Watch out, spoilers!
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This time the film Howard Hawks “His Girl Friday” / His Girl Friday, 1940, shot in the genre of eccentric comedy. I would say that it is not only eccentric, but also acutely satirical, and plays not only the human qualities of the characters, but also the way they conduct their affairs, not disdaining absolutely nothing, decent among them very few. Based on the play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur "The Front Page" / The Front Page, which was extremely popular, in addition to this film adaptation, it was filmed three more times, and one of them was the adaptation of Billy Wilder. In the film, Howard Hawks made significant changes to the plot - first of all, one of the main characters was a female reporter Hildy Johnson, she was played by Rosalind Russell, while in the original and other adaptations it was a man, the role of the second main character - the editor of the newspaper Burns was played by Cary Grant, respectively, the past of the heroine and the reasons why Hildy wanted to leave the newspaper changed.
Former high-profile reporter Hildy Johnson reports to the newspaper, run by her ex-husband, whom they divorced, to inform him that she is finally leaving and marrying a modest insurance agent Bruce Baldwin. Burns still loves Hildy and does not want to let her go, so he tries to keep her, which she does not want to hear at first, but eventually agrees to write a final report, interviewing the inmate who is going to be executed the next day, in exchange for Burns getting insurance from her husband for a $1,000 reward. And then all this rather crazy action begins, in which all the characters manifest themselves, and Burns manifests himself, among other things, as an inveterate crook. In the soul of Hildy, who has already decided to exchange this crazy life for a normal one in a quiet city with a loving husband, this desire struggles with her reporting essence, because of which she can also destroy everything. Events happen with great speed, the characters speak very quickly, literally interrupting each other, the picture changes, as in a kaleidoscope. Interestingly, there is absolutely no musical accompaniment in the film, except in the credits. The end is predictable. Why the name? The term Man Friday became an idiom to describe an especially faithful servant or one's best servant or right-hand man. The July 1, 1912, edition of the news magazine “Industrial World”, volume 46, issue 2, published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uses the term Girl Friday. The title of the 1940 movie His Girl Friday alludes to it and may have popularized it.
The film is very good, technically for that time shot generally well, and, of course, the actors are good.