does it with such charm that most people just follow him. This is a lesson in alpha-male behavior 101. I won't reveal the storyline or any spoilers (I am sure someone has already done that), but instead I ill say that the movie reeks of another era, which wasn't that long ago chronologically. The witty banter and seemingly endless conflict between the main characters drives the movie forward like a roller coaster that threatens to come off of the tracks at any moment.
This is Howard Hawks' brilliance. The director, the actors, even the lighting all work together seamlessly to create this film. The truest beauty of this film I believe was not the way that Hawks was able to entertain men and women equally in this truly romantic comedy (as compared to the trash that passes for "romantic crap (oops! I mean 'comedy')" today. It was the way this and other films laid down archetypes to aspire to. Cary Grant wasn't just a good looking guy with money - he was a good looking guy with money and a demonic bent and a razor-sharp tongue that he coated with just enough charm to make the poison work all the better. He had an iron will and was Hell bent on getting his way, and not looking like the bad guy in the process. His counterpart, "Hildy Johnson" was his intellectual equal and very sexy, and independent as well. Not the type of woman you would ever get tired of - or bored with.
With characters like this on screen, it became all to easy to imagine that people like that existed somewhere, and that you might get lucky enough to snag one. The characters in this film were not as flat and 2-dimensional as many of the films today, and that is why it stands up so well even though it is shot in black and white, and the actors are long deceased. This is truly a night's worth of great entertainment and a movie *worth* owning, not just viewing.
Movie Review: Excellent 30s Comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the finest examples of 1930s comedy, and an excellent adaptation of a story that has been told many times, *His Girl Friday* is Hollywood at its best. Perfectly pairing Grant and Russell with an excellent script by Charles Lederer, based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's 1931 play, *The Front Page*, it is the kind of studio magic that could occur when the powers-that-be assigned the best work to the best candidates. Grant, whom I found arrogant and repellant later in his career - not to mention redundant - is at his suave-and-smooth best here as Walter Burns, newspaper editor, with the perfect foil in Rosiland Russell. As Hildy Johnson, Burns' ex-wife, Russell plays was in the process of cutting her teeth developing characters like this. Hildy is the archetype that gave Russell her reputation as a fast-talking dame, with machine gun delivery, and a smart-mouthed answer for everything. Hildy is off to marry Bruce, played by Bellamy, but her ex, Walter, still needs her to be his star reporter and cover the execution of a convicted killer. Every early journalistic stereotype is in full force - from reporters who would stop at nothing to get their story, to the city editor with a visor and sleeve-garters. Gene Lockhart, Ernest Truex and Clarence Kolb are all in fine form, but even the finest supporting performances pale against Grant and Russell. They are both delightful in this stylish slapstick farce that had previously been filmed as *The Front Page* (and later, again as *The Front Page* in 1974, and as *Switching Channels*). It also spawned a slew of imitators, not the least of which was TV's *Moonlighting*. Screenwriter Lederer's scripts have a freshness even today - 1995 saw a remake of his script *Kiss Of Death* and 2001 brings us *Ocean's Eleven*, which Lederer wrote the script for in 1960.Movie Review: Fastest smartest dialogue there is. The screwballiest of the screwballs
Summary: 5 Stars
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 really does it cause it's in her blood, not because good old Cary is a dominating type. She's NOT his girl Friday; she's her own person. Dig the Abe Lincoln stovepipe hat--nice touch. Newspaper people are honest. Yep, of course they are.
You can't get dialogue more whip smart, faster, and witter than this. It's just not possible, thanks to Billy Wilder, co-writer. While stuff like My Favorite Brunette and Nothing Sacred may have their occasional guffaws, His Girl Friday is so fast and furious you don't have time to guffaw--just marvel and laugh constantly at the amazing display of language fireworks, and the two leads who pull these fireworks off absolutely flawlessly. NOBODY else could have been cast in these two lead roles, NOBODY. Grant and Russell are PERFECT.
One of the best American movies of the 40s and my vote for one of the best American comedies period.
Movie Review: One of my favorite old-time movies
Summary: 5 Stars
Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson (played by Rosalind Russell) is a hard-boiled reported for The Morning Post, but she is ready to hang it all up and marry Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), an insurance agent who is about as stable as a brick wall and almost as exciting. But, Hildy's editor, Walter Burns (Cary Grant) does not want to see her go, and he is not above using trickery to keep her. Burns arranges to have Baldwin arrested over and over again, but if there is one thing that will keep Hildy on the job it is the lure of the big scoop. And when a man on death-row escapes and bumps into Hildy the big scoop is hers for the taking.
Even though this movie was released in 1940, it still has an interesting story, and the badinage between Grant and Russell makes the entire movie come alive. This is one of my favorite old-time movies, and it is easy to see how it made it onto the American Film Institute's list of top 100 comedy movies, 100 Years... 100 Laughs. If you like great badinage, then this movie is for you. I give it my highest recommendations!
Movie Review: Get The Girl
Summary: 5 Stars
1940's His Girl Friday is a fast-paced comedy from director Howard Hawks that is has brilliant pacing and performances from Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell. The film is based on the play, The Front Page and had been previously made into a film and those versions concern the professional relationship of two men, Walter Burns & Hildy Johnson. In this version they changed the gender of Hildy to a female and the professional tension of the original is replaced by sexual tension. Though it seems tame today, the erotic electricity & innuendo between Mr. Grant & Ms. Russell was quite groundbreaking for the time. The screenplay has been one of the most influential in film history, with Quentin Tarantino citing it as an inspiration for his script's pacing.