It doesn't get much better than this. The snappy dialogue is funny, smart and quick. And I mean quick. It makes The Social Network look taciturn.

Cary Grant is at his best as news editor Walter Burns who wants his ex-wife and former journalist back. Rosalind Russell is pure perfection as Hildy Johnson who wants nothing to do with her ex or the newspaper business. She wants to go live in Albany and have children with her new fiance. Walter will stop at nothing to prevent Hildy from leaving. He will be cunning, sly and play dirty if it is required.

The film also serves as a critique of the newspaper industry, showing newspaper men misquoting and outright inventing stories…

"Incidentally you will see in this picture no resemblance to the men and women of the press today."

A charismatic, young Cary Grant coupled with a woman who could absolutely hold her own in Rosalind Russell, all wrapped up in a media satire with enough wit to fill five movies. Needless to say, I was entranced from the outset.

And… then the plot began to assert itself and I was left feeling slightly disappointed overall, at least in comparison to the rapturous start.

The major issue is that the movie doesn't seem to know what it has in its star pairing. Outside of the first and last 20 minutes, it exclusively keeps Russell and Grant in separate scenes and even…

Going into finally seeing this classic screwball comedy for the first time ever, I knew I was in for fast-paced dialogue and endlessly fresh verbal wit. The film certainly didn't disappoint on those fronts. Rarely have I seen a movie so brilliantly demonstrate the possibility of dialogue as pedal-to-the-metal action; I'm still reeling from having all that overlapping dialogue blast into my face for such a sustained period of screen time, especially in its second half!

I hadn't, however, expected its cynicism to be so wounding. This is hardly a sentimental glorification of journalism as a noble line of work where the rewards are worth the personal risks (basically, it's everything Ron Howard's 1994 The Paper was not). If anything,…

Although he claimed to not be a feminist, director Howard Hawks' portrayal of strong, intelligent, and independent female characters is an important aspect of many of his films. Whether its Katherine Hepburn in Bringing up Baby, or Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo, the "Hawksian Woman" is a fun and memorable character, and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday is no exception.
Adapted from the Broadway play The Front Page, His Girl Friday starts with ace reporter Hildy Johnson(Russell) going to her ex husband, and boss Walter Burns(Cary Grant) to announce her resignation from the newspaper business, and that she is getting remarried to Insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin(Ralph Bellamy) so she can settle down and have the family Burns could not…

From my (so far) limited exposure to Golden Age Hollywood, I seem to have gathered that the metric to judge these movies is by how creatively and colourfully they can pour out the expository dialogue. In this respect, HIS GIRL FRIDAY is a major success with an act-long exposition dump delivered with lighting speed and accuracy of comedic timing and delivery. Cheeky quips and some more slapstick physical gags are thrown in to really give the comedy life.

Although, it does little to wane my trepidation when delving into this period of American cinema -- so far, I generally align myself with Andrei Tarkovsky, who supposedly remarked that cinema before the 1950s was just a prelude to the real art.…