Yes! I’m in the middle of those memoirs as we speak. As for the title, I’m sure you know that a “girl Friday” is an assistant, as in Robinson Crusoe. But I’m with you that the title is just off and doesn’t really reflect any big idea of the movie. The posters are very much the same way. One of them has a picture of her in a yellow evening gown with the tagline, “ SHE LEARNED ABOUT MEN FROM HIM!” Did the publicity department not see the movie?
Thanks, explains a lot. Or clarifies. Seen The Front Page (1931)? Adolphe Menjou is a hoot as Walter Burns (but not enough screen time) , while Pat O'Brien tries hard, he’s no Lee Tracy (who played Hildy on Broadway). It’s a little creaky, but some dialog is sharper than the Hawks’ version. Also shows how changing Hildy to a woman was a stroke of genius.
I have never seen TFP, I am embarrassed to say. (Everyone has that list of films they want to see but just haven't yet--this is one of mine.) And yet I've seen HGF a thousand times. It may be something like the idea of why New Yorkers never visit the Empire State Building: they never do because it's always there. But I will!
Also--if you like Hawks as much as I do, we did Twentieth Century two weeks ago--another wonderful film.
“I close the iron door on you”. And, “I yield the lamp of knowledge to no one” (paraphrased). Don't beat yourself up over not seeing TFP. It’s not that great, just fun to see the source material. And Lee Tracy was screwed.
My first exposure to this property was the Billy Wilder 70s version, The Front Page, unfortunately. I mean if His Girl Friday didn't exist it wouldn't seem so bad, but His Girl Friday does exist, along with other superior versions of the original play, and I wonder what Wilder thought he was doing. My parents took me to see it because I loved Carol Burnett, but she was not very good in it, or rather was probably just miscast. I adore His Girl Friday. I love the old screwball comedies and I love movies in which beautiful, glamorous, obsessed, demented, and/or charming people exchange rapid-fire dialogue you'd never hear in real life. It's startling to rewatch movies like that nowadays, when dialogue itself seems deprecated, and even when there is ample dialogue it's either terse, hackneyed, or oddly uncommunicative (inarticulate characters) or just narrates the action like in all Netflix originals, dialogue for distracted viewers.
Same about the love for screwball comedies. I’ve never seen the BW version. When I asked a friend about it, he said it was terrible. I asked how that could be possible—Billy Wilder! That cast! But my friend was steadfast, telling me that it’s almost unwatchable, so I never have.
Hawks had such incredible range. Not an original observation but every once in a while I remember again.
Same!
Hecht's A Child of the Century is a great companion piece to His Girl Friday, also my favorite film. But I never understood the movie's title.
Yes! I’m in the middle of those memoirs as we speak. As for the title, I’m sure you know that a “girl Friday” is an assistant, as in Robinson Crusoe. But I’m with you that the title is just off and doesn’t really reflect any big idea of the movie. The posters are very much the same way. One of them has a picture of her in a yellow evening gown with the tagline, “ SHE LEARNED ABOUT MEN FROM HIM!” Did the publicity department not see the movie?
Thanks, explains a lot. Or clarifies. Seen The Front Page (1931)? Adolphe Menjou is a hoot as Walter Burns (but not enough screen time) , while Pat O'Brien tries hard, he’s no Lee Tracy (who played Hildy on Broadway). It’s a little creaky, but some dialog is sharper than the Hawks’ version. Also shows how changing Hildy to a woman was a stroke of genius.
I have never seen TFP, I am embarrassed to say. (Everyone has that list of films they want to see but just haven't yet--this is one of mine.) And yet I've seen HGF a thousand times. It may be something like the idea of why New Yorkers never visit the Empire State Building: they never do because it's always there. But I will!
Also--if you like Hawks as much as I do, we did Twentieth Century two weeks ago--another wonderful film.
My arbitrary list of great films:
https://open.substack.com/pub/joesurkiewicz/p/the-75-or-so-absolutely-best-movies?r=hhrco&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
So many great ones--we are probably in 90% agreement! The Wages of Fear is a fav. Have you seen Sorcerer? I love them both. Solid, solid list.
Thanks. No to Sorcerer, the Exorcist guy, right? Now added to my to-see list.
“I close the iron door on you”. And, “I yield the lamp of knowledge to no one” (paraphrased). Don't beat yourself up over not seeing TFP. It’s not that great, just fun to see the source material. And Lee Tracy was screwed.
My first exposure to this property was the Billy Wilder 70s version, The Front Page, unfortunately. I mean if His Girl Friday didn't exist it wouldn't seem so bad, but His Girl Friday does exist, along with other superior versions of the original play, and I wonder what Wilder thought he was doing. My parents took me to see it because I loved Carol Burnett, but she was not very good in it, or rather was probably just miscast. I adore His Girl Friday. I love the old screwball comedies and I love movies in which beautiful, glamorous, obsessed, demented, and/or charming people exchange rapid-fire dialogue you'd never hear in real life. It's startling to rewatch movies like that nowadays, when dialogue itself seems deprecated, and even when there is ample dialogue it's either terse, hackneyed, or oddly uncommunicative (inarticulate characters) or just narrates the action like in all Netflix originals, dialogue for distracted viewers.
Same about the love for screwball comedies. I’ve never seen the BW version. When I asked a friend about it, he said it was terrible. I asked how that could be possible—Billy Wilder! That cast! But my friend was steadfast, telling me that it’s almost unwatchable, so I never have.