- Most screwball comedies hit you with one or two bursts of rat-a-tat-tat dialogue, but His Girl Friday never takes its finger off the trigger. The film is a constant barrage of quips and witty repartee that, played back at a normal rate of speed, could have filled out a four-hour film. As such, it gives Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell to show off just how many words they can squeeze out in one breath, which is more impressive than it sounds. Not always enjoyable, but certainly impressive.
- The plot revolves around a simple enough love triangle between newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson (Russell), her ex-husband and former manager Walter Burns (Grant), and the pitiable simpleton Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Baldwin is the stereotypical nice guy who finishes last, which I suppose makes Burns the jackass who comes out ahead. Burns stops at nothing to prevent Hildy from going away with Baldwin, even going so far as to have the man wrongfully arrested on multiple occasions. This is all played for laughs, of course, but between Burns' behavior and that of the reporters who hover like vultures in anticipation of a public execution, the newspaper industry doesn't come out looking too good.
- Of course, any interesting social commentary that may be present ultimately gets drowned out by all of the shouting, and therein lies the problem with His Girl Friday. When lovers quarrel for ten minutes, it's funny. When they are at each others' throats for the duration of the film, the experience grows a bit stale. That's not to say the film is an utter failure. Some of the bursts of invective are quite funny, as are Burns' utter lack of morality and the occasional meta-joke referring to Ralph Bellamy or the oddly-named Archie Leach. It's just too bad that the film never takes a moment to allow the actors, or the audience for that matter, to catch their breath.
- Based on a play titled "The Front Page."
