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.

I Grant you exhausting fun

At the end of the silent film era vocal coaches taught actors to say their lines clearly and without interupting others. HIS GIRL FRIDAY broke new ground. If dialog in early movies can be compared to a badminton game (one hit at a time), HIS GIRL FRIDAY conversations are like a hockey game (everyone swinging at the puck). Quick witty overlapping dialog delivers successive punch lines for a stream of jokes. The Cary Grant biography is a worthwhile added bonus.

Movie quote: "You come back to work on the paper. If we find we can't get along in a friendly fashion, we'll get married again."

So So

His Girl Friday is an OK movie about newspaper reporters in the early part of the 20th century. I think it was supposed to be funny, and it may have been at the time, but most of the dialog was lost on me.

Thank God It's "Friday"!

I don't know if Howard Hawk's "His Girl Friday" is the greatest dialogue comedy of all-time, but it's certainly in the top five. I can only think of one other comedy where the dialogue is as fast paced as this movie, and that's "Duck Soup". But it took four Marx brothers to match what Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell do in this picture.

For those who don't know "His Girl Friday" is a remake of the stage play "The Front Page" written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur only in this version a battle of the sexes element is added, as the star report (played by Russell) is a woman, turning this into one of the great screwball comedies.

Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, an editor at a newspaper who has absolutely no ethics, we won't go into if anything has changed now. When Walter finds out his star report and may I add ex-wife "Hildy" Johnson (Russell) is going to leave the paper in order to get married to Bruce Baldwin (played by an actor who looks surprisingly like Ralph Bellamy, as Cary Grant tells us in the movie). Well, Walter simply won't hear of this. How can he just sit by and watch his ace reporter leave. Plus we suspect perhaps deep down they still love each other. But "love" really doesn't matter. Walter will say or do anything just as long as "Hildy" doesn't leave.

Now while all of this is going on a major story is about to break out as an execution is going to take place in a murder case. Walter's paper has been defended the man claiming he's criminally insane. So Walter wants "Hildy" to go and interview the prisoner to prove his innocence.

In the newsroom though is where most of the fun takes place. Some of the reports include Cliff Edwards (probably best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in "Pinocchio" and star of a couple of Buster Keaton comedies such as "Bedroom, Parlor, and Bath" and "Doughboys") and Roscoe Kerns ("It Happened One Night" and Hawk's "Twentieth Century")

Hawks wasn't primarily a comedy director, he did direct some John Wayne westerns and gangster pictures (the original "Scarface"). But some of his best work can be found in his comedies. He and Grant worked together on "Bringing Up Baby" two years earlier and "I Was A Male War Bride" nine years later.

"His Girl Friday" is a classic example of great screwball comedy. The witty banther between Grant and Russell is priceless and worth the price of a DVD alone. You will never see a comedy as fast as this one.

Also worth mentioning is a delightful cameo by Billy Gilbert. His brief work is scene-stealing good!

Bottom-line: One of the fastest dialogue comedies of all-time. One of Hawks' and Grant's best works together. This is a classic example of great screwball comedy. They don't make 'em like this anymore!