*Spoilers Ahead, Duh*
A 1940s film, His Girl Friday, directed by Howard Hawks, is precisely what was expected. A movie about a silly, impatient, naive woman being shown the way by a young and strapping Cary Grant. Except that he is terrible and has a very familiar fragile male ego that cannot accept ‘no’ for an answer. We were so frustrated at some points we both just kept saying, “how in God’s name is she still around this man!?” Basically, Rosalind Russel plays Hildy, Cary Grant’s ex-wife. She used to work for The Post, but comes to the office after weeks away on vacation and tries to quit. Cary Grant says no, and spends the entire movie wrapping her up in work and schemes to get her to stay. Surprise, she leaves her new-future husband for her ex-husband. They spend their time covering the murder of a Black police officer from a white man trying to prove him innocent. Go figure for a 1940s film that references Hitler so casually. There is also a woman who jumps out the window because men belittle her for the entire movie, so that’s a hoot.
The black and white film wasn’t all that bad though when you take out the murderer, the suicide, and kinda ditzy woman, it’s a pretty good movie. Hildy seemed to be a spunky young lady and definitely had some impressive sass to her. She wasn’t too far off from many leading ladies we see in movies today, having some passion but ultimately trading that in for the man. It should be stated though that she was going to leave a newspaper job to be a housewife, so the fact that she stayed isn’t all that bad. Just a bummer if she actually wanted to be a housewife, but traded it in for a man who convinced her to leave that option.
Recommendation: Watch if you want to see a short, mindless, pretty basic, old film.
Rating: 11/20
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