One of the defining films of the screwball comedy genre, His Girl Friday was released to an indifferent audience in 1940. However, because Columbia failed to renew its copyright, the film lapsed into the public domain and steadily grew an appreciative cult audience due to constant broadcasts on TV stations in need of cheap timeslot filler. It's now considered one of the strongest films produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood and is a core entry in the filmographies of director Howard Hawks and co-leads Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
Ryan is joined by Rachel for a discussion about how His Girl Friday plays into the history and evolution of romcoms. One talking point is how the movie's cheeky, rapid-fire badinage has influenced everything from Quentin Tarantino to Aaron Sorkin to the Marvel movies. Other things brought up include Cary Grant's ad-libs, how the script dances around the restrictions of the Hays Code, the story's approach to political corruption, how Hildy's gender altered (and didn't alter) the movie's plot, the film's oddly-buried racial subtext, and how His Girl Friday playfully nods to its thematic roots in Shakespeare and Austen.
