Ein Zeitungsredakteur versucht mit allen möglichen Tricks, die Ex-Frau seines Starreporters davon abzuhalten, diesen noch einmal zu heiraten.Ein Zeitungsredakteur versucht mit allen möglichen Tricks, die Ex-Frau seines Starreporters davon abzuhalten, diesen noch einmal zu heiraten.Ein Zeitungsredakteur versucht mit allen möglichen Tricks, die Ex-Frau seines Starreporters davon abzuhalten, diesen noch einmal zu heiraten.
- Auszeichnungen
- 5 Gewinne & 1 Nominierung insgesamt
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A very, very funny movie, this rapid-fire farce combines a terrific cast, a great script, and a plot that lends itself wonderfully both to comedy and satire. There are more funny lines and good gags than you can count, even when you've already seen it a few times.
Cary Grant is excellent at this kind of manic comedy, and Rosalind Russell gives what had to be one of her very best performances, as a worthy foil for Grant's domineering character. Ralph Bellamy is also ideal as the naive insurance salesman, and they are backed up by a cast filled with fine comic character actors. Some of the supporting cast do a terrific job of getting laughs with very limited screen time. They all get great material to work with, too. The dialogue is just amazing, with funny, creative lines coming constantly - sometimes literally on top of each other. The setting and the plot create hilarious situations and some great opportunities to satirize politicians and the news media. If anything, the satire is even funnier and more appropriate as regards today's institutions than it was in 1940.
"His Girl Friday" is absolutely hilarious, a classic comedy that you can watch and enjoy over and over.
Cary Grant is excellent at this kind of manic comedy, and Rosalind Russell gives what had to be one of her very best performances, as a worthy foil for Grant's domineering character. Ralph Bellamy is also ideal as the naive insurance salesman, and they are backed up by a cast filled with fine comic character actors. Some of the supporting cast do a terrific job of getting laughs with very limited screen time. They all get great material to work with, too. The dialogue is just amazing, with funny, creative lines coming constantly - sometimes literally on top of each other. The setting and the plot create hilarious situations and some great opportunities to satirize politicians and the news media. If anything, the satire is even funnier and more appropriate as regards today's institutions than it was in 1940.
"His Girl Friday" is absolutely hilarious, a classic comedy that you can watch and enjoy over and over.
If Howard Hawks's screwball classic "His Girl Friday" isn't a perfect film, it had at least a perfect role for Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell... and that's the stuff durable greatness is made of.
Indeed, Grant was the epitome of wisecracking charm and his Walter Burns happened to be an obnoxious fellow delivering so many wisecracks that by the time the receiver found the proper repartee, someone was already being verbally crucified.
Rosalind Russell wasn't a star... yet... until she portrayed Burns' ace reporter and ex-wife Hildy Johnson, reliable and relatable 'girl Friday'. These two backgrounds explain why she plays in the same rhetorical league, she's a match to him... even when there's no matching anymore.
But maybe because she's taller than many actresses, she can get above Grant's shoulder high enough not to be totally swollen off by his charismatic despicability. She talks the talks but can walk the walk even if he's gallant enough to hold her the door... but why would a woman calling herself a newspaperman expect gallantry?
At a time where gender talk wasn't such a sensitive subject and this is where the film got tricky, Hildy is engaged to insurance agent Bruce Baldwyn and is determined to become his devoted housewife, to have children and live a peaceful life in Albany, of all the towns... so she expects some gentlemanly behavior from her editor and former husband... might as well expect Hitler to sign a Peace Treaty.
The titular 'Girl Friday' can't wait for her existential 'week-end', torn between her job and her future. The way the film makes these two situations irreconcilable can seem far-fetched but given the way Hildy handles her job, it's hard to imagine the combo. The lady must make up her mind. Meanwhile, Burns gets an opportunity that instantly tilts in his mind "thanks God, it's Friday!".
As usual with screwball comedies, the timing is crucial and when a top reporter is missing and an execution is polarizing opinions because of proclaimed insanity and suspicion of political motivations, someone must cover the news and Hildy happened to be in the right place at the right moment.
For Walter, Hildy's presence is to be exploited even if it means using every bit of his malevolent creativity against the gentle but rather bland Bruce... who looks exactly like Ralph Bellamy, according to Burns (or was it Grant having fun with the script?). Given the mistreatment poor Bruce undergoes, "His Girl Friday" is a tale of Machiavellian ingenuity at the services of one profession: journalism. Basically, the ends justify the means if it means covering the hottest topic of the day (pre-war days but they didn't know).
So Burns uses every trick of his sleeve to prevent Bruce from taking the train and forces Hildy to be on the front... and for the front, fully aware that her professional conscience will finally get the best of her. And there is something in Russell's performance, the way she resists the call of her profession while being fiercely attached to her fiancée that calls for admiration.
Whether she handles the other journalists who pose like vulture-like creatures, indifferent to the pleas of Williams' friend and hungry for any scandal or tip to it, she knows how to adapt her manners, to talk different languages, but that would be too easy with screwball comedy. We noticed from the start that the pace of the dialogue is as quick as if the box office depended on it, yet Hawks gratifies us with scenes where journalists and Burns are all together, sometimes, Bruce and Walter talk to Hildy and on the phone and the rhythm is so fast it sounds like harmonious cacophony.
The film was known for having a dialogue that could be contained in a twice longer film but Hawks insisted on having something natural that could flow simply and easily because people did talk like this in real life. And only for the rapid fire delivery of Russell, I'm glad they didn't take someone else, I can't imagine Katharine Hepburn in that role, Russell had the street smarts, the modern touch, the look, the sexiness... she got the scandal but the only thing she didn't get was an Oscar nomination, and that was a scandal too.
I didn't like the film at first because I have a problem with the schematic aspect of screwball comedies, the two men in love with the same woman and one of them has no chance because the other is Grant, that's why I didn't like "The Philadelphia Story"... but here, Grant is so unlikable you've got to wonder how come he had to get Russell at the end except to show that these two were equally unlikable thus meant to be together, which in that case makes the film modern in its daring anti-family bias.
And the ending doesn't imply that Hildy made the right personal choices, maybe journalists have a way with every non-personal matters but are totally ignorant of the things of life. I recently saw "Sweet Smell of Success" and I guess it's a common trope of Hollywood to depict journalism as a business dealing with cops, politicians, uses of bribes or blackmails and many methods that can only give it a cynical flavor.
Grant could embody these traits without being totally detestable, maybe it's because we try to see them from the eyes of Hildy and we accept that he's not such a bad guy after all. Ironically, when Hildy becomes the newspaper man, she lets the woman takes the upper hand and encourage Burns to show a more comprehensive and gentle side. But Hawks was a smart director, if he was smart enough to know that he could remake "The Front Page" with a gender swap, he could handle his characters as well.
After all, they might be unlikable but they have a likable way to be unlikable, and that's also the stuff durable greatness is made on.
Indeed, Grant was the epitome of wisecracking charm and his Walter Burns happened to be an obnoxious fellow delivering so many wisecracks that by the time the receiver found the proper repartee, someone was already being verbally crucified.
Rosalind Russell wasn't a star... yet... until she portrayed Burns' ace reporter and ex-wife Hildy Johnson, reliable and relatable 'girl Friday'. These two backgrounds explain why she plays in the same rhetorical league, she's a match to him... even when there's no matching anymore.
But maybe because she's taller than many actresses, she can get above Grant's shoulder high enough not to be totally swollen off by his charismatic despicability. She talks the talks but can walk the walk even if he's gallant enough to hold her the door... but why would a woman calling herself a newspaperman expect gallantry?
At a time where gender talk wasn't such a sensitive subject and this is where the film got tricky, Hildy is engaged to insurance agent Bruce Baldwyn and is determined to become his devoted housewife, to have children and live a peaceful life in Albany, of all the towns... so she expects some gentlemanly behavior from her editor and former husband... might as well expect Hitler to sign a Peace Treaty.
The titular 'Girl Friday' can't wait for her existential 'week-end', torn between her job and her future. The way the film makes these two situations irreconcilable can seem far-fetched but given the way Hildy handles her job, it's hard to imagine the combo. The lady must make up her mind. Meanwhile, Burns gets an opportunity that instantly tilts in his mind "thanks God, it's Friday!".
As usual with screwball comedies, the timing is crucial and when a top reporter is missing and an execution is polarizing opinions because of proclaimed insanity and suspicion of political motivations, someone must cover the news and Hildy happened to be in the right place at the right moment.
For Walter, Hildy's presence is to be exploited even if it means using every bit of his malevolent creativity against the gentle but rather bland Bruce... who looks exactly like Ralph Bellamy, according to Burns (or was it Grant having fun with the script?). Given the mistreatment poor Bruce undergoes, "His Girl Friday" is a tale of Machiavellian ingenuity at the services of one profession: journalism. Basically, the ends justify the means if it means covering the hottest topic of the day (pre-war days but they didn't know).
So Burns uses every trick of his sleeve to prevent Bruce from taking the train and forces Hildy to be on the front... and for the front, fully aware that her professional conscience will finally get the best of her. And there is something in Russell's performance, the way she resists the call of her profession while being fiercely attached to her fiancée that calls for admiration.
Whether she handles the other journalists who pose like vulture-like creatures, indifferent to the pleas of Williams' friend and hungry for any scandal or tip to it, she knows how to adapt her manners, to talk different languages, but that would be too easy with screwball comedy. We noticed from the start that the pace of the dialogue is as quick as if the box office depended on it, yet Hawks gratifies us with scenes where journalists and Burns are all together, sometimes, Bruce and Walter talk to Hildy and on the phone and the rhythm is so fast it sounds like harmonious cacophony.
The film was known for having a dialogue that could be contained in a twice longer film but Hawks insisted on having something natural that could flow simply and easily because people did talk like this in real life. And only for the rapid fire delivery of Russell, I'm glad they didn't take someone else, I can't imagine Katharine Hepburn in that role, Russell had the street smarts, the modern touch, the look, the sexiness... she got the scandal but the only thing she didn't get was an Oscar nomination, and that was a scandal too.
I didn't like the film at first because I have a problem with the schematic aspect of screwball comedies, the two men in love with the same woman and one of them has no chance because the other is Grant, that's why I didn't like "The Philadelphia Story"... but here, Grant is so unlikable you've got to wonder how come he had to get Russell at the end except to show that these two were equally unlikable thus meant to be together, which in that case makes the film modern in its daring anti-family bias.
And the ending doesn't imply that Hildy made the right personal choices, maybe journalists have a way with every non-personal matters but are totally ignorant of the things of life. I recently saw "Sweet Smell of Success" and I guess it's a common trope of Hollywood to depict journalism as a business dealing with cops, politicians, uses of bribes or blackmails and many methods that can only give it a cynical flavor.
Grant could embody these traits without being totally detestable, maybe it's because we try to see them from the eyes of Hildy and we accept that he's not such a bad guy after all. Ironically, when Hildy becomes the newspaper man, she lets the woman takes the upper hand and encourage Burns to show a more comprehensive and gentle side. But Hawks was a smart director, if he was smart enough to know that he could remake "The Front Page" with a gender swap, he could handle his characters as well.
After all, they might be unlikable but they have a likable way to be unlikable, and that's also the stuff durable greatness is made on.
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell make great sparring partners in "His Girl Friday," a remake of "The Front Page."
Grant plays the conniving newspaper publisher Walter Johnson, and Rosalind Russell is the reporter Hildy Johnson, a woman this time, and Johnson's ex-wife. She's trying to get remarried, move to Albany, and quit the newspaper business, but Walter can't bear it.
He cons her into helping out with a controversial death row case and then makes sure her fiancée (Ralph Bellamy) suffers a series of mishaps - arrest for stealing a watch, arrest for "mashing," arrest for counterfeiting, and the theft of his wallet.
This all happens while Hildy interviews Earl Williams, a man due to be hung the next day... and then hides him in a roll-top desk in the courthouse press room when he escapes during a psychiatric evaluation.
It's madcap, all right, and there are no two better people to carry it off than Grant and Russell, who make a great team. It's a hilarious story, with the most rapid-fire, non-stop dialog ever heard anywhere, often with several conversations going on at once. It's exhausting trying to keep up with it.
Strangely, without computers and cell phones, the story of journalists working on a story holds up because the emotions and activities are realistic and still go on. It's as Hildy describes - no set schedule, no normal meals, and long hours. Nothing much has changed.
This is a frenetic comedy, and while the impending hanging of Earl Williams is certainly serious, this plot is more of an excuse to observe the machinations of Hildy and Walter - it's a subplot, though it drives the main story.
"The Front Page" is a favorite of Hollywood's, remade many times - three versions under its original title, a TV series, two TV productions, plus the film "Switching Channels." And of course, "His Girl Friday," possibly the best of all of them.
Grant plays the conniving newspaper publisher Walter Johnson, and Rosalind Russell is the reporter Hildy Johnson, a woman this time, and Johnson's ex-wife. She's trying to get remarried, move to Albany, and quit the newspaper business, but Walter can't bear it.
He cons her into helping out with a controversial death row case and then makes sure her fiancée (Ralph Bellamy) suffers a series of mishaps - arrest for stealing a watch, arrest for "mashing," arrest for counterfeiting, and the theft of his wallet.
This all happens while Hildy interviews Earl Williams, a man due to be hung the next day... and then hides him in a roll-top desk in the courthouse press room when he escapes during a psychiatric evaluation.
It's madcap, all right, and there are no two better people to carry it off than Grant and Russell, who make a great team. It's a hilarious story, with the most rapid-fire, non-stop dialog ever heard anywhere, often with several conversations going on at once. It's exhausting trying to keep up with it.
Strangely, without computers and cell phones, the story of journalists working on a story holds up because the emotions and activities are realistic and still go on. It's as Hildy describes - no set schedule, no normal meals, and long hours. Nothing much has changed.
This is a frenetic comedy, and while the impending hanging of Earl Williams is certainly serious, this plot is more of an excuse to observe the machinations of Hildy and Walter - it's a subplot, though it drives the main story.
"The Front Page" is a favorite of Hollywood's, remade many times - three versions under its original title, a TV series, two TV productions, plus the film "Switching Channels." And of course, "His Girl Friday," possibly the best of all of them.
10banjoboy
I just finished watching the DVD of this first-class, semi-Screwball comedy in Columbia Classics beautiful transfer, and it absolutely made my day! What a movie! What a screenplay! The dialogue is better - more modern - in fact, than a in lot of contemporary movies. It's incredibly funny, too, and my teenage sons kept laughing right along with me at the smart come-backs. Cary Grant is, of course, as good (if not better) than ever, and I've never seen Rosalind Russel in a role that suited her more perfectly. And that's just for starters: The timing of the thing is still awe- inspiring after sixty-odd years; the supporting actors, down to the bit-players, are all memorable, convincing and hilarious; the camera work (this IS the forties, though) is inventive and the editing superb. I can safely confess now that I hadn't ever seen it before, but that's no reason for you to make the same mistake: Go buy/rent it NOW! Hats off to the great Howard Hawks, his cast and crew for pulling this comedy masterpiece off. And thank you, thank you, thank you Columbia Pictures, for
making it possible for me to watch it in such pristine condition! (I've got the 2002 edition, and from what I've heard you should beware of earlier DVD issues).
making it possible for me to watch it in such pristine condition! (I've got the 2002 edition, and from what I've heard you should beware of earlier DVD issues).
Every good thing you've heard about this movie is true. It may very well be the fastest paced movie I've ever seen. Jerry Bruckheimer's most hyperbolic action movie ain't got nothing' on this one.
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were a brilliant screen pair (indeed, it seems that no one was bad casting when paired with Cary Grant) as rival reporters in a furiously paced news office. Russell is the odd man, or should I say odd girl, out, due to her lack of a penis, but she proves herself more than capable of holding her own with the boys.
Russell charges across the screen and never loses momentum for a second. She's goofy, sexy and hysterical. The funniest moment in the film comes when she's chasing a man down the street (I won't go into details) and dive tackles him to the ground.
One of the first films from the 40s and a highlight of the decade.
Grade: A+
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were a brilliant screen pair (indeed, it seems that no one was bad casting when paired with Cary Grant) as rival reporters in a furiously paced news office. Russell is the odd man, or should I say odd girl, out, due to her lack of a penis, but she proves herself more than capable of holding her own with the boys.
Russell charges across the screen and never loses momentum for a second. She's goofy, sexy and hysterical. The funniest moment in the film comes when she's chasing a man down the street (I won't go into details) and dive tackles him to the ground.
One of the first films from the 40s and a highlight of the decade.
Grade: A+
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesIt is estimated that the normal rate of verbal dialogue in most films is around 90 words a minute. In Sein Mädchen für besondere Fälle (1940), the delivery has been clocked at 240 words a minute.
- PatzerWhen Bruce Baldwin comes to the press room late in the movie, an electric fan and small shelf on the wall to the left of the door both completely disappear. Both have been there in all previous scenes and both reappear after this scene.
- Zitate
[describing Bruce]
Walter Burns: He looks like that fellow in the movies - Ralph Bellamy.
- Crazy CreditsOpening credits prologue: It all happened in the "Dark Ages" of the newspaper game--when to a reporter "Getting that story" justified anything short of murder.
Incidentally you will see in this picture no resemblance to the man and woman of the press today.
Ready?
Well, once upon a time - -
- VerbindungenEdited into Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)
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- 330 $
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 32 Minuten
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What is the Japanese language plot outline for Sein Mädchen für besondere Fälle (1940)?
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