TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

From our Correspondent

His Girl Friday

His Girl Friday

Howard Hawks
1940 - United States - 1h32

Screenings : friday 26 - 10:00 pm - Pathé - 1

A journalist goes to see her former editor and ex-husband to tell him that she is going to marry an insurance agent. Out of jealousy, he tries to send her off on a report to buy himself some time and get rid of the other suitor.

Adapted from Ben Hecht's play The Front Page, His Girl Friday is one of the most famous “screwball comedies” in the history of cinema. Hawks had the idea of making Hildy Johnson a woman, unlike in the play, to inject a reflection on gender politics in society. But above all, he subjected his actors to a frenetic rhythm (the script actually reaches a rate of 240 words a minute) transforming the dialogues between Walter Burns, editor-in-chief of the Morning Post, and his ex-wife into a whirlwind of wordplay and misunderstandings. Behind this zany “re-marriage comedy” lies a satire on the popular press and a disenchanted view of American society in the aftermath of the financial crash.

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall,Ernest Truex, Cliff Edwards, Clarence Kolb
Screenplay : Charles Lederer
Cinematography : Joseph Walker
Sound : Lodge Cunningham
Editing : Gene Havlick
Music : Morris Stoloff, Ben Oakland

Production : Columbia Pictures

French distributor : Park Circus