His Girl Friday

While viewing HIS GIRL FRIDAY, I had forgotten that it was an adaptation of a play. I'm glad I remembered, because I now know that my fervent wish to see this show performed onstage stands a good chance of being fulfilled.

This is the kind of movie that makes you want run out and buy the screenplay so you can savor every line. It's the kind of movie that has such a great story, such wonderful characters, and such excellent dialogue that you want to see how other productions might handle the material. You may suspect that you'll never again see it done as well as Grant, Russell, Bellamy, and Hawks, but you don't mind - this script is just that much fun.

Grant, as one of the biggest movie stars of his century, gets most of the notice in this production. His editor is charismatic, charming, potentially sociopathic, and an absolute riot. But Rosalind Russell's portrayal of Hildy Johnson -well, it's revelatory. Russell dominates every scene she's in, delivering a hurricane of a performance that combines sly wit with calulated manipulation with raw human power. This is, quite simply, one of the best performances ever committed to film.
Ralph Bellamy plays a wonderful Baxter, bringing the kind of hapless innocence to the proceedings that makes us root for him even though we know he never has chance.

Howard Hawks, of course, does what Howard Hawks does: get top-notch work out of top-notch actors, directing with a sure hand and delivering pure cinema gold. What else would you expect from the guy who made BALL OF FIRE, RIO BRAVO, and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES?

The more I think about this movie, the more I like it. Now, if I can just find a production of THE FRONT PAGE in my town ...