His Girl Friday
Movie Review
"Under Howard Hawk's direction, the cast has acknowledged the clamoring script with performances
that are hard, brittle and strained to the breaking point, if not somewhat beyond, as though they were waiting for the camera
to look the other way so they could collapse with honor. Cary Grant's Walter Burns is splendid, except when he is being consciously
cute, Mr. Bellamy's woe-begone insurance man, Gene Loekhart's Sheriff Hartwell, Ernest Truex's sob-brother, Helen Mack's Mollie
Malloy, John Qualen's Earl Williams, and—most especially—Billy. Gilbert's governor's messenger, Joe Pettibone,
are faces that stand out in the swirling hubbub. Except to add that we've seen "The Front Page" under its own name and others so often before we've grown a little tired of it, we don't mind
conceding "His Girl Friday" is a bold-faced reprint of what was once—and still remains—the maddest newspaper
comedy of our times."
Frank S. Nugent - The New York Times
January
12, 1940
