Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious, fast-paced comedy
Review: His Girl Friday showcases the comic genius of its two brilliant stars as divorced (and still squabbling) reporters who are working together on the biggest headlining story in town. However according to Russell's character Hildy Johnson, this story will be her last, for she is tired of the hectic business, and is leaving town to get married and live in sedate suburbia. Unfortunately for her, Morning Post editor Grant won't let his ex-wife and best reporter go. Or will he? The chemistry between these two is incredible, enhanced by the fact that they were best friends off camera. Director Howard Hawks tried to give an accurate perspective of the high paced newspaper business and the "gentlemen of the press" by injecting speedy dialogue and a swift moving plot. This is a reminder of how a movie does not need elaborate locales, big-money effects or cheap plot devices to highlight the hilarity in a relationship. Truly a classic.
Rating:
Summary: VINTAGE SCREWBALL SPARKLES ON DVD FROM COLUMBIA
Review: "His Girl Friday" is Howard Hawk's inspired remake of the award-winning Broadway play and previous movie release of "The Front Page". It's the story of a rapid fire newspaper editor, Walter (Cary Grant) and his star reporter and ex-wife, Hildie Johnston. Hildie has decided to retire to the country with her soon to be new husband (Ralph Belamy). But when a prison break captures the imagination of a troupe of cutthroat reporters, all rabid for the real scoop, Hildie sets aside marital bliss for one last hurrah behind the desk as a cub reporter.
THE TRANSFER: BEWARE OF THIS DVD! There are no less than 12 bootlegged versions of this film being sold through various vendors on DVD. In all but one case the image quality looks as though the entire print had been fed through a meat grinder. The version you want is the one from Columbia Tri-Star Home Video. Its packaging features a disclaimer that reads "mastered from the original camera negative." This version of "His Girl Friday" exhibits - in short - exemplary video quality. The B&W picture has been completely restored. Age related artifacts are nonexistent. The gray scale, black and contrast levels are perfectly realized. Fine detail will astound. There are no digital anomalies. The audio is mono but very nicely cleaned up.
EXTRAS: This version also includes some very nice - if all too brief - featurettes on the careers of stars Rosiland Russell and Cary Grant and the making of the film. There's also the original theatrical trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: This girl is worth seeking out!
Rating: 
Summary: brilliant film--dreadful DVD
Review: Don't buy this DVD. The sound quality is terrible--a loud hissing noise overshadows the film's trademark fast, witty dialog. $5 seemed a small investment at the time, but I should have saved my money. Surely someday those who own the rights to "His Girl Friday" will release a DVD worthy of this wonderful classic.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible quality; excellent comedy!
Review: "They say the mayor wears red underwear" and this was before the HUAC witch hunts! It's too bad about the transfer of this film to DVD because it is absolutely one of the wittiest movies ever made. We have Cary Grant ("Walter") and Rosalind Russell ("Hildy") as the verbally sparing exes, with Ralph Bellamy("He looks like that actor, you know, Ralph Bellamy") as Hildy's new fiance Bruce. Hildy has had an excellent career as a "newspaper man" for Walter, her ex-boss as well as ex-husband. When she comes back to the office to announce that she's not returning to work but rather rolling into the sunset (or rather, Albany) to live small with her new husband, Walter sets his mind to convincing her to stay. In his own, unique way. The movie plays like a house on fire. The plot involves a man to be executed for shooting a policeman, his escape and capture by Hildy, the political machinations of the sheriff and the mayor, Hildy's missed trains, the shenanigans pulled on Bruce and Bruce's mother by Walter, and the writing of a newspaper story. You know that in the end Hildy and Walter will end up together but my, what a fabulous detour. The dialogue is great and must be listened to carefully. There's also a few great physical comedy scenes, my favorite being Hildy's tackling of the sheriff on the street. In high heeled shoes and a set of stockings!
Required viewing. Back when writing for movies was writing for the entertainment of a grown-up audience!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Transfer from Columbia Tristar
Review: "His Girl Friday" is Howard Hawk's inspired remake of the award-winning Broadway play and previous movie release of "The Front Page". In this revamp, it's all about a rapid fire newspaper editor, Walter (Cary Grant) and his star reporter and ex-wife, Hildie Johnston. Hildie has decided to retire to the country with her soon to be new husband (Ralph Belamy). But when a prison break captures the imagination of a troupe of cutthroat reporters, all rabid for the real scoop, Hildie sets aside marital bliss for one last hurrah as a cub reporter. THE TRANSFER: BEWARE OF THIS DVD! There are no less than 12 bootlegged versions of "His Girl Friday" being sold through various vendors on DVD. In all but one case the image quality looks as though the entire print had been fed through a meat grinder. The version you want is the one from Columbia Tri-Star Home Video. Its packaging features a disclaimer that reads "mastered from the original camera negative." This version of "His Girl Friday" exhibits - in short - exemplary video quality. The B&W picture has been completely restored. Age related artifacts are nonexistent. The gray scale, black and contrast levels are perfectly realized. Fine detail will astound. There are no digital anomalies. The audio is mono but very nicely cleaned up. EXTRAS: This version also includes some very nice - if all too brief - featurettes on the careers of stars Rosiland Russell and Cary Grant and the making of the film. There's also the original theatrical trailer. BOTTOM LINE: This girl is worth seeking out!
Rating:
Summary: The Significance of this Film
Review: As a Film student I have learned a lot about Hollywood and the standard of all their movies back when this film was made. One of the main things that you will see in other films made around this time is that the good guy role is always good and he always ends up with the girl.
Well in this film Cary Grant is really kind of a bad guy and the good guy is played by Ralph Bellamy. Ralph is this sweet natured guy wanting to marry this girl Hildy played by Rosalind Russell. Ralph is your prototypical guy, the kind that your mom wants you to bring home. However Cary Grant is the exact opposite of him. (DO NOT READ NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS FILM)
Cary ends up with the girl and Ralph is sent packing. Besides the girl issue Cary also gets Ralph in trouble, not to mention has Ralph's mother kidnapped. Is that a role of the good guy back in the 30's & 40's? No!
The significance is that the film broke the rules and did great job of doing so.
Personally I'm not a big fan of movies made back before the 60's because most of them aren't all that good. Movies like Casablanca are horrible productions. They refuse to 1) depicit reality and 2) push the bounds of film making and usually keep movies very conservative.
Conservative = FCC = Christian Coalition = Little House on the Praire = Kill me now to stop the pain!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent 30s Comedy
Review: One of the finest examples of 1930s comedy, and an excellent adaptation of a story that has been told many times, *His Girl Friday* is Hollywood at its best. Perfectly pairing Grant and Russell with an excellent script by Charles Lederer, based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's 1931 play, *The Front Page*, it is the kind of studio magic that could occur when the powers-that-be assigned the best work to the best candidates. Grant, whom I found arrogant and repellant later in his career - not to mention redundant - is at his suave-and-smooth best here as Walter Burns, newspaper editor, with the perfect foil in Rosiland Russell. As Hildy Johnson, Burns' ex-wife, Russell plays was in the process of cutting her teeth developing characters like this. Hildy is the archetype that gave Russell her reputation as a fast-talking dame, with machine gun delivery, and a smart-mouthed answer for everything. Hildy is off to marry Bruce, played by Bellamy, but her ex, Walter, still needs her to be his star reporter and cover the execution of a convicted killer. Every early journalistic stereotype is in full force - from reporters who would stop at nothing to get their story, to the city editor with a visor and sleeve-garters. Gene Lockhart, Ernest Truex and Clarence Kolb are all in fine form, but even the finest supporting performances pale against Grant and Russell. They are both delightful in this stylish slapstick farce that had previously been filmed as *The Front Page* (and later, again as *The Front Page* in 1974, and as *Switching Channels*). It also spawned a slew of imitators, not the least of which was TV's *Moonlighting*. Screenwriter Lederer's scripts have a freshness even today - 1995 saw a remake of his script *Kiss Of Death* and 2001 brings us *Ocean's Eleven*, which Lederer wrote the script for in 1960.
Rating:
Summary: BAD DVD, OVERRATED MOVIE
Review: For some reasons I have never been able to get into this film. I find it's madcap antics way too over the top for my taste. Roz Russell and Cary Grant are fine but I have found it impossible to follow the rapid-fire story. Perhaps if we were given a decent DVD transfer, fully restored, I would change my mind. The DVD is so bad its almost unwatchable. This may be the reason I have never been able to get into this movie because the film quality is so poor. This is a film in dire need of restoration because it cannot be fully appreciated. (Just a warning......any time you see a classic film in the bargain bin without the "Turner", "Warner", "UNIVERSAL" or "20th Century Fox" trademark, it is a generic DVD and the quality will be poor. A few others like this......"Penny Serenade, Meet John Doe, A Farewell to Arms"), etc.
Rating:
Summary: Get The Girl
Review: 1940's His Girl Friday is a fast-paced comedy from director Howard Hawks that is has brilliant pacing and performances from Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell. The film is based on the play, The Front Page and had been previously made into a film and those versions concern the professional relationship of two men, Walter Burns & Hildy Johnson. In this version they changed the gender of Hildy to a female and the professional tension of the original is replaced by sexual tension. Though it seems tame today, the erotic electricity & innuendo between Mr. Grant & Ms. Russell was quite groundbreaking for the time. The screenplay has been one of the most influential in film history, with Quentin Tarantino citing it as an inspiration for his script's pacing.
Rating: 
Summary: "What did I treat you like? A water buffalo?"
Review: Walter Burns: I still wish you hadn't done that, Hildy.
Hildy Johnson: Done what?
Walter Burns: Divorced me. It makes a man feel he's not wanted.
Hildy Johnson: Oh, now look junior . . . that's what divorces are FOR! Many films eventually are forgotten as the years go on. Yet, the quality ones like Howard Hawks' "His Girl Friday" not only are still remembered but still hold up remarkably well to this very day. Watching Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant work their magic in this production is proof positive that good films will always remain good films regardless of their age. Reporter Hildy Johnson (Russell) plans to leave her job as a reporter in order to settle down with insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). However, Hildy's boss and former husband, Walter Burns (Grant), does not want to lose her so he offers her the juicy assignment of covering the upcoming hanging of convict Earl Williams (John Qualen) to get her to stick around. Hildy accepts the job but gets more than she bargains for when she encounters the escaped Williams who takes refuge with her. "His Girl Friday" is, more than anything else, a showcase for Russell and Grant. Given a wonderful script to work with, the two leads use their natural charisma to vividly bring to life their respective characters. The art of the verbal quip is refined like never before here as Russell and Grant trade one-liners so deftly and so amusingly that you will be constantly smiling at their playful and witty exchanges. "His Girl Friday" is also a reminder of just how rare it is to find a modern film that has the same type of sharp dialogue. When the medium evolved to showcase spectacle over substance, less concern was directed toward the quality of a screenplay and countless films have suffered for it. Thankfully, there still are films from the past like "His Girl Friday" to remind us that there was a time when Hollywood recognized the value of good writing.
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