Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 19-July-09
Spoiler Rating: Low

His Girl Friday (1940)

Few movies exemplify the saying "they don't make 'em like they used to" as well as His Girl Friday. This comedy assumes an audience that can follow dialogue and appreciate details rather than one so slugified by countless hours of television that it can only respond to childish antics and visceral stimuli. It is very gratifying to watch, particularly as it is an actors' showcase which inspires unparalleled performances from its stars.

Rosalind Russell shines as Hildy Johnson, a beautiful, brainy reporter who has decided to quit her job and become "a normal human being." This translates into marrying an insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy) and raising children behind a white picket fence. Although she is on the cusp of fulfilling this plan, it is clear from the first that she is fooling herself. She stops by the office to bid good-bye to ex-boss and -husband Walter (Cary Grant) and is instantly swept up by the lure of journalism and the not-unrelated lure of his charm. Despite the rift of divorce they are still on the same wavelength, still able to anticipate each other's moves.

Walter's moves are rather low, but then again he has only a few hours in which to win Hildy back to his arms and his newspaper. (He may also be excused because Grant has never looked sharper.) He hatches a scheme around the pending execution of a man (John Qualen) who shot a police officer due to emotional distress. Walter's paper has been trying to get the man pardoned in opposition to the sheriff and mayor, and the challenge of saving his life is too tempting for Hildy to ignore. She puts off her fiancé for an hour, then another, then another as Walter plots to remove this rival and she gets sucked into the story.

The movie paints an interesting picture of reporters as committed, cunning, and callous yet not impervious to human feeling. Aptly for people who live by words, they also talk a blue streak, which helps to make His Girl Friday so distinctive. One could watch it a couple times before grasping all the verbal salvos that Walter, and especially Hildy let loose, and another time to pick up all the telling looks that pass between them. A shared passion for a specific lifestyle establishes the couple's soulmate status as few other romantic comedies do. There is never any doubt as to how it will end, but never a dull moment getting there.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.