HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy

Director: Howard Hawks

Cast: Rosalind Russell / Cary Grant / Ralph Bellamy

Plot

After months abroad, star reporter Hildy Johnson returns to the Morning Post office and editor Walter Burns, who also happens to be her ex-husband, to announce her engagement and intent to live as a suburban housewife.  Walter subsequently uses all of his considerable connections and guile to lure Johnson back into the newspaper game.

What I Liked

“His Girl Friday” is a mainstream screwball comedy with a subversive tinge that adds to its continued appeal.  Typewriter-like rat-a-tat-tat banter between tough-talking urbanites of the opposing sexes is, above all else, the trademark of screwball comedy and there is perhaps more of that here than in any other example of the subgenre that I’ve ever seen.  Reporters Johnson (Rosalind Russell) and Burns (Cary Grant), along with the rest of their hard-boiled ilk, fire off one liners as fast as is humanly possible.  However, if one is able to concentrate hard enough to get beyond the tough talking dialogue, one finds comedy of a different kind: satire. 

The filmmakers did a decent job of constructing a not-so-thinly veiled send-up of the rampant political corruption in local New York politics, with virtually every civic authority presented as a combination of bumbling, pompous, and crooked in varying degrees, depending on the character.  Reference to political figures and problems of the era from the local (ward politicians) to the international (Hitler) are peppered through the dialogue and are strongly present in the sub-plot of a condemned man about to hang in order to serve the aspirations of a political machine as election day draws near.

There is also a much subtler twinge of sexual politics in the film.  “His Girl Friday” has been referred to by some as a feminist film; this exaggerates the case a bit.  Hildy Johnson, despite being a career woman, has clearly never been more than the titular “Girl Friday” to her boss, who also happens to have been her husband until recently.  Though she does spends much of the film operating on her own, in her life overall she seems unable to function without a man guiding her ambitions.  Still, compared to most female film characters of the day, Hildy is certainly a progressive woman.  Temporarily lured by the social pressure to conform to society’s dictation that she must be a married mother serving a dull husband in a safe career, she eventually realizes this is not who she is, nor who she wants to be, and returns to her true passion, being a “newspaper man.”  There are also a few jokes referring to the liberal-minded woman enjoying pre-marital romps with men.  They're uttered so quickly that they pass almost without notice.  But if you pay attention they're there.

What I Didn’t Like

Despite these leanings to social commentary, all in all “His Girl Friday” is a disappointingly typical comedy for its period.  There is nothing original nor dazzlingly entertaining here.  The plot and dialogue trudge out many of the same old comedy-of-the-sexes clichés we’re used to from other films of the era and does very little new with those dynamics.  Many have praised Russell and Grant for their performances but honestly, while a certain comradery did come across, I felt no sexual tension between the pair and really felt like both just phoned in their performances.  They memorized their lines and shouted them out over each other as fast as they could.  Grant makes a few funny faces, Russell rolls her eyes.  That’s about the extent of it.

Most Memorable Scene

The best scene of the film had neither the film’s leading man or leading lady in it at all.  It actually opens with the Sheriff and Mayor plotting their next move with an impending scandal about to hit just before the election.  Veteran character actor Billy Gilbert enters through a door steals the scene while playing a dim-witted runner for the Governor.  The efforts of the Mayor to subsequently corrupt the unwitting Gilbert’s character, Mr. Pettibone, into betraying the Governor and aiding the local political machine are hilariously futile as Pettibone is simply too oblivious to be anything but honest.  The satire is poignant, the absurdity hilarious, and Gilbert gets the more laughs than everyone else in the film combined.

My Rating: 3.5 out 5