His Girl Friday (1940)
Average Rating: 8.9/10
Reviews Counted: 40
Fresh: 39 | Rotten: 1
Anchored by stellar performances from Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, His Girl Friday is a classic screwball romantic comedy.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0
Anchored by stellar performances from Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, His Girl Friday is a classic screwball romantic comedy.
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 23,213
Movie Info
The second screen version of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, His Girl Friday changed hard-driving newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson from a man to a woman, transforming the story into a scintillating battle of the sexes. Rosalind Russell plays Hildy, about to foresake journalism for marriage to cloddish Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, Hildy's editor and ex-husband, who feigns happiness about her impending marriage as a ploy to win her back. The
Jan 18, 1940 Wide
Dec 28, 2004
Columbia Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
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Cary Grant
Walter Burns -
Rosalind Russell
Hildy Johnson -
Ralph Bellamy
Bruce Baldwin -
Gene Lockhart
Sheriff Hartwell -
Helen Mack
Mollie Malloy -
Porter Hall
Murphy -
John Qualen
Earl Williams -
Ernest Truex
Roy Bensinger -
Clarence Kolb
Mayor -
Cliff Edwards
Endicott -
Roscoe Karns
McCue -
Frank Jenks
Wilson -
Regis Toomey
Sanders -
Abner Biberman
Diamond Louie -
Frank Orth
Duffy -
Alma Kruger
Mrs. Baldwin -
Billy Gilbert
Joe Pettibone -
Pat West
Warden Cooley -
Edwin Maxwell
Dr. Egelhoffer -
Irving Bacon
Gus -
Wade Boteler
Jail Guard -
Edmund Cobb
Cop -
Ralph Dunn
Guard -
Earl Dwire
Mr. Davis -
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All Critics (40) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (1) | DVD (20)
One is tempted to throw away any semblance of persuasion and simply demand that you go see this movie.
Top CriticThe movie bears reviewing because there's always something new in the confetti of one-liners, while its depiction of the Fourth Estate remains relevant.
Cary Grant's performance is truly virtuoso -- stunning technique applied to the most challenging material.
Casting is excellent, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in the top roles.
Perhaps the funniest, certainly the fastest talkie comedy ever made.
It takes you by the scruff of the neck in the first reel and it shakes you madly, bellowing hoarsely the. while, for the remaining six or seven. Before it's over you don't know whether you have been laughing or having your ears boxed.
It's a miraculous balancing act from Hawks, who keeps death-row drama bleeding under the movie's screwball skin to give this frantic battle of the sexes a fiendishly dark sophistication.
Clever, witty and extremely satisfying, this marvellous film is still achingly funny today.
Sassy, screwball classic with a feminist twist.
Have the movies ever talked this quickly, before or since?
The ultimate lesson of His Girl Friday--that it's tougher to manage a marriage than a newspaper--looks in 2008 like pure nostalgia.
As close to perfection as you could possibly hope for, His Girl Friday is a delirious joy.
It's exactly the type of craziness that good newspapers thrive on. Stop the presses.
One of the best screwball comedies, a remake that improves on the source material due to Hawks brilliant idea of changing the protag's gender thus turning it into a romantic "newspaper" film; Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, and Ralph Bellamy at their best
O ritmo fren�tico com que os excelentes di�logos s�o trocados (algo inovador para a �poca) e o timing c�mico impec�vel de Grant e Russell garantem a perman�ncia deste filme na lista de cl�ssicos inquestion�veis.
A double espresso is needed to keep up with the rapid-fire exchanges of Hawks' no-holds-barred muckraking comedy.
I've tried to love His Girl Friday, really I have.
It's the energy of "His Girl Friday" that grabs you, its heated lines of dialogue that leave you satisfied and spent.
They really don't make them like this anymore.
Cary Grant as the ruthless fast-talking sharpie newspaper editor gives one of his finest performances.
brilliant
Audience Reviews for His Girl Friday
Super Reviewer
Full Review: http://wp.me/p1Urcx-y8
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Walter Burns: There's been a light burning in the window for you!
- Hildy Johnson: I jumped out that window a long time ago, Walter.
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- Walter Burns: Take Hitler and stick him on the funny page.
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Foreign Titles
- Sein M�dchen f�r besondere F�lle (DE)
- His Girl Friday (1940) (CA)
Or maybe I'm just not a massive fan of screwball comedies? Who knows?
I did like this though, but I don't think it's a full on masterpiece or anything.
Directed by the diverse Howard Hawks, this is a rapid-fire comedy about a feisty newspaper reporter who wants to leave her job to get married. Her boss, and ex-lover however, wants her back, and, to do so, he baits her with a news story she just can't resist.
And plot wise, that's pretty much it. In the original play, the lady was a man, so, by changing the gender, the film adds elements of sexual tension, gender politics, and that kind of subtext, which, yeah, I'll give it a lot of credit for that, especially since this film is 73 years old.
I think that's the key thing here. This was a seminal film, but it's not quite as groundbreaking as it once was. It doesn't have the edge it used to, but I can still admire it for it being so potent at one time.
What really holds up though is the rapid fire dialogue. Now I really know where the Coens got their inspiration for fast talking characters, and where Altman was perhaps inspired in the overlapping dialogue department. And The Social Network. That one had some lightning quick lines, but this one might be the king of all that.
And it is really good writing, too. This is a pretty witty and funny film, but modern audiences unfortunately may not get super into it if they're used to blue humor. It's quite clean here, though there is that undercurrent of sexual tension and subtlety.
The broad basic plot is kinda ho hum (I thought), but still enjoyable, if only for the sharp characters, and the even sharper performances. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell are great here, and they seem to have a blast going toe to toe with one another.
Besides the snappy dialogue, the film is also known for it's editing, and yeah, it's some pretty snazzy, influential stuff. The film is well shot, and put together in an even better fashion.
So, bottom line: it's a classic, sure, but an overrated one. I dug it, but can say that I would have loved this even more if I was a bigger fan of this kind of thing, and especially had I seen this maybe a few years ago.