His Girl Friday (1940) - Video On Demand

His Girl Friday - Movie Review

His Girl Friday is a 1940 hilarious screwball romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation.

Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, a hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post of Chicago, and Rosalind Russell co-stars as his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson. She wants to marry Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and settle down to a quiet life as a wife and mother in Albany, but Burns has other ideas. Burns entices the reluctant Johnson to cover one last story: they conspire to use an interview with a convicted murderer on the eve of his hanging to confound the legitimacy of his case and expose the politicians who are using his execution for their own good. It is apparent that their relationship was solidly based on a shared conspiritorial spirit. When convicted murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen) escapes from the bumbling sheriff (Gene Lockhart), the fun really begins. Johnson finds herself hooked back in to the faced-paced life of journalism.

Walter does everything he can along the way to keep Hildy from leaving, including getting Bruce arrested three times: once for pickpocketing a thief, once for manhandling a tramp, and finally for passing counterfeit money. The thief, the tramp and the counterfeit money all belonged to Walter. (In the truest "Man Friday" sense.) He even kidnaps Hildy's stern mother-in-law-to-be. When escapee Williams practically falls into Hildy's lap, the lure of a big scoop proves to be too much for her. She is so consumed with writing the story that she hardly notices as Bruce realizes it is hopeless and leaves.

Walter manipulates and lies to the end. But in that end, it is clear that these two cannot resist their co-conspiritor lives together. Walter offers to remarry Hildy, promising to take her on the the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls (they didn't have one the first time because of newspaper business). But then the phone rings; it seems there's a newsworthy strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls by train...

The dialogue is fast and witty. Cary Grant has fun with dropping the names of the real actors. His character Walter tells a partner in crime that Bruce looks a lot like the actor, Ralph Bellamy. Later, Walter threatens that the last person who crossed him was Archie Leach (Grant's real name).

The film was 19 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

His Girl Friday - Cast & Crew

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