His Girl Friday is today’s Classic Tuesday film, a press release from the National Gallery, Castellani House has said.
The 1940 classic Hollywood comedy from acclaimed director howard hawks, tells the story of hard-driving newspaper editor walter burns (cary grant), who tries to keep his ace reporter, who also happens to be his ex-wife hildy Johnson (Rosalind russell) in his life by preventing her from marrying a dull businessman (Ralph bellamy) and moving to suburbia.
His ruses include arranging false arrest, kidnapping and tempting hildy to cover a breaking story, the escape from custody of a convicted murderer, the release said.
It noted that the film was based on the 1928 hit broadway play, the front page, written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles Mc Arthur, the film version was adapted to make one of the two male leads a woman while kepping the rapid-fire and cross-talking dialogue intact.
The film is included in the top 20 of the American Film Institute’s List of 100 Greatest Comedies of American Cinema, which was released in 2000. The release said that the film’s witty commentary on the manipulations of hard-bitten pressmen and cynical local politicians vying for the attention of the public is as relevant and as entertaining today as it was 72 years ago.
The film is an hour and 30 minutes long and admission, which is open to the public, is free.
