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His Girl Friday
His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who is about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife, Hildy Johnson, newly engaged to another man. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murderer Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife. The screenplay was adapted from the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. This was the second time the play had been adapted for the screen, the first occasion being the 1931 film which kept the original title The Front Page.
Plot
Walter Burns, the hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post, learns his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson, is about to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin and settle down as a housewife in Albany. Walter, determined to sabotage these plans, entices a reluctant Hildy to cover one last story: the upcoming execution of Earl Williams, a shy bookkeeper convicted of murdering a policeman. Hildy agrees on the condition that Walter buy a $100,000 life insurance policy from Bruce so he can receive a $1,000 commission. In the meantime, she bribes the warden to let her interview Williams in jail. Williams says he shot the police officer by accident.
Cast
- Abner Biberman
- Alma Kruger
- Ann Doran
- Billy Gilbert
- Cary Grant
- Clarence Kolb
- Cliff Edwards
- Delmar Watson
- Earl Dwire
- Edmund Cobb
- Edwin Maxwell
- Ernest Truex
- Frank Jenks
- Frank Orth
- Gene Lockhart
- Gene Morgan
- Harry C. Bradley
- Helen Mack
- Irving Bacon
- James Millican
- John Qualen
- Marion Martin
- Pat Flaherty
- Pat West
- Porter Hall
- Ralph Bellamy
- Ralph Dunn
- Regis Toomey
- Rosalind Russell
- Roscoe Karns
- Wade Boteler
More details
| author | Ben Hecht Charles Lederer Charles MacArthur |
|---|---|
| director | Howard Hawks |
| editor | Gene Havlick |
| events | capital punishment journalism |
| genre | comedy-drama |
| keywords | counterfeit money drive escalate handcuff insurance policy life insurance morning niagara falls police officer press room rolltop desk scoop steal write |
| musicBy | Felix Mills Sidney Cutner |
| producer | Howard Hawks |
| productionCompany | Columbia Pictures |
| publisher | Columbia Pictures |
| theme | comedy of remarriage screwball comedy |