Thursday, September 06, 2012
Long time coming, but here's the extra Shopper review I promised of a Cary Grant classic.
In other film news, I interviewed Aussie director P.J. Hogan ahead of his visit to Dubbo tomorrow to open the inaugural Inland NSW Film Festival - I'll put up a link in tomorrow night's post. For now, enjoy this review. It feels like so long ago that I wrote this, my week away was ker-razy. More on that another time.
***
His Girl Friday (1940)
IF this film is to be believed,
print journalism was as fast-paced 70 years ago as it is now. Only back then it
was because it was the primary way of accessing the news, whereas now it’s all
about getting the detail and rather than pushing out immediate papers
publishing breaking news online. But either way, there is still room for it in
the hearts of many passionate journalists.
Walter Burns (Cary Grant) runs a
newspaper and is shocked to discover ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell)
is quitting her job as his editor and marrying Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy)
the next day. He’s outraged with the idea and proceeds to undermine Bruce in
every possible way, resorting to situations of petty theft, in the meantime
attempting to lure Hildy back for one more story.
Howard Hawks films were goldmines
around the turn of the decade. He would continue to provide great comedy with
films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
and he strikes big here, with Grant and Russell’s banter wonderful and Bellamy
great as the third wheel.
There was a lot of improvisation
with the script throughout the film that comes across so natural on screen,
in-jokes about the actors themselves and extra lines from Russell to make her
as funny as Grant. Pulling from real-life situations also makes the events of
the film just that little more interesting as you watch. A classic production
that sparkles with a well-gelled cast, this is a Hawks must-see.
*Published in the Mailbox Shopper (Dubbo) from Wednesday 29/8/2012
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