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Unpopular Opinion: His Girl Friday is the worst The Front Page adaptation, by far!


I have to start by saying that The Front Page is one of my favorite comedies ever.

I can't ignore His Girl Friday's huge cultural importance. It's a 1940 movie about a divorced woman with a career, and depending on how old you are, you might have no idea how many taboos it was breaking. In fact, it wasn't long ago that divorced women were treated like lepers; parents wouldn't let their kids hang out with kids from divorced women because they would be a bad influence and all that stupid conservative moralistic religious stuff. Also, it wasn't until recently that women started to be treated seriously in the workplace. Hildy is unapologetic, confident, fearless, competent, and respected for her work. She doesn't bow down to anyone, and she could be a poster girl for strong and independent women. But this is a comedy movie, and I'm here for laughs.

Often figuring in All Time Best Comedies' lists, and although being a good movie, it pales in comparison to the other two adaptations. I'm not going to complain about the gender swap, but how it's handled. Despite being the shorter movie, the first 30 minutes are all about setting the relationship between Hildy and Walter, reminiscing their past, and some half-assed divorcee jokes. It's basically 30 minutes of them discussing their relationship, leaving very little for the actual great story of the play. Although Rosalind Russell's performance is great, I don't think Cary Grant's delivery is good at all. He is just talking very fast all the time. Howard Hawks made a point of having fast dialogue, perhaps thinking it was the speed that created the intense chaotic hilarious atmosphere of the play, and not the events piling up one after another. In terms of pacing, I'd say the 1974 Billy Wilder adaptation does it best. You discover Hildy and Walter's relationship dynamics organically through the movie, and the story progresses steadily. I'd say Wilder also had some of the best jokes, like Walter cornering Peggy at the theater, and the family waiting at the train station. I also thought the removal of the annoying mother, to whom Walter was rather violent, and the addition of the novice reporter, which led to hilarious gags happening on the side of the screen, were great. Wilder's epilogue was also priceless. Ultimately, I think the best change was how Pincus/Pettibone/Plunkett was handled. While his last scene is a shameless Deus ex machina that barely fits the story in the other movies – I mean, the guy was going to come back in the morning – Plunkett being arrested while police sweep brothels just to win votes before the election, and they finding him in jail, was great.

There is one thing I don't think Wilder did best, and despite the great synergy between Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and the best overall writing, the cast of the original 1931 Lewis Milestone film was perfect. I think everyone was portrayed better; yes, Hildy, Walter, and Pincus weren't as well written, but the Sheriff and the Mayor are way better, same as the convict and his girlfriend. I also found Bensinger a tad too stereotypical in Wilder's film and more balanced in Milestone's; I'd say the same for the psychiatrist.

Besides the stuff I already said the 1974 version did better, there are some awkward things in the 1931 one, like the improvised sing-alongs by the characters and Hildy leaving the scene while dancing with the cleaning lady and spending an unexplained amount of time off-screen; I mean, how can they sing-along to an improvisation? And that leaving-stage scene was a bad translation of the stage play. So overall, my favorite The Front Page is the third one – and this might be as unpopular as saying His Girl Friday is the worst. All its changes were for the better, but I don't think the side characters were as well handled as in the first movie. Meanwhile, His Girl Friday, despite the taboo breaking, there is nothing I can say it did better.