His Girl Friday (1940), produced and directed by Howard Hawks.
Ace reporter Hildy Johnson strives to get away for her marriage and honeymoon, but her crafty publisher (and ex-husband) plots to keep her single and at work on a death row story.
This is a condensed remake of The Front Page (1931) and entirely derivative of it, but adds the genius element of turning it into a screwball comedy with Hildy now a woman.
It is a good vehicle for Hawks' usual rapid-fire witty patter and rich collection of characters where -- as always -- we don't know their backgrounds but are convinced they have them.
Great cast, with rascally Cary Grant pulling the same stunts on aw-shucks-nice-guy Ralph Bellamy as he did in The Awful Truth (1937), but it is really a Rosalind Russell showcase. Her frantic entanglement with the telephones (each requiring two hands in the those days), and her quiet, serious time with the condemned man: all very fine. She's tougher than her beau, which is always good for a laugh.
A nice touch: her dawning realization that she is where she belongs, that she doesn't want to leave the newspaper or her ex-husband.
Some bits from the earlier film and play fly by quickly:
a reference to the "colored vote".
a gay joke: the prissy reporter could be a bridesmaid; "Ouch", he says.
new for this film: What does Hildy's fiancé look like? "He looks like that fellow in the movies... Ralph Bellamy".
...and: "Listen, the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." (that was Cary Grant's given name)
Turning down the role of Hildy: Jean Arthur, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, Claudette Colbert and Irene Dunne. I'm not sure why: the play and earlier film were well-regarded and Hawks a successful director.
The film is in the public domain and the poor DVDs could use an upgrade. The whites on my Alpha Video copy are often blown out.
Later: available on Blu-ray from Criterion, a vast improvement over my old DVD:
Updated thumbnails: