cinemadaily | Season’s Screenings

“Without ‘His Girl Friday,’ there is no sexy, Tarantino-esque banter (maybe no banter, period; speed limits are flagrantly violated),” writes Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out New York. “On a more personal note, this is a movie that makes journalism seem like the most exciting profession in the world: a job that involves daily flirtations, card playing, smoking, phoning it in (both figuratively and literally) and the strong possibility of hooking up with either Svengali editor Cary Grant or ace reporter and former ‘doll-faced hick’ Rosalind Russell.”

The Village Voice’s Nick Pinkerton: “Hawks set out to break the land-speed record for dialogue, and annihilated it in a run-on of overlapping lines (W. Winchell had been proposed to play Walter, and his staccato delivery found its way in). The movie bears reviewing because there’s always something new in the confetti of one-liners, while its depiction of the Fourth Estate remains relevant: ‘Take Hitler and stick him on the funny page! . . . Keep the rooster story—that’s human interest.’”

“I’m not sure what qualifies Howard Hawks’s endlessly entertaining reconfiguration of ‘The Front Page’ as a holiday movie — probably not its message of ‘good will toward men’ — but any excuse to see this comic masterpiece with an audience is a good one,” writes Dave Kehr.

More from Melissa Anderson in ArtForum.

Watch the trailer for “His Girl Friday” on YouTube.

Among the other seasonal treats being offered: IFC Center has a week-long run of Frank Capra’s perennial favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrates with two Charlie Chaplin favorites early next week.