Hadn't seen it in awhile and I'd forgotten how dark and misanthropic it is. The mid section, without Cary Grant, and featuring various corrupted Chicago institutions like the press, the penal system, and ward politics, is profoundly cynical. That the viewer tends to think of it more as a screwball rather than a black comedy is due of course to Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur and Charles Lederer's brilliant dialogue, some of the greatest rapid fire wisecrack stuff in Hollywood history, right up there with Sturges and Wilder who also hid their dislike of humanity behind fast patter. Give it an A. PS...Grant is great but it's Roz who carries this film (i.e. She's in far more scenes than he). Best thing she's ever done, in my humble.
Review of His Girl Friday
