Walter: Now, look Bruce. You persuade Hildy to do the story and you can write out a nice fat insurance policy for me.
Today is the 75th Anniversary of the premiere of Howard Hawks classic His Girl Friday (1940). Here's a double sided bitchy moment to savor in which Walter Burns has dangled an insurance policy carrot for Bruce, who doesn't bite but Hildy does, eyeing the green while milking Walter for a bigger payday. Walter feigns objection, while egging Hildy on...
Hildy: [To Walter] You keep out of this! [To Bruce] Alright Bruce, suppose you have Mr. Burns examined over in his office and see what they'll allow on that old carcass of his? If his...
Walter: Say! I'm better than I ever was, I...
Hildy: [To Walter] That was never anything to brag about. [To Bruce] Now, look Bruce I'll go back and change and dress and after you get the check you phone me. I'll be in the press room at the criminal courts building. [To Walter] Walter...
Walter: What?
Hildy: By the way I think you better make that a certified check.
Walter: What do you think I am, a crook?
Hildy: Yes. No certified check, no story - get me?
Walter: It'll be certified. Want my fingerprints?
Hildy: No, thanks. I've still got those.
Hee! Cary Grant's physical comedy in this movie is so finely calibrated it's scary.
In truth I've never loved this movie quite as much as I'm supposed to. I find it hilarious but also exhausting. But I do totally love both of the big triangulated scenes when Ralph Bellamy, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell are all talking (or rather Cary & Roz are talking and Ralph tries to keep up) but no one is really listening or they're pretending to listen or they're selectively listening with an entirely different conversation going on in their own heads. The bookend scene of this one towards the end -- 'I'm leaving on the 9 o'clock' -- displays this more nakedly, but both scenes are incredible: the actors are perfectly attuned to each other's comic timing while also feigning that they're running on completely different clocks in different time zones to boot.
Do actors study screwball comedies to perfect timing and chemistry? They should.
(Great Moments in Screen Bitchery #612: Rosalind Russell & Cary Grant in His Girl Friday)