His Girl Friday (1940)

I was promised a girl named Friday. There is no girl named Friday. I felt lied to, but I forgive them.

His Girl Friday is Howard Hawks’ rapid-fire adaptation of the 1928 play The Front Page, with one brilliant change: the star reporter character was rewritten as a woman, transforming a buddy comedy into a screwball rom-com. Rosalind Russell reportedly hired her own writer to punch up her lines because she felt the script favored Cary Grant. It shows - she’s electric, matching him word for word. The film was considered a flop on release and has since been reappraised as one of the greatest comedies ever made. The dialogue reportedly clocks at around 240 words per minute, nearly twice the speed of normal conversation. Hawks intentionally overlapped the actors’ lines, creating a rhythm that feels almost musical.

I expected a run-of-the-mill 40s rom-com. I was absolutely not prepared for how funny this is. How modern the politics are. How progressive the characters feel. Hildy Johnson is a career woman who’s great at her job and knows it. The film never asks her to apologize for her ambition.

This plays like an action movie where the action is dialogue. Everyone is fast, everyone is hot as hell, and the journalism plot is an absolute joy - like 12 Angry Men crashed into a screwball comedy and this is what was gloriously birthed. The newsroom scenes are especially fun. Every reporter in that press room is grimy, loud, and disgusting in the best way. They’re all terrible people and I loved watching them.

Damn, this movie was funny.

Also on Letterboxd