His Girl Friday Response

11.     How did the movie reflect (or criticize) the era of Pulitzer and Hearst in their approach to news?

     It was get the news fast, get it first, and get it out.  Not a whole lot of fact checking being involved or even thought on future consequences to the subject of the story.  It is such a fast paced movie with the dialogue sped up; it was over before you knew it started.  I think that really must have been what that era was like, with so many competing newspapers all with the same resources and newsworthy stories to pull from, it must have been a mad-dash every day trying to find the story, write it and get it out first before your competitor. 

22.     How do the film’s characters violate journalistic ethics?

    So many times.  The entire basis of the movie is questionable ethics; it’s what makes it so funny.  From paying out sources, lying to reporters, to kidnapping witnesses and harboring a criminal inside the newsroom, His Girl Friday is full of journalistic ethical follies.  However, I think with the blatant disregard for a moral code, it almost highlights what good ethical behavior a journalist should have, do everything opposite of Walter Burns. 

33.     Did the characters “Minimize Harm?”

     No.

44.     Do the film’s characters remain independent and neutral?

     Not at all.  All of them are working on an angle, working with some other story in mind, thinking how they can spin it to win over public affection.  I love the scene when the Prisoner escapes and all of the reporters run back to their phones, with hardly any facts, each spewing off a completely different story that would entertain their audience.  So funny.

55.     The Front Page, on which “His Girl Friday” is based, is said to be “an old-fashioned valentine to journalism and American life.” How is that so?

     Old-fashioned valentines were never cheapened by commercialism as they are nowadays.  They were really ornate and meaningful, having the card itself being represented as the gift.  I think that despite the satirical ethics involved, His Girl Friday and The Front Page represent that true form of journalism.  Hildy has to get this story because she is so passionate about the field; she can’t step away from it, even for her own wedding.  This was the only way people were being informed, they were dependant on the newspaper and their reporters, and though it was a cutthroat business to get into, it truly was full of adventure.  A “golden-age” you could almost say.

66.     In its first incarnation, the “Front Page” was loudly criticized by the highbrow newspapers of the time. One wrote, that reporters were made to look more like gangsters than a moderately well off businessman. Do you agree?

     I agree somewhat.  With Walter Burns go-to man character, he basically was a true gangster; handing out counterfeit money, kidnapping the Mother-in-law, putting Hildy’s fiancé in jail on multiple accounts, all in the name of the story yes, but actions of a true 1940’s gangster, complete with the Italian accent.  Even in Walter Burns character you see hints of it from his Zoot Suit clothing to his at-all-costs attitude.  However, although I’m sure the movie and play were dramatized quite a bit, it can’t be too far off when it comes to down to whether you get the story or you don’t.  

77.     The original version featured two men, as did a later version with Walter Matthau (Walter Burns), Jack Lemmon (Hildy Johnson) and Susan Sarandon (Peggy Grant). How did the woman Hildy change the dynamics? What does it say about women in journalism?

     It completely changed the dynamic I think.  When Hildy goes in to get her interview with the prisoner, in my mind (being a female) it stood out to me how tender and soothing she was talking to the prisoner to get him to talk.  I kept thinking, “Wow, it’s the woman’s touch” something a man couldn’t have gotten out of him! Although I’m sure that’s slightly biased, I think a woman brings something a man can’t.  Even down to when Hildy is comforting the girlfriend of the prisoner, no other man was doing that and it ended up benefiting her in getting the complete story with the girlfriend on her side.