His Girl Friday (1940)

His Girl Friday is a 1940 screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. It is an adaptation of the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

Hildy Johnson (Russell), a star newspaper reporter, visits her former editor and ex-husband Walter Burns (Grant) to announce her retirement and remarriage. Walter uses every trick at his disposal to keep her on the story of a man condemned to execution, hoping to rekindle both her career and their romance. The film is famous for its rapid-fire overlapping dialogue and its cynical wit about the press, politics, and marriage.

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Video source: Internet Archive — HisGirlFriday_201901 · Public domain

Chapters

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1. 00:00 His Girl Friday is a 1940 screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. It is an adaptation of the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.
2. 02:00 Hildy Johnson (Russell), a star newspaper reporter, visits her former editor and ex-husband Walter Burns (Grant) to announce she is retiring to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).
3. 10:00 Walter uses every trick at his disposal to keep Hildy on the story of convicted murderer Earl Williams, scheduled for execution the following morning, hoping to rekindle both her career and their romance.
4. 25:00 Hildy interviews Earl Williams in Cook County jail and becomes convinced he is innocent, a pawn of corrupt politicians seeking re-election on a tough-on-crime platform.
5. 40:00 Earl escapes from custody and hides in the pressroom, as Hildy scrambles to write the scoop of her career while Walter schemes to delay her departure with Bruce.
6. 01:00:00 A governor's reprieve arrives, exposing the sheriff's corruption. Walter and Hildy are reconciled — and promptly dispatched on a new assignment together, their wedding plans once again derailed.

Copyright status

His Girl Friday was released on 11 January 1940. The film's copyright was not renewed at the required 28-year mark, causing it to enter the public domain in 1968. Under United States copyright law, films published before 1964 whose copyrights were not renewed are in the public domain. This film may be freely watched, downloaded, copied, modified, and redistributed without restriction or payment.

References

1. Mast, Gerald (1982). Howard Hawks, Storyteller. Oxford University Press.
2. McBride, Joseph (1982). Hawks on Hawks. University of California Press.
3. Gehring, Wes D. (2002). Screwball Comedy: A Genre of Madcap Romance. Greenwood Press.
4. Internet Archive. “His Girl Friday (1940)”. archive.org/details/HisGirlFriday_201901.