His Girl Friday (1940)'s comments

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Jeckit

"Take Hitler and put him on the funny page!"

11 years 1 month ago

Wonderfully acted and a sharp script full of brilliant sexual innuendos and satire. I hate to be this person, but seeing a class act like this and comparing it to the great "comedies" of today like The Hangover and Knocked Up, there just is no comparison to the skill of classic screwball comedies. It's cliche, but damn it they just don't make them like they used to.

12 years 8 months ago

LycraLout

Clearly a great script with sharp witty dialogue but I found the pace too unrelenting.

9 years 2 months ago

Zeltaebar

Even tough I liked the movie, especially the funny script, I had some problems warming up to the main characters. Neither Cary Grant or Rosalind Russell plays very likeable caracters. They are both selfish and inconsiderate. Cary Grant's Walter Burns is even a lying, cheating sleazeball who does not flinch at the opportunity to wrongfully send someone in jail or hide a wanted murderer from the authorities just so he can pursue a woman or his career. Ralph Bellamy's Bruce Baldwin is the only likeable caracter in the movie and he gets the short end of the stick every time and is fooled, made fun of and pushed around the whole time. My sympathies in this movie went against the people I should be cheering for the whole time. I guess the point is that that's how the press behaves, but I think I would have enjoyed the movie more if they had made the main characters more sympathetic. The supporting cast could have carried most of the message that journalists are terrible people.

12 years 9 months ago

DisneyStitch

A spectacular ride. To think it was made in 1940 is just unbelievable, it feels so far ahead of its time. A lot of laughs and crazy situations abound. If anybody ever tells me that there are no independent, spunky women in cinema back in the day, then I'm going to point wholeheartedly to this one.

3 years 9 months ago

Siskoid

Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday is a high achievement in screwball comedy, with its breakneck action and even speedier dialog. This is a film where the characters don't realize they've been fast-talked into doing something until it's too late. Rosalind Russell plays a reporter and Cary Grant is her editor, but they're also exes, and he can't understand why she should now want to marry an insurance salesman and get out of journalism. An explosion of wit ensues between these evenly matched characters. Terrific stuff. If there's a weakness here, it's the plot pulled from the play (and 1931 film) The Front Page, about a man not quite falsely accused of killing a "colored policeman" now unjustly(?) facing execution. Let's just say the politics of the film feel completely wrong-headed today, but we are warned at the top that this takes place in a different time. Shouldn't stop you from enjoying the cracking script and performances.

6 years ago