Though everyone complains about remakes now, in the Golden Age there was no television and no DVD and BluRay, so once a film had played in cinemas it was retired to the studio's vaults. Though sometimes an older film would pop up on the bottom half of a double bill with a new film featuring the same star, for the most part there was no way for the public to see a film once it had left the cinemas... So remakes were not just tolerated, they were often welcomed. The story would be like an old friend dropping into the cinemas a few years later wearing new clothes. This chapter began with Howard Hawk's “The Big Sleep”, based on one of the Marlowe mysteries by Raymond Chandler (who wrote “Double Indemnity” - it's all connected!) but the previous Marlowe film “Murder My Sweet” based on the novel “Farewell My Lovely” was actually the second film based on that book made in the same year! And the version of “The Maltese Falcon” that starred “Big Sleep”s Humphrey Bogart was the *third* version of that novel made within ten years! Imagine two remakes of a popular film ten years after the original had been released!
Just as the second version of “The Maltese Falcon” featured some sex changes, the second version of the hit film “The Front Page” featured a sex change which altered the dynamics of the film, and made it unlike the original. Instead of a pair of bickering buddy reporters, “His Girl Friday” features Cary Grant as reporter Walter Burns and Rosalind Russell as Hildy Johnson – his reporter ex-wife... who is about to be married to the most boring man in the world, insurance agent Bruce Baldwin played by Ralph Bellamy. Because Walter is still in love with her, he does everything to break up their impending marriage and win her back.
WALTER
There's been a lamp burning in the window for ya, honey.
HILDY
Oh, I jumped out that window a long time ago.
Walter's scheme for keeping Hildy around long enough to make her fiance look like an idiot involves a convicted murderer sentenced to be executed on the following morning – and the reporter who was supposed to be covering the story stuck in the hospital with a pregnant wife. Could Hildy do him a favor and interview the condemned man? Only take a minute. Hildy tells her fiance about the slight delay...
BRUCE BALDWIN
He's got a lot of charm.
HILDY
He comes by it naturally. His grandfather was a snake.
Walter knows that Hildy is a great reporter, and she when she interviews the condemned man she discovers clues to his innocence that everyone else has ignored... and begins her own investigation. Which means she's working with Walter again, and he can work his magic on her.
WALTER
Wish you hadn't done that, Hildy.
HILDY
Done what?
WALTER
Divorced me. Makes a fella lose all faith in himself. Gives him a... almost gives him a feeling he wasn't wanted.
HILDY
That's what divorces are *for*!
The great thing about this film is that Hildy is no wimpy woman – *she's* the ace reporter... and she also gets many of the great lines. One of the keys to banter in a rom-com is that the two characters must be evenly matched. These days women characters are “girlfriends” and “wives” but seldom *equals*. Banter doesn't work if one of the characters is dominant because all of the insults become less playful and more real. These scripts need strong female leads who are just as quick and clever and *powerful* as the men.
WALTER
Look, Hildy, I only acted like any husband that didn't want to see his home broken up.
HILDY
What home?
WALTER
"What home"? Don't you remember the home I promised you?
As Walter schemes against Bruce and tries to win back Hildy, evidence mounts that the condemned man Williams was innocent... and he escapes! Walter and Hildy find him, and hide him under a desk right in the middle of the press room as the police search the building.
REPORTER 1
Any dope on how he escaped?
REPORTER 2
Maybe the sheriff let him out so Williams could vote for him.
Everything gets solved by the end of the film, and Hildy comes to realize that she is not cut out to be a suburban house wife – her character arc showing us her gradual change back to investigative reporter – and she ends up in Walter's arms again.
HILDY Walter!
WALTER What?
HILDY
The mayor's first wife, what was her name?
WALTER
You mean the one with the wart on her?
Right.
WALTER Fanny!
Um, where was her wart? Remember that one of the elements of fast paced dialogue is sentence length. You want to keep the sentences short and to the point so that they can be fired off like a machine gun! Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's “The Front Page” was made in 1931, this rom-com version, then in 1945, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1970 (TV), and a Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau version directed by Billy Wilder (who directed “Double Indemnity” - it's all connected!) in 1974 plus a version about TV reporters starring Christopher Reeves called “Switching Channels” in 1988. Why do they keep making it? Great situations and that amazing banter! Hopefully they will keep remaking your script again and again because of your amazing dialogue. The techniques in this Blue Book give you a head start – now all you need to add is your own talent and wit... and all of those words!
Good luck and keep writing! - Bill