His Girl Friday

Howard Hawks, 1940, bw (9.0*)
This remake of the Ben Hecht play The Front Page, also made as a film by Lewis Milestone in 1931, has absolutely classic comedic banter between Cary Grant and ex-wife Rosalind Russell as news reporters on a big homicide case. Apparently fearing she wasn't getting many good lines, Russell hired an outside writer to give her some lines to 'improvise' during the shooting. The result is a rapid fire, news teletype style of back and forth wisecracking that's practially the archetype for this style of comedy, often copied on tv sitcoms but never with this much energy.

The story of a convicted murderer about to be executed and escaping takes a back seat to the subliminal romantic repartee of the two stars - Cary Grant was never better, never this sharp again. It's like the Thin Man series on steroids, or a case of Red Bull to start the newsday. This is my favorite Howard Hawks film, maybe his most classic of all. It certainly had an influence on many other comedies to follow. It may be too energetic and 'relentless' to some, but to me Hawks managed this frantic pace well and showed everyone how it could be done.

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To Have and To Have Not

Howard Hawks, 1944, bw (7.6*)
This was the sultry Lauren Bacall’s dazzling screen debut, as she steals this version of an Ernest Hemingway story from star Humphrey Bogart, as well as his heart, soon becoming Mrs. Bogart (anyone can see why!). William Faulkner actually co-scripted this story (with Jules Furthman), very reminiscent of Casablanca (from 2 years earlier), of a selfish American in French Vichy territory, in this case Martinique. Bogart runs a deep-sea fishing charter service with alcoholic buddy Walter Brennan, apparently here for humor, and tries to remain apolitical. Victor Buono steals scenes as a polite but slimy Vichy official hunting down anti-Nazis on the island. Obviously not as good as Casablanca, and bogged down by some unnecessary songs (Bacall sings! but 3-4 times? down a star for this...), but still worth seeing as an example that era’s romances, where the war was present but took a back seat to onscreen seduction.
Quote: Waz ya ever bit by a dead honey bee? (Brennan)
Quote2: You do know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow. (Bacall)

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The Big Sleep

Dir: Howard Hawks, 1946, bw (8.1*)
Gritty, atmospheric, classic film noir from Raymond Chandler’s book (who always excels with gangster dialogue), with Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe, Lauren Bacall as the sophisticated heiress he gets involved with, who’s trying to get someone to save her sister from a crime boss.

This was such a convoluted plot involving heiresses, drugs, gangsters, and gunplay, that even the screenwriters didn’t know who killed one victim. One of a kind, with pulp novel dialogue and gunshot victims scattered all around. William Faulkner wrote the adaptation!

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