‘His Girl Friday’: THR’s 1939 Review

On Jan. 11, 1940, Columbia bowed director-producer Howard Hawks’ newspaper comedy His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

With the original Hildy Johnson of the Hecht-MacArthur newspaper yarn, Front Page, metamorphized into Hildegarde Johnson and played by Rosalind Russell, Columbia has made a fast-moving, always interesting picture out of the story. There may, and probably will be those who will say it is not up to the former version, but it nevertheless furnishes good entertainment.

In the present version, Hildegarde is the former wife of the editor, played by Cary Grant, and instead of wishing to retire, as did Hildy, she wants to marry an insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy). It is to prevent this marriage that the complications, instigated by Grant, ensue. Also, the twist of making the star reporter a woman gives opportunity for some new situations, of all of which good advantage is taken.

Miss Russell plays Hildegarde for all there is in the role and scores a fine personal triumph. And right here credit should go to the dialog writers who gave her and the other characters lines that really sounded as if newspapermen were talking. Grant is both suave and forceful as the editor, giving delightful emphasis to some of the sly humor in his role, especially when he and Hildegarde are reunited at the finish.

Ralph Bellamy is good, as always, as the insurance salesman, and John Qualen does a capital job as the psychopathic criminal. Molly Malloy, as his one friend, is excellently played by Helen Mack, especially in her emotional scenes. The scene in the press room in the courts building is as striking as ever, and the reporters, played by Ernest Truex, Porter Hall, Cliff Edwards and others are very good, as are all the others in the cast.

Gene Lockhart, in a role smaller than his usual ones, was excellent. Howard Hawks maintained a fast pace in his direction, overlooking no chance to inject punches into the picture, and as a producer he did an equally good job. Joseph Walker’s photography is well up to standard. The writers have, wisely perhaps, toned down the language of the original version, although it is still lusty entertainment. — Staff byline, originally published on Nov. 30, 1939.