His Girl Friday is a motion-picture comedy about the cynical world of Chicago politics and newspapers during the 1920’s. The story originated as the classic Broadway comedy The Front Page (1928), written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. The play centered on the often combative relationship between newspaper editor Walter Burns and his ace reporter, Hildy Johnson. The play was filmed twice, in 1931 and 1974. In the play and both Front Page movies, Burns and Johnson are men. In His Girl Friday, Johnson is a woman and Walter Burns is her former husband. Changing Hildy Johnson to a woman injected a droll war-between-the-sexes element to the story.
His Girl Friday has been called the fastest-paced comedy ever made in Hollywood. The dialogue is filled with wisecracks among reporters from the various Chicago newspapers as they deal with corrupt city officials. The film portrays newspaper life as a no-holds-barred world of sensationalism in which reporters will do anything to get a story. The film’s skeptical dialogue is delivered with rapid-fire velocity, with lines often overlapping.
Howard Hawks directed His Girl Friday, which was released in 1940. Cary Grant played the tough Walter Burns, and Rosalind Russell was the equally tough Hildy Johnson. Ralph Bellamy played Hildy’s fiance. The colorful, fast-talking reporters included Cliff Edwards, Porter Hall, Frank Jenks, Roscoe Karns, and Ernest Truex.
See also Grant, Cary ; Hawks, Howard ; Hecht, Ben .
