Monthly Archives: March 2010

His Girl Friday (1940)

Posted on by
1
2010 #2
Howard Hawks | 88 mins | TV | U

His Girl Friday is an acknowledged classic — 19th on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs, 58th on Empire’s 500 Greatest, 106th on They Shoot Pictures’ 1,000 Greatest, 245th on IMDb’s Top 250, preserved by the US’s National Film Registry, and countless other such accolades — so you probably don’t need me to tell you why it’s so good. But it really, really is.

The dialogue flies at phenomenal speed, dragging an ever-changing plot along with it, the funny lines at times literally on top of each other as they tumble to get out. No modern comedy would dare move so fast. It’s clever and witty, the characters apparently in on the joke too, and despite some black plot points it’s always hilarious and, somehow, never disrespectful.

If you ever meet anyone who claims all old black & white films are slow, simple and boring, show them this. And if you ever meet anyone who hasn’t seen this, show them it; and if you haven’t seen it, watch it; because it’s brilliant, and, despite being on so many lists, one wonders if some rate it too lowly.

5 out of 5

His Girl Friday placed 7th on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2010, which can be read in full here.

A ¼ through 2010

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve probably overdone this ‘gag’ already (either that or it’s on course to be A Grand Tradition), but I’m going to allow myself a bit of self congratulation on this occasion.

After only just scraping to 100 films in 2008, and falling notably short last year, it’s good to find things finally going well: as the title may’ve led you to guess (considering we’re about 31 days away from genuinely being a quarter of the way through the year), I’ve already made it to 25 new films seen this year. Hurrah!

Number-wise, I should’ve made it to just 16 by now (“should’ve” meaning “if I wanted to hit 100 on New Year’s Eve moving at a regular rate”). Last year I’d reached a pathetic 7 at this point — 9 short, where this year I’m currently 9 ahead. It’s like some kind of symmetry. In 2008 I was still short at 12, while in the first year — which ultimately totalled 129 — I’d made it 21. Hopefully, this bodes well.

(To put it in a different context, in other years I reached 25 in mid March 2007, early May 2008 and mid May 2009.)

Pat on the back over, it’s back to actually watching films. 25 in two months — 150 by the end of December? Well, we’ll see..