His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who is about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife, Hildy Johnson, newly engaged to another man. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murderer Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife. The screenplay was adapted from the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. This was the second time the play had been adapted for the screen, the first occasion being the 1931 film which kept the original title The Front Page.
Theatrical release poster
Director Howard Hawks
Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, and Ralph Bellamy in a promotional picture for the film.
John Qualen's character is discovered hiding in a rolltop desk.
Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged, and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.
Bringing Up Baby (1938) is a screwball comedy from the genre's classic period.
A still from a trailer for It Happened One Night
In The Lady Eve, Jean (center, played by Barbara Stanwyck) passes herself off as an upper-class woman.
A promotional photo for the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday