Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 [describing Bruce]
Walter Burns: He looks like that fellow in the movies - Ralph Bellamy.
Walter Burns: Hey, Duffy, listen. Is there any way we can stop the 4:00 train to Albany from leaving town?
Duffy - Copy Editor: We might dynamite it.
Walter Burns: Could we?
Walter Burns: We`ve been in worst jams than this, haven`t we, Hildy?
Hildy Johnson: Nope.
Walter Burns: You`ve got the brain of a pancake. This isn`t just a story you`re covering - it`s a revolution. This is the greatest yarn in journalism since Livingstone discovered Stanley.
Hildy Johnson: It`s the other way around.
Walter Burns: Oh, well, don`t get technical at a time like this.
[Joe brings a reprieve for Earl Williams from the governor]
Fred, the Mayor: Who else was there when he gave you this?
Joe Pettibone: Nobody. He was out fishing.
Fred, the Mayor: [to Sheriff Hartwell] Get the Governor on the phone.
Joe Pettibone: No, he`s not there. He`s out duck shooting.
Fred, the Mayor: The blasted nimrod... fishing, duck shooting! A guy who`s done nothing for the last forty years but play pinochle gets elected governor and right away he thinks he`s a Tarzan!
Walter Burns: What were you when you came here five years ago - a little college girl from a school of journalism. I took a doll-faced hick...
Hildy Johnson: Well, you wouldn`t take me if I hadn`t been doll-faced.
Walter Burns: Well, why should I? I thought it would be a novelty to have a face around here a man could look at without shuddering.
Walter Burns: You`ve got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, `til death do us part.` Why divorce doesn`t mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.
Molly Malloy: If you was worth breaking my nails on I`d tear your face wide open.
Sheriff Hartwell: Aiding an escaped criminal and a little charge of kidnapping.
Fred, the Mayor: Well, looks like about ten years a piece for you two birds.
Walter Burns: Does it?
[unimpressed]
Hildy Johnson: If you think you`ve got The Morning Post licked it`s time for you to get out of town.
Fred, the Mayor: Whistling in the dark. Well that isn`t going to help you this time. You`re through.
Walter Burns: Listen the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat.
Walter Burns: Madam, you are a cock-eyed liar!
Louis: What`s the matter, Hildy?
Hildy Johnson: Don`t give me that innocent stuff! What did you pull on Mr. Baldwin THIS time?
Louis: Who, me?
Hildy Johnson: Yes, you and that albino of yours!
Louis: You talkin` about Evangeline?
Hildy Johnson: None other!
Louis: She ain`t no albino.
Hildy Johnson: She`ll do `till one comes along!
Louis: She was born right here in this country!
Hildy Johnson: Walter!
Walter Burns: What?
Hildy Johnson: The mayor`s first wife, what was her name?
Walter Burns: You mean the one with the wart on her?
Hildy Johnson: Right.
Walter Burns: Fanny!
Walter Burns: Let`s see this paragon! Is he as good as you say?
Hildy Johnson: Why, he`s better!
Walter Burns: Well then, what does he want with you?
Hildy Johnson: Ah-ha-ha, now you got me!
Walter Burns: Well well... how long is it?
Hildy Johnson: How long is what?
Walter Burns: You know what... how long is it since we`ve seen each other?
Walter Burns: Sorta wish you hadn`t done that, Hildy.
Hildy Johnson: Done what?
Walter Burns: Divorced me. Makes a fella lose all faith in himself. Gives him a... almost gives him a feeling he wasn`t wanted.
Hildy Johnson: Oh, now look, junior... that`s what divorces are FOR!
Hildy Johnson: [speaking to Walter on the phone] Did you hear that? That`s the story I just wrote. Yes, yes, I know we had a bargain. I just said I`d write it, I didn`t say I wouldn`t tear it up! It`s all in little pieces now, Walter, and I hope to do the same for you some day!
[hangs up emphatically]
Hildy Johnson: [to the other reporters] And that, my friends, is my farewell to the newspaper game.
Hildy Johnson: I wouldn`t cover the burning of Rome for you if they were just lighting it up!
Hildy Johnson: [speaking of her fiance] He treats me like a woman.
Walter Burns: Oh he does, does he? Mm-hm... how did I treat you? Like a water buffalo?
Hildy Johnson: [to Walter] Listen to me, you great big bubble-headed baboon!
Hildy Johnson: [speaking to Walter on the phone] Now, get this, you double-crossing chimpanzee: There ain`t going to be any interview and there ain`t going to be any story. And that certified check of yours is leaving with me in twenty minutes. I wouldn`t cover the burning of Rome for you if they were just lighting it up. If I ever lay my two eyes on you again, I`m gonna walk right up to you and hammer on that monkeyed skull of yours `til it rings like a Chinese gong!
Walter Burns: Look, Hildy, I only acted like any husband that didn`t want to see his home broken up.
Hildy Johnson: What home?
Walter Burns: "What home"? Don`t you remember the home I promised you?
Hildy Johnson: All I know is that instead of two weeks in Atlantic City with my bridegroom, I spent two weeks in a coal mine with John Krupsky. You don`t deny that, do you Walter?
Walter Burns: Deny it? I`m proud of it. We beat the whole country on that story.
Hildy Johnson: [shouting] Well, suppose we did. That isn`t what I got married for!
Walter Burns: [on the phone] Well Butch, where are you?... Well, what are you doing there? Haven`t you even started?... Listen, it`s a matter of life and death!... Well, you can`t stop for a dame now! I don`t care if you`ve been after her for six years. Butch - our whole lives are at stake! Are you going to let a woman come between us after all we`ve been through?... Butch, I`d put my arm in fire for you, up to here. Now you can`t double-cross me... Put her on, I`ll talk to her.
[talking to the woman]
Walter Burns: Oh, good evening madam. Now listen, you ten-cent glamour girl. You can`t keep Butch away from his duty!... What`s that?... You say that again, I`ll come over there and kick you in the teeth!... Say, what kind of language is that? Now look here you. -
[makes a noise like a horse, hangs up]
Walter Burns: She hung up! What did I say?
Hildy Johnson: I suppose I proposed to you?
Walter Burns: Well, you practically did, making goo-goo eyes at me for two years until I broke down.
[impersonates Hildy, flutters his eyelashes]
Walter Burns: "Oh, Walter." And I still claim I was tight the night I proposed to you. If you had been a gentleman, you would have forgotten all about it. But not you!
Hildy Johnson: [hurls her purse at him] Why, you - !
Walter Burns: [ducks and her purse barely misses him] You`re losing your eye. You used to be able to pitch better than that.
Walter Burns: [ducking from Hildy`s throw and reaching for the ringing telephone] Oh, you`re losing your arm! You used to be able to pitch better than that.
Walter Burns: Bruce, I, uh... let me get this straight. I must have misunderstood you. You mean you`re taking the sleeper today and then getting married tomorrow?
Bruce Baldwin: Oh, well, it`s not like that.
Walter Burns: Well, what`s it like?
Hildy Johnson: Poor Walter. He`ll toss and turn all night. Perhaps we better tell him Mother`s coming along, too.
Walter Burns: [to Hildy] Mother? Why, your mother kicked the bucket!
Bruce Baldwin: No, my mother, my mother.
Walter Burns: Oh, your mother. Oh, well, that relieves my mind.
Hildy Johnson: [to Walter] It was cruel of us to let you suffer that way.
[to Bruce]
Hildy Johnson: Isn`t Walter sweet? Always wanting to protect me.
Bruce Baldwin: [Concerning Walter] I like him; he`s got a lot of charm.
Hildy Johnson: Well he comes by it naturally his grandfather was a snake.
Wilson, reporter: Any dope on how he escaped?
McCue, reporter: Maybe the sheriff let him out so Williams could vote for him.
Hildy Johnson: [speaking on the phone to Bruce] There`s an old newspaper superstition that the first big check you get, you put in the lining of your hat. In your hat! It brings good luck.
Murphy: I`ve been a reporter for 20 years - I never heard that before.
Hildy Johnson: [to Murphy] Neither did I.
Hildy Johnson: Walter, you`re wonderful, in a loathsome sort of way.
Walter Burns: Listen, you insignificant, square-toed, pimpled-headed spy.
Walter Burns: Take Hitler and stick him on the funny page.
Walter Burns: What do you think I am, a crook?
Hildy Johnson: Yes.
Walter Burns: There`s been a lamp burning in the window for ya, honey... here.
Hildy Johnson: Oh, I jumped out that window a long time ago.
Walter Burns: Diabetes! I ought to know better than to hire anybody with a disease.
Bruce Baldwin: Mighty nice little town, Albany. They`ve got the state capitol there, you know.
Sheriff Hartwell: Please don`t call me `Pinky`.
Murphy: Why not?
Sheriff Hartwell: Because I got a name, see... and it`s Peter B. Hartwell.
McCue, reporter: What`s the "B" for?
Murphy: Bull.
advertisementHildy Johnson: [Hildy`s on the phone telling Walter how Earl Williams escsaped] Of course he had to have a gun to re-enact the crime with. And who do you think supplied it? Peter B. Hartwell. B For brains.
Trivia
Ginger Rogers wrote that she was offered the role of Hildy Johnson. She read the script, but this was before Cary Grant was cast, and she turned it down. After learning that Grant was cast, she regretted it.
The Front Page opened at the Times Square Theater on August 14, 1929 and ran for 276 performances.
The only music is in the first and last two minutes of the film.
During the 1930s, Howard Hawks was hosting a dinner party when the topic of dialogue was brought up. He pulled out a copy of "The Front Page" to demonstrate the snappy exchanges between characters, taking the role of Burns. A female guest took the role of Hildy. While reading, Hawks realized the dialogue sounded much better with a female reading, and quickly secured the rights for the film from Howard Hughes. Ben Hecht (the author of "The Front Page") approved the gender change and the screenplay was put into production.
Jean Arthur, the first choice by studio head Harry Cohn, turned down the role of Hildy Johnson because she and Howard Hawks had been cool to each other during the filming of Only Angels Have Wings (1939) the year before.
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
The incident with Walter and Hildy hiding escaped killer Earl Williams in a desk in the city room was based on a real incident. Emile Gauvreau, the editor of the old New York City paper "The New York Evening Graphic", hid an escaped killer in the city room of the newspaper, interviewed him, wrote the story and waited until the paper was on the street before turning him over to the police.
Voted #10 in Total Film`s 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time list (November 2005).
Rosalind Russell resented the fact that she wasn`t the first choice to play Hildy for director Howard Hawks. She showed up to the audition with her hair wet from swimming.
Rosalind Russell was borrowed from MGM for this film.
Jean Arthur was the first choice to play Hildy. Among the other actresses who also turned down the role were Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, Claudette Colbert and Irene Dunne.
The play that this movie was based on ("The Front Page") had a famous last line: "The son-of-a-bitch stole my watch!" While the line and the plot points leading up to it didn`t fit into "His Girl Friday", they did pay homage to it by having the first crime that Burns framed Baldwin for be the theft of a watch.
The restaurant scene was written directly for the movie and took twice the time to shoot than expected: four days. The difficulty resided in the editing, since the characters had to eat, and the background actors kept walking around.
Rosalind Russell thought, while shooting, that she didn`t have as many good lines as Cary Grant had, so she hired an advertisement writer through her brother-in-law and had him write more clever lines for the dialog. Since Howard Hawks allowed for spontaneity and ad-libbing, he, and many of the cast and crew didn`t notice it, but Grant knew she was up to something, leading him to greet her every morning: "What have you got today?"
In the play the film was based on ("The Front Page"), the part of Hildy was played by a man. When director Howard Hawks was planning to make the film, he was going to cast a man. While auditioning actors, a secretary would read the lines belonging to Hildy. Hawks loved the words coming from a woman so much, they decided to rewrite the part for a woman.
One of the first, if not the first, films to have characters talk over the lines of other characters, for a more realistic sound. Prior to this, movie characters completed their lines before the next lines were started.
The famous in-joke about Ralph Bellamy`s character ("He looks like that actor...Ralph Bellamy!") was almost left on the cutting room floor: Harry Cohn, the studio head, saw the dailies and responded in fury at the impertinence, but he let Howard Hawks leave it in, and it has always been one of the biggest laughs in the film.
Burns tries to describe Bruce Baldwin, played by Ralph Bellamy. He ends up saying that he "looks like that film actor, Ralph Bellamy".
When Earl Williams tries to get out of the roll-top desk, Burns (Cary Grant) says: "Get back in there, you Mock Turtle". Grant played the Mock Turtle in Alice in Wonderland (1933).
Walter Burns (Cary Grant) refers to some horrible fate suffered by the last person who crossed him: Archie Leach. Grant`s real name was Archibald Leach and he ad-libbed the line.
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