Skip to main content

Classic Movie Monday: "His Girl Friday"

Related image
"Oh, what's the use? Walter, you wouldn't know what it means to want to be respectable and live a halfway normal life." Hildy Johnson - His Girl Friday

          When His Girl Friday came out, way back in 1940, society was in a place where women were still not fully integrated into the work force. For the most part, women worked in clerical or sales work and they were often faced with hostility from many of the men that worked with them. Women working in journalism was a rare thing, and that is where this film takes place.
          There are many things that make this a great film, but one of the things that I admire the most about it is how ahead of its time it was. It wasn't just the fact of placing Hildy (Rosalind Russell) in a male-dominated work environment, it was the fact that Hildy was a character who was respected and admired by her male peers. There are multiple comments throughout the film from the male reporters where they praise Hildy and truly admire her work. This was one of the first times that women were shown as being capable of being successful in this sort of environment.
          Staring opposite Russell was Cary Grant, one of the biggest movie stars ever. If you've ever seen a movie with Cary Grant, then you know how charismatic he was. Grant's onscreen presence was big enough to overshadow many of the people he shared the screen with. That was not to be the case in this film, however. Rosalind Russell was able to stand toe-to-toe with Grant and effortlessly trade barbs with him. 
          If you're wondering why you should invest 90 minutes of your life into watching this film, I'll give you a few reasons:
1. It is incredibly relevant. Although we have come a long way as a society from where we were in 1940, it doesn't mean we are perfect. There are many work industries that are still heavily dominated by men. There is still a huge gap in what men and women are paid. His Girl Friday isn't afraid to show a woman as being equal to a man. We are in dire need of more films like this to help empower those who have been consistently undermined by society.
2. It's a timeless classic. Despite being released in 1940, this is a film that you can watch today and it'll still hold up really well. There really isn't any part of the dialogue that is completely outdated. Yes, it's in black-and-white and the outfits are obviously not from this era, but this is a story that you could tell today without changing much and it would still make sense.
3. It's an all-time great. His Girl Friday  has long been regarded as one of the best romantic comedies ever made. This is screwball at its finest, using a relentless pace in its dialogue to make this a unique watching experience. 
          So, there you have it. His Girl Friday is funny, charming, witty, innovative and provides great social commentary. If you're new to classic films, this serves as a perfect introduction to Cary Grant as well as legendary director Howard Hawks, who directed other classics such as The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby (also starring Grant) and the original Scarface! It's the perfect film to watch if you're tired of modern films that always follow the same formula. It's truly unlike anything you can find nowadays.
          His Girl Friday can be found for FREE on YouTube. This is a film you definitely won't regret watching!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: "Ready Player One"

There aren’t very many directors who have had quite the career that Steven Spielberg has. The man who directed the very first blockbuster in  Jaws , is the same man who has put together some of our most beloved films such as the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , Jurassic Park , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , and the Indiana Jones series. It’s the same man that, aside from giving us these wonderfully imaginative films, has also given us hard-hitting dramas such as Schindler’s List , Lincoln and Bridge of Spies . His career has spanned 50 years, and the 71-year-old director shows no signs of slowing down. With his latest film, Ready Player One , Spielberg once again delivers an awe-inspiring film that captures the wonders of the imagination. It stars Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts/Parzival, Olivia Cooke as Samantha Cook/Art3mis, Ben Mendelsohn as the villainous Sorrento and Mark Rylance as OASIS creator James Halliday. The film takes place in 2045 Columbus, Ohio. In this futuristi...
Post a Comment
Read more

First Teaser Trailer for Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur"

Image via GalleryHip The first teaser trailer for Disney-Pixar's The Good Dinosaur  has been released and it hit all the right notes. As most teaser trailers, this one didn't show too much. In fact, the first half of the trailer is spent looking at meteors in space. Yet about halfway through, we are asked what would have happened if the meteor that killed the dinosaurs never actually hit the planet, and then we get our first look at dinosaurs from the film as they casually look up from their food to see the meteor shoot by over their heads. After that scene, we are shown a bunch of action shots from Arlo and Spot's (our protagonists) adventure. There is no dialogue in this teaser and we never get a clear shot of our heroes. In fact, the one real shot we get of them comes at the very end and it comes in the form of a side shot as they are running through a mountain. But even though this teaser is very limited, it kept me smiling all throughout it. More importantly t...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's Your Favorite Scary Movie?

What is it about horror movies that draw audiences in to see them?   There is the thrill of being scared, sure, but is that really as far as it goes? I think not. You see, more than any other genre, horror films are a product of their generation and they typically speak to or highlight the societal issues that are going on around the time that a given horror film is made.   In many ways, horror films help us understand or comment on important issues such as race ( Get Out ), sexuality ( It Follows ), and mental/physical/emotional issues ( The Babadook ). Horror is a genre with many faces but for this particular article, I will touch on what I believe to be the best horror subgenres, the slasher film, and discuss why they are important.              I can understand why people may be a bit turned off by slasher films. In many ways they are a lot closer to reality than a monster or demonic horror movie. Many slasher films...
Post a Comment
Read more