Thoughts on His Girl Friday (1940)

One of my favorite films is His Girl Friday.

His Girl Friday facts:
Director Howard Hawks,
Script Charles Lederer (based on a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur),
script download: http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/His-Girl-Friday.html
Film download: http://archive.org/details/his_girl_friday
View on youtube: youtube.com
HGF awards: It is #19 on the AFI's list of the funniest movies.

The film (and script) is in the public domain. The play The Front Page is not in the public domain at this time (2013).



Opening

This screwball comedy film opens with a dolly shot of the busy offices of the Morning Post. (The script online lists the shots as well as the usual dialog, etc). Next, we have the entrance of Hildy Johnson (Rosiland Russell), ex-wife of Walter Burns (Cary Grant), into the newspaper office where she was a star reporter and Walter continues to be managing editor. Hildy is accompanied by her bland, meek new fiance Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), who waits for her while she talks with her ex-husband privately. The camera tracks (a "trucking shot" as the script says) her walking from the elevator to Walter's office, as she issues confident friendly greetings to everyone along the way. She opens Walter's (closed) door, knocking only after she is inside. Rapid-fire comedic dialog reveals their background - she divorced him because she was tired of playing second-fiddle to his zeal for reporting the news. She quit her job as a reporter months earlier, and has only shown up to tell him to stop phoning her "a dozen times a day" and sending her "20 telegrams" asking her to come back. It's clear the story will be about Walter, somehow, trying to win back Hildy's heart. Walter manufactures an emergency, and he begs Hildy to help him out with one last reporting job.



Midpoint

Walter, the managing editor, has conned Hildy, a talented reporter, into helping him write one more story - a story about a convict Earl who is to be hanged. It is an important story, but she doesn't realize at first that the convict is not mentally competent. She realizes he is a simple sympathetic character and agrees to write the story before she is about to leave on her trip with Bruce. The midpoint occurs when Earl escapes. The story was about her escaping Walter, and running away with Bruce who will give her the home she dreams of. After the midpoint, she realizes her passion for reporting and the story it becomes about her reporting Earl's escapade.



Ending

In terms of a three act structure: In the first act, we learned that Walter, the managing editor of a paper, is divorced from Hildy but is still in love with her. Hildy's world is upside-down, but she doesn't realize it yet. In the second act, she is helping him write one more story. In act 3, Hildy, in the press room, and tells Walter that she used $450 of Bruce's money to pay Cooley to tell her the "exclusive" scoop on how Earl got the gun to escape. She has now switched her motivations. Walter says "Now, listen, Duffy -- I want you to tear out the whole front page... That's what I said -- the whole front page! Never mind the European war! We've got something a whole lot bigger than that. Hildy Johnson's writing the lead ..." Hildy forgets Bruce and gets caught up in the excitement of front-page reporting. As a result, the governor issues a stay of Earl's execution, by reason of insanity. When Hildy agrees to stay forever, Walter proposes and promises a two-week honeymoon, in Niagra Falls. However, it is via Albany, NY, where there is a workers strike that they will be covering. Order is restored to the world.

Script writing forum

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A quote from the movie:

WALTERWhat's the use of fighting, Hildy? I'll tell you what you do. You come back to work on the paper, and if we find we can't get along in a friendly fashion, we'll get married again.

HILDY Oh Walter, you're wonderful - in a loathsome sort of way. Listen, Walter, you are no longer my husband and no longer my boss. And you're not going to be my boss.

WALTERAll right, take it. Work for somebody else. That's the gratitude I get.