Adapted from the classic Broadway comedy "The Front Page". The play is known for its exquisite plot and extremely fast dialogue, and it has been featured on the big screen many times. This film is its second film adaptation. Before and after, there were brilliant performances of Lewis Milestone and Billy Wilder (both copied the original names), and they even nominated for the best film Oscars and Golden Globes respectively.
The biggest difference between this film and the original stage play is that one of the protagonists, Hildy, has changed from a male to a female, and his boss Walter has become his ex-husband. In this way, a love triangle is added to Hildy's marriage and resignation, which adds to the joy. It is said that this change came from the whim of director Howard Hawks: one day the female secretary read him Hildy's lines, and he found that it seemed more interesting to interpret the role by women, so he hired a screenwriter to rewrite the script. Another version of this story is that at a dinner party, Howard Hawks improvised the dialogue from the original stage play with a female guest, which made him suddenly have the urge to make this film and the idea of changing gender.
As written in the opening caption card, this film shows reporters who are unscrupulous or even have no moral bottom line in order to dig out the news. There was only one scene in the original stage play, namely the press room of the Chicago Criminal Court; all newspapers sent reporters stationed there, and the group played cards while overlooking the gallows behind the prison for fear that the world would not be chaotic. The male protagonist Walter in the film is a master, he is only newsworthy, he is unremarkable and cynical, and there are quite a few cocky two generals under him; the heroine Hildy is just because he can't bear moral condemnation and is seriously disturbed. Life just wants to go far and high. Of course, while using reporters as the protagonists, the film also satirizes corrupt and incompetent police authorities. For example, the case involved in the film was in the early stage of the election. The mayor made a big fuss about a "communist who killed a black policeman" in an attempt to win black votes by condemning him to death. He pretended not to receive an amnesty order to lure the governor's envoy into a classic.
This film is a representative of the so-called screwball comedy (screwball comedy, or neurocomedy) that emerged and flourished in the 1930s and 1940s. This type of comedy is characterized by tit-for-tat confrontation between men and women, fast-paced witty and humorous language, and farce plots. While the film has the above characteristics, it is especially overlapping (that is, one actor's line has not been finished, and the next line of another actor has begun), one-to-many (such as Hildy facing cross-examination by multiple reporters) , Parallel (such as two people calling at the same time) dialogue history.
"Girl Friday" comes from "man Friday", which in turn derives from Robinson's loyal servant and friend "Friday" in "Robinson Crusoe". Therefore, "man Friday" or "girl Friday" in English idioms refers to a person's loyal and capable helper. The literal translation of "girl Friday" is really nondescript.
The heroine Rosalind Russell, who was already a comedy star at the time, came on top after a group of big names refused to appear. Slightly dissatisfied, she asked someone to polish her lines to make the role more plump, and her style is as good as Cary Grant, who plays the role of the opponent. Although the two were not nominated for this film, they both gradually embarked on the road of superstars. Interestingly, they have been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, but their fate is completely opposite: Rosalind Russell won all the awards (this record was not broken by Aunt May until 2007), and Cary Grant was not.
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