"Girlfriend Friday" is adapted from the American Broadway drama "Front Page". The play began on August 14, 1929 in the Times Square Theater, with a total of 276 performances, and it was famous for a while. The original drama is based on the Great Depression in the United States and revolves around the case of the unemployed Wilhelms shooting and killing police officers. It reflects from the side the suffering of the people and the political corruption of officials under the economic depression. At the same time, the criticism is directed at the news media industry. dark".
In 1940, the famous director Howard Hawks put the play on the screen and converted a regular drama into a weird comedy, which was successful and further promoted the development of weird comedy genres. The film retains the social criticism theme of the original drama, and exposes various improper behaviors in the media industry through the deceptive tricks of the hero Walter and the indifference and shamelessness of the reporters. At the same time, through the collusion of the mayor and the sheriff, the corruption in vote politics was exposed. Just like the subtitles at the beginning of the film: "The story happened in the'dark age' of journalism-at that time, reporters used everything except murder in order to'get the news.' Perhaps in the male and female journalists in the press today, you You can still see this scene."
Walter in the play is a shrewd and capable media person, but he is always unscrupulous in order to achieve personal goals. As soon as the film opened, he temporarily changed the newspaper’s political stance in order to obtain the governor’s pardon signature. In order to get Hildi back to work at the newspaper, he lied that the reporter in charge of the report was on vacation. In order to gain Bruce's support, he lied about buying insurance, and after completing the procedures, he secretly sent a thief to follow Bruce. In order to stop Hildi's journey, he sent someone to steal Bruce's wallet, set up a bureau for Bruce, paid Hildi counterfeit money, and tried to deceive Bruce's mother. Although the comedy style somewhat weakens the immorality of Walter's behavior, the film expresses a bitter irony of the intriguing journalism through Walter's absurd behavior.
Nothing more positively exposes journalism issues than the two scenes between a media reporter and a weak woman, Molly. In the first scene, Molly walked into the media room with a sad expression. Four reporters sat around the table playing cards. They played and chatted about Hildi's marriage. After Molly came on the field, they continued to play the cards in their hands. One of them said ironically, "I came to see Willems?" The other said, "What can I do with the roses that I gave you tomorrow morning? ??" Sneered at Willems being hanged the next day. This made Molly very angry. She came to clarify the facts. She was not Willems's girlfriend at all, nor was she the confidante they had mentioned in the report, let alone that she was willing to marry him under the gallows. She only met Wilhelms in the street late at night and took him home out of sympathy. Molly explained emotionally. Several reporters still played cards and bet nonchalantly, and finally said impatiently: "We are busy, go see your boyfriend." In addition, she laughed and said, "He stayed. The room is beautiful. But it won’t grow longer. He will have to leave at 7 tomorrow morning.” Molly said, both angry and painful, “It’s strange how thunder didn’t kill you.” The film condemned the reporter through Molly’s mouth. Their reports are all lies. In this scene, the four reporters gathered around the table, taking care of each other, acting in a stubborn manner.
In the second scene, Hildi and Molly hid the escaped Villiams in a huge desk together. At this time, a group of reporters returned, and they discussed where Villiams was hiding. Because of Bruce's mother's failure to speak, reporters attacked Hildi in a group and asked her to tell the whereabouts of Willems. When Hildi was having trouble coping with it, Molly stepped forward and said that she was the only one who knew where Wilhelms was. Reporters flocked to Molly again, forcing her to tell the truth, and finally caused Molly to jump out of the window, who was emotionally out of control. The reporters rushed to the window and heard someone say that she was not dead and was still moving, so they all rushed out the door to grab the news. Molly’s helplessness and weakness are in sharp contrast to the indifference of media reporters, which exposes the news industry’s sensationalism that ignores facts and blindly pursues news.
The film also criticizes vote politics through the actions of the mayor and sheriff. In order to gain the support of the voters, they did not hesitate to kill the innocent by mistake and exchange the lives of others for their political benefits.
While retaining the social critical theme of the original drama, the director successfully transformed the drama into a grotesque comedy. The original drama is all male reporters, and the addition of Hildi makes the movie version add the theme of love. The restoration of a broken marriage is a common story in grotesque comedies, and this movie is no exception. The film begins with Hildi's plan to remarry and ends with returning to Walter's arms. All of Walter's "malicious" actions are aimed at disrupting Hildi's plan to marry Bruce. A pair of quarrelling resentment once again confirms the law of love in the grotesque comedy, that is, the affectionate desire is concealed in the confrontation and conflict between men and women. But from the perspective of genre, this film is different from the existing weird comedies in the setting of the relationship between the characters. The biggest change is the distribution of male and female roles. In early grotesque comedies, such as "A Night in Love" and "Nursing Stories", the dominant and dominant role is usually taken by women, but in this film this role becomes the male protagonist.
Gary Grant shaped the character of Walter with his outstanding acting skills. The choreographer designed a super fast speech rate for him, showing his smart, capable, eloquent, quibble, and self-centered character. Hildi came to say goodbye to him, and it was hard to tell when he was about to marry, but Walter didn't realize it, still talking about it, thinking that with a little trick he could get Hildy back to work. His expression is rich, fast-changing, slick and stubborn and childish. On the other hand, the film shows his heart from the side through his efforts to pardon Willems.
The famous actress Rosalyn Russell has portrayed a mature and charming professional woman, and has injected some feminist themes into this grotesque comedy. Hildi in the film is an excellent female reporter. She has worked with Walter and successfully completed news reporting tasks. But on the other hand, she couldn't bear Walter's fascination with work and longed for a stable and warm family life. For this reason, she chose Bruce, an ordinary but stable insurance salesman, and planned to return to her hometown with him. When she played, she wore a striped jacket and a top hat, but the drooping brim made her charming in addition to the professional appearance. She is as astute as Walter, so she quickly sees through Walter's lies and guards against Walter's plots everywhere. However, in the end, she still did not get rid of the temptation of work and reached an agreement with Walter. In fact, it is not so much that Walter impressed Hildi with the purchase of insurance, it is better to say that his love for journalism made Hildi accept Walter's temptation. She is well versed in the rules of journalism and used money to buy the prison guards. She interviewed Willems to find out the truth about Willems shooting and escaping, highlighting the professional and masculine side. But on the other hand, she also showed feminine delicacy and tenderness: she showed strong sympathy when interviewing Willems, thus winning the trust of the other party; when the reporters treated Molly indifferently, she offered a helping hand. Created an image of a professional woman who is both tough and soft. At the end of the film, she and Walter wrote a report on Willems. She was completely attracted by the reporting work, leaving Bruce and her desired family life behind. However, it should be pointed out that the film finally allowed Hildi to return to Walter's side. Such plot treatment greatly weakened the female's independence consciousness, and the film still remained the patriarchal stereotype of classic Hollywood films.
In addition to the two heroes and heroines, Bruce played by Ralph Bellamy played an important role in contrast. He has a loyal character and a down-to-earth man. As an outsider, he doesn't understand the "darkness" of the media industry at all, and he didn't expect that Walter could be so "treacherous" and was framed repeatedly but still ignorant. His simplicity and nature contrasts Walter's slickness and the bad ethos of the press that Walter represents. There is a good contrast and contrast between the three characters. They set off each other and make the image of the characters more vivid and full.
The whole film is basically composed of a few indoor scenes such as newspaper offices, court media rooms, pubs, etc. However, due to the fast dialogue, concise lines, and humorous scenes, the film is full of strength and arouses the audience's interest.
It is particularly worth mentioning that the film appropriately uses reaction lenses, which enhances the comedy of the plot and scenes, and achieves very good results. For example, in order for Hildi to take over the coverage of the Willems case, Walter agreed to buy a large life insurance. In order to persuade Bruce to let Hildi be the beneficiary of the insurance, he talked about how much he lost to Hildi and how he hoped that she would have no livelihood in her later years, and said, "Don't forget, I love her too." At this time, inserting the shot of Duffy pushing the door in, he couldn't help frowning, and then Walter went on to say: "Maybe she will think of me when I die." At this time, Duffy's reaction lens was inserted again, and he shook his head. Obviously, Duffy’s reaction footage tells the audience that the cunning Walter is acting, and only fools take it seriously. But what is ridiculous is that the unknown Bruce was really moved. He thought about the aging Hildy, his nose was sour, and he took out his handkerchief to blow his nose. At this time, inserting a reaction shot of Walter, he frowned and shook his head back in disgust. This reaction shot not only shows that Walter arranges Hildi as the beneficiary, there must be other deep meanings, but also shows that the simple blues is completely kept in the dark. In this contrast, Walter's sophistication is even more evident. Through the reaction lens, not only the true intentions of the characters are presented, but also the different personalities of the characters are more accurately portrayed, which enhances the comedy of the plot.
In addition to comedy theater scenes, reaction shots are also used in serious plots to convey the author's position. For example, in the scene where Molly scolded reporters, although the reporters were both disdainful and indifferent when Molly was present, when Molly was brought by Hildi, all the reporters present were silent and the whole atmosphere was very dignified. This scene is a reaction to Molly's reprimanding of reporters, and their attitude is to show that everything Molly said is not wrong and irrefutable.
The use of a large number of reaction lenses enables the film to construct a layer of discourse in addition to the lines, actions, and plot. They play different roles, either to annotate the picture, or to express the position of the director, or to create a comedy atmosphere, which well reflects the multi-faceted characteristics of the film's narrative.
With its distinctive artistic characteristics, this film has become a masterpiece of grotesque comedy, and it is also a representative work that fully demonstrates the talent of director Howard Hawkes. Therefore, it has its unique position and value in American film history.
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