His Girl Friday (4K) + Winter Matinees Launch

Join us in the cinema for the new 4K restoration of the quintessential screwball comedy starring sparring partners Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

Cary Grant is newspaper editor Walter Burns in Howard Hawks’ breakneck comedy. A sore but repentant loser, Burns is intent on winning back his ex-wife and ace reporter, Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell), who’s just about to hang up her press badge and set up house with an insurance salesman.

When a front-page story breaks the day before Hildy’s nuptials, Walter pulls out all the stops to thwart her plans to settle down and win his spirited career gal back.

Curator’s Note

A matinee is no time for complacency. You’ll need your wits about you for this whip-smart and whirlwind screwball comedy – one of the quintessential films of the subgenre – believed to hold the record for the fastest dialogue of all time at 240 words per minute.

Adapted from the 1928 play The Front Page, His Girl Friday flips the gender of the play’s main character, turning the male reporter into one of Howard Hawks’ brassy, tough-talking “Hawksian women”, played to perfection by Rosalind Russell.

This new digital restoration of His Girl Friday premiered at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Venezia Classici Award for Best Restored Film.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)