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His Girl Friday



One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever made, His Girl Friday stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson, a standout among cinema's powerful women. Hildy is matched in force only by her conniving but charismatic editor and ex-husband, Walter Burns (played by the peerless Cary Grant), who dangles the chance for her to scoop her fellow newswriters with the story of an impending execution in order to keep her from hopping the train that's supposed to take her to Albany and a new life as a housewife. When adapting Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's smash hit play The Front Page, director Howard Hawks had the inspired idea of turning star reporter Hildy Johnson into a woman, and the result is an immortal mix of hard-boiled newsroom setting with remarriage comedy. Also presented here is a brand-new restoration of the 1931 The Front Page, the famous pre-Code adaptation of the same material, directed by Lewis Milestone.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New 2K restoration of Lewis Milestone's The Front Page (1931), made from a recently discovered print of the director's preferred version
• New interview with film scholar David Bordwell about His Girl Friday
• Archival interviews with director Howard Hawks
• Featurettes from 1999 about Hawks, actor Rosalind Russell, and the making of His Girl Friday
• Radio adaptation of His Girl Friday from 1940
• New piece about the restoration of The Front Page
• New piece about playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht
• Radio adaptations of the play The Front Page from 1937 and 1946
• His Girl Friday trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays on His Girl Friday and The Front Page by film critics Farran Smith Nehme and Michael Sragow

Werewolf by Night wrote:

Looks more like an interview or video introduction than a "commentary."

More Bordwell extras are always welcome, no matter how they are formatted!

I wonder if they record commentaries like this, giving them the latitude to use the material in a variety of ways.

Seems it would make it more intimidating, less relaxing and intimate for the commentary maker.

Doesn't the angle he's being shot at seem a little weird? It's all Errol Morris, right-in-your-face, rather than a more traditional, rule-of-thirds documentary composition.

Of course everyone knows that best way to discuss His Girl Friday is in silhouette in front of an attentive audience!

Hooray, two discs to account for a remastered version of The Front Page! Great bonus.

Moment of silence for Kino and their now useless Front Page Blu-ray that came out recently

Very amused to see not one, not two, but three separate radio adaptations being included.

domino harvey wrote:Moment of silence for Kino and their now useless Front Page Blu-ray that came out recently

Which I just watched and enjoyed last week. #-o

Well, the Kino Blu does include a commentary, so perhaps not entirely useless for those who already have it?

It does? The Blu-ray.com review doesn't mention it

I wish The Front Page had gotten its own spine. The differences between the American and international versions are really fascinating, and I saw how much work went into this restoration at the AMPAS' recent restoration festival.

domino harvey wrote:It does? The Blu-ray.com review doesn't mention it

It's mentioned in the DVDBeaver review. I don't own the disc myself, so I can't comment on its quality.

The booklet for the release has now become an insert.

Bressonaire wrote:The booklet for the release has now become an insert.

$50

It's still eighteen quid on Amazon.co.uk. Presumably even cheaper for colonial raiders with VAT deductions.

Wow The Front Page does not look good. The audio is very rough of the Kino, but I prefer a film in rough shape being shown as is rather than what appears to be a not great restoration.

Criterion is charging us an extra ten bucks for that? Turns out Kino owners are having the last laugh in yet another twist as we wind down the year

Though if this is an alternative cut with entirely different shots, then it's good that both versions are now available (even if the one on Criterion's disc is of poorer visual quality).

Drucker wrote:Wow The Front Page does not look good. The audio is very rough of the Kino, but I prefer a film in rough shape being shown as is rather than what appears to be a not great restoration.

Judging from the screenshots I agree.
The Kino looks much better.

But don't worry.
The Dr will make it look stellar and'll try to convince everyone that the Kino is actually the inferior one! So, all's well

To be fair, I saw the Front Page on one of those horrid PD DVDs and while it's an okay movie I kind of doubt I'll ever watch it again, so it's not like I won't be picking this up regardless on the strength of the A-feature. I just would prefer not have had to pay a premium on top of a premium to do so

Before you all go and grab your pitchforks, perhaps some research might be pertinent.

The source element used for the restoration was a black & white composite print of the film’s U.S. version discovered in the University of Nevada Las Vegas’s Howard Hughes Collection. The print was produced in the 1970s from the now lost original camera negative. Pogorzelski and Linville compared the print to surviving copies of an alternate European version and noted significant differences in action, dialogue and camera placement throughout. The U.S. version has not been seen in decades.

Looks like the restoration was done by MTI Film - who also worked on Lawrence of Arabia, Taxi Driver, etc. So this is certainly the best the print will ever look.

Granted, it hasn't held up as well as Kino's Library of Congress print of the European cut, but this should still be celebrated for finally being able to see the original version of the film.