His Girl Friday (1940) 8.0
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying. Director:Howard Hawks |
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His Girl Friday (1940) 8.0
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying. Director:Howard Hawks |
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| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Cary Grant | ... | ||
| Rosalind Russell | ... | ||
| Ralph Bellamy | ... | ||
| Gene Lockhart | ... |
Sheriff Peter B. Hartwell
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Porter Hall | ... |
Murphy
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Ernest Truex | ... |
Roy B. Bensinger
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| Cliff Edwards | ... | ||
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Clarence Kolb | ... |
Fred - Mayor
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| Roscoe Karns | ... | ||
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Frank Jenks | ... |
Wilson
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| Regis Toomey | ... |
Sanders
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Abner Biberman | ... |
Louie
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Frank Orth | ... |
Duffy
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| John Qualen | ... | ||
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Helen Mack | ... | |
Walter Burns, editor of a major Chicago newspaper, is about to lose his ace reporter and former wife, Hildy Johnson, to insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin, but not without a fight! The crafty editor uses every trick in his fedora to get Hildy to write one last big story, about murderer Earl Williams and the inept Sheriff Hartwell. The comedy snowballs as William's friend, Molly Malloy, the crooked Mayor, and Bruce's mother all get tied up in Walter's web. Written by Steve Fenwick <scf@w0x0f.com>
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell make great sparring partners in "His Girl Friday," a remake of "The Front Page." Grant plays the conniving newspaper publisher Walter Johnson, and Rosalind Russell is the reporter Hildy Johnson, a woman this time, and Johnson's ex-wife. She's trying to get remarried, move to Albany, and quit the newspaper business, but Walter can't bear it. He cons her into helping out with a controversial death row case and then makes sure her fiancée (Ralph Bellamy) suffers a series of mishaps - arrest for stealing a watch, arrest for "mashing," arrest for counterfeiting, and the theft of his wallet. This all happens while Hildy interviews Earl Williams, a man due to be hung the next day... and then hides him in a roll-top desk in the courthouse press room when he escapes during a psychiatric evaluation.
It's madcap, all right, and there are no two better people to carry it off than Grant and Russell, who make a great team. It's a hilarious story, with the most rapid-fire, non-stop dialog ever heard anywhere, often with several conversations going on at once. It's exhausting trying to keep up with it.
Strangely, without computers and cell phones, the story of journalists working on a story holds up because the emotions and activities are realistic and still go on. It's as Hildy describes - no set schedule, no normal meals, and long hours. Nothing much has changed.
This is a frenetic comedy, and while the impending hanging of Earl Williams is certainly serious, this plot is more of an excuse to observe the machinations of Hildy and Walter - it's a subplot, though it drives the main story.
"The Front Page" is a favorite of Hollywood's, remade many times - three versions under its original title, a TV series, two TV productions, plus the film "Switching Channels." And of course, "His Girl Friday," possibly the best of all of them.