David Thomson, in his new book on movies, Sleeping With Strangers (you can read my review here), says he thinks the best movie ever made was His Girl Friday (1940). It had been decades since I last saw His Girl Friday so I ordered a copy and watched it again. Immediately, I was struck by the Star Power of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell the moment they appeared on the screen.
Cary Grant plays the editor of a newspaper. Rosalind Russell plays his best reporter and writer. Grant and Russell’s characters were married, but work got in the way so they divorced. Of course, there’s still volcanic chemistry between them. Now, Russell is engaged to be married to an insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy) and Grant is determined not to lose Russell again!
I enjoyed the clever dialogue and biting humor. Director Howard Hawks stressed the speed of the dialogue during filming. The movie is based on a play, The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Howard Hawks insisted that the male character from the play, Hildy Johnson, be a woman (played by Rosalind Russell) in the movie.
If you’re in the mood for a screwball comedy with some romantic comedy flashes, I highly recommend His Girl Friday. Are you a fan of Cary Grand and Rosalind Russell? GRADE: A
I’m a Grant fan but haven’t seen Russell in very much. I love this movie but wouldn’t call it the best movie of all time.
Steve, I’m with you on HIS GIRL FRIDAY not being the Best Movie of All Time. But, it’s very good!
Grant much more than Russell. I agree with Steve, hardly the best movie of all time. But you can see the influence even today in shows like WEST WING and GREY’S ANATOMY, where they deliberately have them talk that fast. Poor Ralph Bellamy usually ended up losing the girl in these movies.
Jeff, THE GILMORE GIRLS used that fast dialogue technique, too.
Love it as well but maybe he overrated it a bit. Still the dialog is amazing. For me, Russell is not a good match with Grant. She is too masculine; he is too soft.
Patti, you’re right about Russell and Grant in HIS GIRL FRIDAY. But Russell is strong enough to stand up to Grant’s schemes! They come off as equals by the end of the film.
Huh. I never would’ve pegged Russell in the film as masculine. Love their interplay…and both being medium-boiled is kind of the point..
Todd, Russell comes off as “one of the gang” in the PRESS ROOM. Her character was a guy in the play version.
Oh, I know. I mentioned to you earlier how I think the film an improvement on THE FRONT PAGE, which I like a lot…I think it was the first full-length play I reading its entirety when a kid. She still doesn’t strike me as mannish in the least. Tough and no-nonsense, mostly, yes.
Good as this is, I’d give the nod to “Bringing Up Baby” as the best of Hawks’ screwball comedies of that era. And Grant is my favorite movie star of the classic era, edging out Bogart, Stewart, and Hepburn by a hair. It certainly doesn’t hurt that my two favorite directors, Hawks and Hitchcock, made such great use of him. Russell is certainly terrific here, but I had to go to IMDB to see what else I’d seen her in, and only came up with “The Women”, “Mame”, and “Gypsy”.
Michael, like you I want to see more films with Rosalind Russell. I’ll have to watch BRINGING UP BABY, too. It’s been decades since I watched it!
Picnic.
Grant was in a bunch of my favorites. Besides the ones mentioned, there were NORTH BY NORTHWEST (an all-time favorite) and CHARADE (you can’t go wrong with that cast – Grant and Hepburn plus three Oscar winners, Walter Matthau, George Kennedy, and James Coburn) and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and HOLIDAY.
Jeff, like you I’m a fan of Cary Grant. I need to watch CHARADE again, too!
Someone once said that if Hawks had directed 12 ANGRY MEN it would have been about a half-hour long.
Dan, I read that Hawks used sound equipment to speed up the sound in his movies.
It was a fantastic film but certainly not the greatest, keeping in mind that I have no qualifications for declaring which is the greatest. After all, my favorite films are PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, followed closely by BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, so…
Jerry, I’m with you on “THE BEST.” I’d rather go with “MY FAVORITE” classification. I’m very fond of REAR WINDOW.
Wasn’t there a similar film with Tracy and Hepburn?
Rick, you might be thinking of WOMAN OF THE YEAR…or ADAM’S RIB.
Or even THE DESK SET.
There is no Greatest Piece of Art of All Time except for argument’s sake. That said, it is easy flow from the utterly series back to the well-regulated farce that makes HIS GIRL FRIDAY (despite that basically Wrong title) my favorite of the screwball comedies of its era. BRINGING UP BABY just seems kind of flaccid in comparison, while still good. The stakes are certainly lower, at all levels.
Todd, I agree with you on HIS GIRL FRIDAY (aka, THE FRONT PAGE). It’s one of my favorite screwball comedies, too!
“its” was mistyped/”corrected” into “it is” above, as in That said, its easy flow…
Wow..my typing…”from the utterly serious” rather than “series”…
Todd, sometimes SPELL CHECK can change all kinds of words!
Big fan of both Grant and Russell. Grant seems to be well known to this day, but I don’t know if Russell is. She is great in a movie called, “Roughly Speaking.” “The Front Page” is one of my all-time favorite plays. This movie of it is pretty good with a couple of great scenes, including the one with comic actor Billy Gilbert trying to deliver the governor’s order to the mayor played by Clarence Kolb. And BTW, for me the best movie ever made is a tie between “The Best Years of Our Lives,” and “Some Like It Hot” (with “Casablanca” right up there near them).
Elgin, CASABLANCA is almost in a category of its own. Love SOME LIKE IT HOT! It’s been decades since I’ve seen THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. I’ll order a copy!