His Girl Friday . Austin Chronicle . 07-27-98

His Girl Friday

DIRECTED BY: Howard Hawks

REVIEWED: 07-27-98

A virtual recruiting film for journalism programs everywhere, comedies just don't come any better than His Girl Friday, and neither do the sort of pedigrees this film wears like a Harvard MBA. Adapted from The Front Page, Ben Hecht's and Charles Lederer's quick-witted play, His Girl Friday crackles with the same type of energy and action director Howard Hawks was known for in his big, bold dramas, only instead of bullets flying, it's one-liners zipping and pinging past your head. The banter between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in this story about an editor who sabotages his best reporter's (and ex-wife) plans for domestic bliss with Bellamy slashes back and forth like dueling rapiers. Reading lips? Forget about it. The dialogue races like bad news on CNN, and the chemistry between Grant and Russell (hubba hubba) bubbles furiously. In fact, all three leads seem to tower over the rest of the cast - scurrying newsmen of old, reporters with "Press" stuck in their hats and old manual typewriters - their larger-than-life presence all but becoming the eye of the storm, which the politically satiric plot swirls around. And the really funny thing about His Girl Friday? It's exactly the type of craziness that good newspapers thrive on. Stop the presses.

--Raoul Hernandez

Other Films by Howard Hawks
Twentieth Century

Film Vault Suggested Links
The Impostors
Tommy Boy
Wrongfully Accused

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