To me, Howard Hawks' 1940 film, His Girl Friday is quite a unique movie for its time. This film, which is based on the play The Front Page, delves into the fast-paced world of journalism. As the title screen explains, it depicts the "dark ages of the newspaper game" when "getting that story justified anything short of murder." The journalists in His Girl Friday are the now-cliche "old time-y" newspapermen wearing their fedora hats and talking in a funny accent with a cigarette clench between their teeth. I can't say for certain if in 1940 this was an accurate depiction of journalists, or if it was Hollywood doing what it does best- exaggerated and romanticizing reality for dramatic effect. Either way it is a thoroughly entertaining film that keeps you laughing with its jokes, your head spinning with the crazy-fast dialogue, and, if you watch closely, an interesting representation of a modern and independent woman for the 1940's.
Cary Grant as Walter and Rosalind Russell as Hildy. Via.
At the beginning of the film you are quickly introduced to Hildy (Rosalind Russell), an ex-newspaper gal who's dropping by her old stomping grounds in order to tell her ex-editor, who is more importantly also her ex-husband, that she is getting married and quitting the newspaper racket for good. Of course Walter (Cary Grant) has no intention of letting her go- from the newspaper or from his life.
The ex-husband coming between the soon-to-be newlyweds. Via.
Although very similar to the original play, Front Page, Howard Hawks' made one major adjustment to the screenplay- a change that came about by complete accident. In the original story, the character of Hildy Johnson is a male. During early screenplay readings, Hawks had his secretary read Hildy's lines, which made him realize that the fast witty dialogue sounded even better with a female in the mix.
Rosalind Russell was just the actress to be added to the mix. Via.
Hawks took a witty and fast-talking male character and turned him into one of the most clever and modern parts written for a woman. At the time His Girl Friday was released, Hildy was one of Hollywood's few female movie characters who was equal to her male counterpart. Hildy can give as good as she gets, never letting her ex-husband Walter get the upper hand despite all his tricks and schemes.
Not only can Hildy banter with the best of them, she also is unique in the sense that she's not the typical 1940's housewife. As much as she tries to convince Walter- and, more importantly herself- that she really does want to quit the newspaper biz and settle down as housewife, it's clear that it's not what she really wants. Hildy repeatedly says that she wants to have a "normal" life, but what is normal? I find it fascinating that this 1940's movie features a woman who doesn't end up as the "normal" housewife. Instead it shows an alternative lifestyle that involves chasing down witnesses and hunting down exclusives. One of the main themes of the film is that Hildy, a woman, not only survives in a man's industry, but flourishes in it.
It's also obvious that she doesn't want to be taken care of or treated with kid gloves like the way her new finance (Ralph Bellamy) treats her. She's the one who always trying to take charge in their relationship and tell him what to do; Hildy is definitely the pants-wearer in the relationship. Walter, however, knows that Hildy doesn't need to be taken care of. He knows she can handle anything that's thrown at her- and Walter throws a lot of trouble her way.
The original trailer for His Girl Friday gives you a sneak peek at this hilarious screwball comedy.
Hawks, who was known for featuring strong female characters in all his films, actually insisted that he was not a feminist nor a feminist supporter. Ironically however, he did admit that strong, independent, and ambitious females were the type of women he was attracted to, which explains why he spotlighted them so often.
Grant, Russell, and Hawks onset of His Girl Friday.Via.
No one could have pulled off the character of Hildy with such sass and conviction as Rosalind Russell, but it's actually luck that she won the part at all. Russel was far down on Hawks' list of possible lead actresses. And, unfortunately, Russell knew she was no where near the director's first choice. This led to her being very self-conscious and insecure at first on set. After the first few stressful days of filming, Russell had had enough. In a very Hildy fashion, she marched up to Hawks and said, "You don't want me, do you? Well, you're stuck with me so you might as well make the most of it." From then on, Hawks took her more seriously.
Another challenge for Russell was Hawks' encouragement for the actors to ad-lib and improvise during filming, which Russell wasn't use to or comfortable with. The other lead actor however was more than comfortable with ad-libbing; Cary Grant was known for his improvisation skills and used them to the fullest while filming His Girl Friday. One of my personal favorites is his line "Listen, the last man who said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." For those of you who might not know, Cary Grant's birth name was Archie Leach. (Fun fact: Grant also slyly referenced his 'real name' in a improvised line for the film Arsenic and Old Lace.)
This clip gives you a glimpse at Grant's hilarious improve skills.
Russell however did not have such skills. So to keep up with Grant's extemporizing, Russell secretly hired someone to write jokes into her scenes for her. Each day Russell would show-up on set with her pre-planned "ad-libs" for the scene they were scheduled to shoot. Although Hawks never caught on to Russell's setup, Grant did. After the first couple days, Grant started to greet her each morning with a smile saying, "Well what have you got today?"
In addition to improvising, Hawks also directed the actor to cut each other off and talk over each other to keep the fast-paced dialogue more realistic. Shortly before he started working on the script for His Girl Friday, Hawks had the realization that in real life people don't wait for others to finish talking before starting themselves, especially when arguing. It's only natural to have conversation that's overlapping. After realizing this, Hawks and his screenwriting team purposely "wrote the dialog in a way that made the beginnings and ends of sentences unnecessary," in order to facilitate fast-paced and natural conversation flow. The dialogue is actually so fast-paced that the substantial 191-paged screenplay translated into a film that is only 92 minutes long. The quick banter also led to a breakthrough in sound recording for film; because His Girl Friday was filmed before multi-track sound recording, they used multiple microphones which had to be continuously turned on and off in time with the flow of the dialogue. Some scenes required the sound mixer to make over 35 switches during a single shot.
This hilarious (albeit blurry scene) is a great example of the fast-paced dialogue of His Girl Friday.
To this day His Girl Friday is a charming and funny film. The jokes still make you laugh and the fast dialogue still keeps you on the edge of your seat. Hawks' film is a classic screwball comedy, and a rare example of a modern 1940's woman who proves she's equal to her male counterpart.
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