The movie begins with Hildy coming to see Walter, having walked out on her job- and her marriage- some time before, fed up with always coming a distant third in Walter's consideration, behind the paper and any major news story. She tells him that she's getting remarried to an insurance salesman named Bruce Baldwin, and settling down to a quiet life in Albany, N.Y.
My favourite romantic comedy is the movie 'His Girl Friday' from 1940. It stars Cary Grant as Walter Burns, Machiavellian newspaper editor, and Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson, his ex-wife and former star reporter. The movie begins with Hildy coming to see Walter, having walked out on her job- and her marriage- some time before, fed up with always coming a distant third in Walter's consideration, behind the paper and any major news story. She tells him that she's getting remarried to an insurance salesman named Bruce Baldwin, and settling down to a quiet life in Albany, N.Y. Walter wants Hildy back, both as his wife and his reporter, and he immediately begins scheming to derail the wedding plans. He talks Hildy into covering one last story, the upcoming execution of Earl Williams, a convicted murderer. Williams is obviously mentally incompetent, but the corrupt mayor and sheriff are eager to hang him for the political good it will do them in the upcoming election. The state governor orders a reprieve for Williams, and a side plot involves the efforts of the sheriff and mayor to keep the reprieve from being served until it's too late. Meanwhile, against her own better judgement, Hildy is being pulled back into the newspaper world by her love of a good story and her competitive nature. When Williams escapes and she finds him, Hildy can't resist the opportunity to scoop the other papers, temporarily forgetting about her fiance and wedding. Speaking of the other papers, their reporters suspect that Hildy's got a big story under wraps and are hot on her trail, while the police search also rages on. All of this provides the backdrop for Walter's wily schemes, which include getting Bruce arrested- several times- and his mother kidnapped. Then, all of these disparate plot lines converge in one place, at one time in a wonderfully zany climax which is brilliant, and absolutely hilarious.
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