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With its fast-paced, overlapping dialogue recorded on multiple microphones, His Girl Friday marked a technical breakthrough for sound recording. Robert Altman would use a similar approach decades later for such trend-setting films as M*A*S*H (1970) and Nashville (1975).

Although Hawks was no great supporter of feminism, most of his leading ladies would become icons for the movement. "That happens to be the kind of girl I like," he would say, "so it's fun to be with 'em. I know 'em better. You might term them honest and direct" (Hawks quoted in Lizzie Francke, Script Girls: Women Screenwriters in Hollywood). Among Hawks' liberated women are the characters played by Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946) and Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

This was the film that established Rosalind Russell's screen identity as a tough working woman who could hold her own with any man.

His Girl Friday was also one of the films that established Russell as one of the screen's top comediennes. She made it in the wake of her surprise success in The Women (1939), and it would lead directly to her return to Columbia Pictures for one of her signature roles, would-be writer Ruth Sherwood in My Sister Eileen (1942).

His Girl Friday was the first of five films Hawks would make with screenwriter Charles Lederer. The other four were I Was a Male War Bride (1949), The Thing (From Another World) (1951), Monkey Business (1952) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

This was the third of Hawks' five films with Grant. Previously they had teamed for the screwball comedy, Bringing Up Baby (1938) and the action film Only Angels Have Wings. They would re-team for two more screwball classics, I Was a Male War Bride and Monkey Business.

Although His Girl Friday runs just 92 minutes, the shooting script was 191 pages long, with enough dialogue for a much longer film. The shorter running time resulted from director Howard Hawks' use of overlapping dialogue throughout.

Where the average rate of human speech is 100-150 words per minute, the dialogue in His Girl Friday has been timed at 240 words per minute.

Newspapermen visiting the set kept commenting on how fast the dialogue in the 1931 film version of The Front Page had been played. Finally director Howard Hawks screened both versions on side-by-side projectors to prove that his version was faster.

In the original play, Hildy wants to leave his reporting job in Chicago to move to New York City and get married. For this remake, Hildy works in New York and dreams of domestic bliss in Albany.

Except for the film's final moments, His Girl Friday has no musical score.

Two inside jokes in the film: Grant refers to a man named Archie Leach, which was the actor's real name, and says that Russell's fiance looks like "That actor - Ralph Bellamy," who actually played the role. Both were ad-libs.

Another inside joke: when Grant is pushing John Qualen, as the convicted killer, back into the roll top desk, he says, "Get back in there, you Mock Turtle." Grant had played the Mock Turtle in the 1933 film version of Alice in Wonderland.

Russell's striped suits were inspired by the look of newspaperwoman-turned-screenwriter Adela Rogers St. John.

Cary Grant flunked his first screen test, made while he was working on Broadway. Executives at Paramount Pictures rejected him because of his "thick neck and bowed legs." He had to drive to Hollywood to finally land a contract.

Grant and Bellamy had played out a similar relationship (divorced husband and ex-wife's fiance) in The Awful Truth (1937), the film that had established Grant as a top comic actor.

Bellamy had performed in The Front Page as a member of George Cukor's stock company in the '20s, playing reporter Hildy Johnson.

During filming, Grant introduced Russell to theatrical agent Frederick Brisson. They would marry a year later - a first for both - and stay together the rest of their lives. Eventually, Brisson would move into producing, where those who didn't care for him nicknamed him "The Lizard of Roz."

by Frank Miller

Famous Quotes from HIS GIRL FRIDAY

"There's been a lamp burning in the window for ya, honey."
"No thanks -- I jumped out that window a long time ago." -- Cary Grant, as Walter Burns, trying to win back Rosalind Russell, as Hildy Johnson.

"Oh, Walter, you're wonderful -- in a loathsome sort of way." -- Russell, as Hildy Johnson, voicing her devotion.

"I intended to be with you on our honeymoon, Hildy, honest I did." -- Grant, as Walter Burns, trying to smooth things over with Russell, as Hildy.

"Well, I don't want to brag, but I've still got the dimple and in the same place." -- Grant, as Burns, flirting with Russell.

"You're losing your eye -- you used to be able to pitch better than that." -- Grant, responding when Russell throws her handbag at him.

"This is war -- you can't desert me now." -- Grant, trying to convince Russell to cover the execution.

"Nice little town, Albany. They've got a State Capitol there, you know." -- Ralph Bellamy, as Bruce Baldwin.

"Bruce, I uh¿let me get this straight. I must have misunderstood you. You mean you're taking the sleeper today and then getting married tomorrow." -- Grant as Burns, deliberately misinterpreting Russell's travel plans

"I'm better than I ever was."
"That was never anything to brag about." -- Exchange ad-libbed by Grant and Russell when he asks about getting life insurance.

"You know, Hildy, he's not such a bad fellow."
"No, he should make some girl real happy."
"Uh-huh."
"Slaphappy."
"He's not the man for you. I can see that. But I sort of like him. He's got a lot of charm."
"Well, he comes by it naturally. His grandfather was a snake." -- Bellamy, as Bruce Baldwin, discussing Grant with Russell.

"He looks like, um, that fellow in the movies, you know, Ralph Bellamy." -- Grant, describing Bellamy, as Baldwin.

"Now get this, you double-crossing chimpanzee! There ain't gonna be any interview and there ain't gonna be any story. And that certified check of yours is leaving with me in twenty minutes. I wouldn't cover the burning of Rome for you if they were just lighting it up. And if I ever lay my two eyes on you again, I'm gonna walk right up to you and hammer on that monkey skull of yours 'til it rings like a Chinese gong!" -- Russell, telling off Grant.

"And that my friends, is my farewell to the newspaper game. I'm gonna be a woman, not a news-getting machine. I'm gonna have babies and take care of them. Give 'em cod liver oil and watch their teeth grow." -- Russell, bidding goodbye to her fellow reporters.

"All right, now here's your story. The jailbreak of your dreams. It seems that expert Dr. Egelhoffer, the profound thinker from New York, was giving Williams a final sanity test in the Sheriff's office -- you know, sticking a lot of pins in him so that he could get his reflexes. Well, he decided to re-enact the crime exactly as it had taken place, in order to study Williams' powers of co-ordination...Of course, he had to have a gun to re-enact the crime with. And who do you suppose supplied it? Peter B. Hartwell, 'B' for brains...Well, the Sheriff gave his gun to the Professor and the Professor gave it to Earl, and Earl shot the Professor right in the classified ads...No 'ads.' Ain't it perfect? If the Sheriff had unrolled a red carpet and loaned Williams an umbrella, it couldn't have been more ideal" -- Russell, back on the story after a startling new development.

"Take Hitler and stick him on the funny page...No, no, leave the rooster story alone - that's human interest." -- Grant, re-formatting the paper to take advantage of the jail break.

"Well, the last man who said that to me was Archie Leach, just a week before I cut his throat." -- Grant, referring to his real name.

"We've been in worse jams than this, haven't we, Hildy?"
"Nope." -- Grant and Russell after their arrest.

Compiled by Frank Miller