His Girl Friday

Ex-Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's "The Front Page" may be the greatest of all newspaper plays, but none of the other movie versions matches this snazzy remake. [04 May 2001, p.C1]

The play is hilarious, and Hawks enlivened it with his famous staccato direction. He gives no breaks for viewers to laugh without missing the next line. The brilliant dialogue comes so thick and fast that you almost have to tape the film to get it all. So, do. [31 Mar 2000]

With great verbal athleticism, the film earns its reputation as one of the fastest-talking comedies ever made.

His Girl Friday is satire of the highest order.

Casting is excellent, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in the top roles.

They no longer make the fizzing, dangerous compound that is Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell’s chemistry in His Girl Friday.

Roughest spots in the original versions have been sandpapered or excised, the pressroom’s whiskey cynicism toned down to half of one per cent, but the comedy still has enough Hecht-MacArthur kick to make later interpolations smell synthetic.