Poster for His Girl Friday
Jesse Pasternack explains what makes Cary Grant’s work so dazzling in the indelible rom-com His Girl Friday.
His Girl Friday (1940) is full of great performances. There’s the iconic and hilarious one given by Rosalind Russell, the sweet and subtly funny one given by Ralph Bellamy, as well as a plethora of fantastic small turns given by character actors whose faces may be more familiar to you than their names. But the best one is given by Cary Grant as the film’s male lead because of how he embodies the film’s essence.
This movie is about former reporter Hildy Johnson (Russell), who wants to retire from journalism to marry kind yet dim insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Bellamy). But her ex-husband and former editor Walter Burns (Grant) wants her to write one last story before she retires. Her reluctant decision to do so plays out over the course of one night, as Johnson wonders if she is making the right choice.
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday
One of the things I love about Grant’s performance is how it seems to dictate the tempo of His Girl Friday. When he slows down to think, so does this movie. When he speaks so fast that his words practically explode out of his mouth as he barks orders and trades snappy repartee with Johnson, so too does the film’s pace quicken. At times he feels like a human drum because of how his performance controls the velocity of those around him.
In addition to his influence on the rhythm of this movie, Grant’s performance perfectly reflects its attitude towards professionalism. His Girl Friday is a paean to the joy of working, and nobody is more committed to their job than Burns. When Johnson rails at him for having made her spend their honeymoon covering a strike, Burns replies, “I’m proud of it! We beat the whole country to that story!” It’s a line that could have been spoken to convey Burns’s focus on his job as being detrimental to his life, but Grant yells it joyfully. Every single one of Grant’s snappy line readings or physical gestures conveys how much Burns loves his work and that it makes him happier than anything else, except maybe Johnson. But even their relationship began due to and was nurtured by his work. It’s telling that one of the scenes where they act most harmoniously, which also leads to some of the film’s funniest lines, is when they work together on an article.
Grant and Russell busy at work as Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson
There isn’t a weak performance in His Girl Friday. But none of them quite capture its quicksilver spirit quite like the one that Grant gives as Burns. His brilliant recitation of its snappy dialogue and ability to convey the joy of being totally focused on your work reflect this brilliant comedy’s spirit and passion better than any other performance in it. Watching him work is a joy, just like this film as a whole.
His Girl Friday will be screened at IU Cinema on September 7 as part of the series Everyone Wants to Be Cary Grant.