k8cre8 | His Girl Friday

Happy Birthday to Kristen Bell! Without her, Veronica Mars would not be the same.

Today is Monday, the day we type about movies, and the business of movies. Yes, I’ve been listening to NPR, why do you ask?

Given movie prices, as I mentioned last week, I’m going to review some old classics. However, due to bad planning, this one, while undeniably a classic, isn’t on any list of great films. That’s okay, it has Cary Grant, and that’s enough for me.

This is a screwball comedy that has inspired 4 re-makes. I’ve seen one of them. It’s rare that the source material can inspire that many remakes, and have each of them feel fresh. The reason? The success of this film, in any of its carnations, is in its dialog.

His Girl Friday is most notable for its incredibly witty script that moves at a lightning-fast speed. If you think the banter of The Gilmore Girls is fast, put it on steroids, and you have His Girl Friday. Lines overlap, words run together, and phones get juggled. It’s an aerobic exercise for the brain, and sometimes, it’s a bit much. Repeat viewings help, but, it’s likely that some of that dialog will remain mysterious. There are times, when as many as 5 different lines of dialog are blazing along simultaneously, and it often comes out as mud.

The plot is really only a place to hang great dialog. Don’t expect the plot to make any real kind of sense, it’s over-the-top ridiculous, and is the weakest part of the film, but it’s only meant to give the characters something to talk about. This is why the film can succeed in its various incarnations. Cary Grant, as always, shows his flair for comedy, and Rosalind Russell is a great “sparing” partner for him.

While there are numerous spots where the dialog slows down to a speed more typical of the average human, the movie slows down too much, and while it might seem to be a nice rest, it also becomes almost boring, as the energy drops off the screen. There are also some nice long shots that track action left to right and right to left across the screen, which were well executed, and I think were not as common in the 1940s as they are now.

As compared to the one remake of this film that I’ve seen, a 1990s film called Switching Channels, starring Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds, I’m torn. I think much of the dialog is better in the original, but, Switching Channels doesn’t suffer from the precipitous drops in energy that mar its ancestor. Also, the dialog doesn’t overlap as it does in His Girl Friday, making it possible to appreciate it.

The inventiveness and genuine wittiness of the dialog was once a staple of Hollywood, and it’s sadly largely disappeared. When this type of repartee is done well, it’s a rare and wonderful treat. Thank goodness for The Gilmore Girls.