His Girl Friday

Screwball comedy is a term many people today think they understand if they are film savvy. But few would be able to give you an example of a movie responsible for this term being coined. Fewer still would name this movie. Much of this movie's deserving praise today go to the equally wonderful "Bringing Up Baby", and that's a shame, because this movie is truly sublime entertainment. Everything about this movie is great: Cary Grant at the top of his game, Rosalind Russell's best performance bar none (forget "Auntie Mame"!), Ralph Bellamy as the ideal patsy, a razor sharp script credited to Charles Lederer, but heavily influenced by the Ben Hecht, Charlest MacArthur play "The Front Page", and rat-a-tat-tat direction and pacing by Howard Hawks. This movie is the rare combination of script and talent (both behind the camera and in front of it). While on paper it might not seem that funny, considering the key plot point is the imminent hanging of a condemned murderer, the film plays so fast and loose, and so audaciously (especially for its time) milks humor out of extremely dark and unconventional places, that by the time this whirlwind ends, to consider it anything less than a comedic masterpiece would be doing it a gross injustice.

The fairly convoluted plot can be described in two ways: Newspaper editor Walter Hill (Cary Grant) will do anything......ANYTHING, in his power to keep Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) his ex-star reporter and ex-wife from leaving town with her new , the clueless schlub Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Walter has two motives, and the order of those is rarely in doubt: he needs Hildy on hand to cover the hanging of Earl Williams, and he kind of, maybe still loves her. The plot thickens when an increasingly large cast of characters get involved in Walter's attempts to 1) get an exclusive on the Earl Williams case and 2) win Hildy back. They include: Bruce's domineering mother, Louis, Walter's hoodlum associate, Molly Malloy, the moll who pities Earl Williams, the mayor, the city sheriff, and Joe Pettibone, the bumbling messanger who carries with him the important reprieve from the governor. All of these characters, plus a newsroom full of cynical reporters, converge in the bravura final third of the movie, which takes place in one room, with a rotating cast of characters, usually involving Walter, Hildy, Earl hidden in a desk, and others. There is so much rich dialogue here, so many jokes and one liners and asides that, in the words of Howard Hawks are delivered, deliberately in a "machine gun" style, that this movie demands two viewings, because so many of the little gems that comprise this movie are missed the first time. It takes a second go round to catch stuff like Walter saying he ran Archie Leach, the last man who tried to cross him, out of town (that being Grant's real name), or even the bemused grin on Cary Grant's face, early on in the movie when its clear Rosalind Russell ad libbed one of her lines.

Howard Hawks and Cary Grant were two chameleons in Old Hollywood. Both were known for making a large variety of films, dabbling in different genres and consistently challenging themselves and their audiences by keeping their choices fresh and new, an innovation which at the time was pretty rare. Hawks and Michael Curtiz, another director who bounced from genre to genre, seemingly never became satisfied doing one "type", like John Ford with westerns or George Cukor with drawing room comedies. While both had their bread and butter, Hawks' being this, the screwball comedy, and Curtiz the period actioner, they set the mold for later studio types like Steven Spielberg, who would gain acclaim by making smart, bold, and different choices every time they stepped behind the camera. Cary Grant too, had his bread and butter, usually playing the conniving, fast talking, debonair role he does here, (which actually makes his role as the befuddled professor in "Bringing Up Baby" so appealing), but he too challenged himself, playing darker roles, like the dastardly husband in "Suspicion" and straight drama, like "Three Penny Opera". But if you wish to see two masters, Howard Hawks and Cary Grant, execute their bread and butter to perfection, look no further.