His Girl Friday

Howard Hawks directed the black and white film His Girl Friday in 1940. According to Tim Dirks, His Girl Friday is Howard Hawks' speedy and hysterically funny, modern-style screwball comedy, and one of the best examples of its kind in film history. The film marked the beginning of a number of screwball comedies in the 1940s that emphasized the conflict for women in deciding between love/marriage and professional careers.

During the film, Hawks shows how hard it is for someone to quit something that they were born to do i.e. Hildy and the paper. These lines in the film contribute to this idea: Walter- You’re a newspaperman you can’t quit, Hildy – That’s why I am quitting. Going some place where I can be a woman. Hildy and Walter are very similar in the idea of manipulating people to get what they need or in some cases the story they need. Walter manipulates Bruce in the film several times one in particular is writing him a bad check. Hildy manipulates Earl Williams, the man in trial, into getting an exclusive story for the paper. Another similarity is how well they compliment each other. They have experiences and personality traits that compliment each other and have that Bruce and Hildy could never have. An example is when Hildy kicks Walter under the table and they both take rum in their coffee.

After reading Lauren Rabinovitz’s critique of the film, seems to lend a better understanding of the film after reading what she has to say. Although film critic Molly Haskell praised the way that the movie allows a woman to find her identity in a non-domestic sphere, Hildy still faces rather restrictive options— marriage to home, children, and pallid Bruce or marriage to career and ego with a maniacal Walter. Hildy's choice to remain with the press is less a decision to relinquish her "feminine" longings for home and family than a commitment to the continued excitement and kinetic activity of the world of journalism. Her decision to remarry Walter grows out of their mutual understanding, respect, and love for professionalism. Hildy's ultimate decision for an active, motion-filled life is her only possible choice in a "Hawksian" world. As Hawks himself suggested, her solution is the only way that she can work up enough sense of speed so that she won't have to think about how limited her options really are and how bad life really is. Throughout the 1940s, career-marriage decisions for women provided the crises in several screwball comedies. His Girl Friday marked the transition from the subversion of women working for ends other than marriage to more explicit statements regarding money-marriage-sex roles in the genre in the 1940s (Rabinovitz, Lauren).

This film has a universal theme that is relatable for future generations. This film also shows that things are not always black and white. Women still have to decide whether to have a family or to be competitive in the work force. Yes, we have gotten better on this issue than compared to the past but still have a ways to go. Women have also become more independent and self sufficient. Some women on the other hand would rather have a man take care of them for the rest of their lives which send mix signals to not only the men but society as a whole.