NFR Project: 'His Girl Friday' (1940)

 

NFR Project: ‘His Girl Friday’

Dir: Howard Hawks

Scr: Charles Lederer

Pho: Joseph Walker

Ed: Gene Havlick

Premiere: Jan. 18, 1940

92 min.

His Girl Friday has a lot going for it. It is grounded in the playscript for Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’scomedy The Front Page, which premiered in 1928 and was first adapted for film in 1931. It’s made by the master craftsman, director Howard Hawks. It’s shot with economy and energy, with the sensation of watching the shooting a live play. And its main characters are played by comedy experts Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. They are surrounded by a bevy of great character actors.

It seems that Hawks wanted to remake The Front Page, which had proved so successful. The story of a corrosive friendship between manipulative editor Watler Burns and cheeky, rebellious reporter Hildy Johnson, it was a huge success. In readthroughs for the new adaptation Hawks asked one of his female employees to read Hildy’s lines – and decided he liked the switch from male to female.

He soon got a small succession of writers to turn a withering satire of corruption into a battle of the sexes. The film still takes place in the frenzied, fast-paced setting of daily journalism. Hildy (Russell) was now Walter’s (Grant) ex, and she has quit his newspaper and is off to get married to quiet, loving Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Seeking to thwart their impending marriage, Walter resorts to crazier and crazier ploys to keep Hildy on the trail of the hot Earl Williams (John Qualen) execution story.

Williams escapes. Hildy hides him in a roll-top desk in the courthouse’s press room. Burns struggles to get the story and get Hildy back at the same time. The pace is frenetic throughout, with people talking over each other – very unlike the Hollywood style of dialogue. Hawks encouraged the speed of delivery and manipulated the studio microphones to cover the action, resulting in an intrivate sound plot.

The basic premise of most screwball comedies is the eventual get-together of a man snd a woman who completely misunderstand each other at the beginning. The woman is usually the catalyst of the change.With movies such as It Happened One Night, 20^th Century, Bringing Up Baby, and all of Preston Sturges’s work, from 1933 to 1942, this short-lived genre captivated audiences.

However, in The Front Page, it is Hildy who changes – back to her old self. Walter, at best an indifferent husband when his mind is set on business, merely reiterates the love of the chase the two of them share, and convinces Hildy to dump Bruce and get married to him – again. A rather facile ending, and the last we see of Hildy she is trailing Walter, lugging a suitcase. There is likely to be no more consideration for her than in the past, and she’s fine with that.

There is a slew of great character actors here, too, including Gene Lockhart, Cliff “Ukulele” Ike Edwards, Roscoe Karns; Abner Biberman, and Billy Gilbert. The movie is a fast-paced pleasure, and deserves the high esteem in which it is held.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Knute Rockne, All American.