“His Girl Friday” ( 1940, Howard Hawks)
As we now suffer under the alternate reality of a totally politicized news industry, it’s hard to find any humor in the mendacity of its forebears a century ago. It’s not funny, it’s despicable - and “The Front Page” just serves to normalize it. Even more despicable is centering the drama on the careers of phony journalists while some poor witless soul may or may not be executed for murdering a black policeman. (was that really a serious crime back then?) The cynicism of “The Front Page” is unbearable - and not especially lightened by the stylized facial antics of the liar-in-chief, Adolph Menjou.
But it is lightened with the breezy dialog, camera movements, and gender change given the story a decade later in “His Girl Friday”. The grim premise of the story recedes beneath a light and frothy surface that can be played over and over like a classic song. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel are wonderful together - and so are their costumes. It’s curious how there is no sexual tension in their romantic relationship - just a light hearted zest for goofiness. Wonderful moments with the press corps as well - so you can ignore how depraved they all are. Well, it was 1940 after all - so I guess you can appreciate it as a way of coping with the impending doom of total war on a scale never seen before. ( Hitler even gets mentioned in the dialog).
Also liked the hopeless sincerity of Ralph Bellamy, playing the poor sod who thinks he’s found a wife.
Isn’t he just begging to be deceived? His dreams are smashed, but he sells life insurance, so we know he had it coming. Ah, cruelty.
The craft of American movie making traveled a long way between 1930 and 1940.
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