His Girl Friday

92 minutes | 18 January 1940 | United States

Setting the standard for screwball comedy and rapid-fire dialogue, this second adaptation of The Front Page by the playwrights Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur finds Rosalind Russell as a prize investigative reporter who plans to marry an insurance salesman and leave the news business behind. When she visits the offices of her ex-husband, played by Cary Grant as the hard-boiled editor of The Morning Post, she is roped into covering one last story in a race against time: her train for Albany will leave that evening, but without her intervention a convicted murderer faces execution for political gain. Hijinks ensue with the director Howard Hawks encouraging improvisation and spontaneity from his stars.

Director: Howard Hawks
Screenplay: Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht
Starring: Cary Grant as Walter Burns, Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson, Ralph Bellamy as Bruce Baldwin, Gene Lockhart as Sheriff Hartwell
Music: Sidney Cutner, Felix Mills
Cinematography: Joseph Walker
Editor: Gene Havlick
Distributor: Columbia Pictures