March 11, 2025 • 42 mins
Seen the movie? We will challenge how you see it, pointing out things you may have missed even if you've seen it many times.
Haven’t seen it? We will give you a quick, simple, spoiler-free breakdown to help you decide if it’s worth your time.
In this episode of Movies In A Nutshell:
✅ The Nutshell: A clear, spoiler-free summary for new viewers.
✅ Ratings & Reviews: How do critics and audiences compare—and what does that say about the film’s legacy?
✅ What Did We Miss?: Hidden layers are uncovered, challenging how you see the movie.
✅ Paul’s Facts of the Day: Fascinating trivia and behind-the-scenes insights.
✅ Takeaways: The first time in the episode Marc, Darren, and Paul share their personal thoughts after holding back opinions until now.
💻 Available to watch:
US Vudu (Fandango at Home) – with ads
UK Prime Video
Even if you think you know His Girl Friday, Darren might just make you see it differently... 🎙️
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Movies In A Nutshell
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Marc Farquhar
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themarcfarquhar
Darren Horne
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedarrenhorne
Paul Day
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauldaylive23
Recorded at:
Sunbeams Studios – https://www.thestudioatsunbeams.co.uk
Music:
- Main Theme: BreakzStudios – https://pixabay.com/users/breakzstudios-38548419/
- Music Bed: ProtoFunk – Kevin MacLeod (https://www.incompetech.com)
- (All music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Hello and welcome to Movies ina Nutshell with me, Mark Farquhar
and I, Paul Day.
Join us every week for quick,entertaining, spoiler free movie
breakdowns followed by funfacts and trivia.
From timeless classics to cultfavorites to the latest releases,
here are three reasons.
To listen to this podcast.Save time by quickly learning what
(00:32):
a movie's about, spoiler free,and decide if it's worth your time.
Discover hidden details andthings you may have missed. And that
includes Darren challengingthe way you see a movie, even if
you've seen it 100 times.
Get recommendations for yournext watch.
So grab some popcorn and let'sjump into this week's movie. So,
(00:52):
gentlemen, let's discuss hisGirl Friday.
Woo.
Woo.
Wow. I enjoyed the whoop.
So part one, we call thediagnostics. So in part one of the
show, we take a look at themovie stats, then we look at the
synopsis and we compare it toour own version. We give you the
movie in a nutshell, spoilerfree, and then we take a brief look
at some ratings and reviews.So I'll start with the stats. So
if you're in the us, I know wehave some US listeners. It's available
(01:16):
with ads on Vudu, now known asFandango at home and in the UK it's
on Prime Video. So it wasreleased January 1940. Definitely
the oldest film we havereviewed. And I love the fact that
we are actually.
That's scary. I'm just tryingto work out how long ago that is.
What, 85 years?
Yes. Yeah.
Wowzers.
It's not rated. It's that old.It's not rated.
(01:37):
Oh wow, that's interesting.
There was no classification.Oh well, the run time is 1 hour 32,
which I think they were. Theywere always trying to be bang on
back in the day when they wasjust the default time genre is screwball
comedy. Romantic comedy. Don'tget screwball anymore. Really? Do
you?
Oh, that's a good question.
I never heard that for a while.
I think so.
And if you do, maybe they justdon't call it that anymore. Maybe
they put it under, I think screwball.
I was thinking of somethinglike Spaceballs.
(01:58):
No, no, like a spoof.
What is the definition of screwball?
That's a really good question.It's kind of like outlandish and
out there. Tends to be quitefast paced as well. Yes, like fast
dialogue.
That makes sense. So it starsCary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph
Bellamy. It was directed byHoward Hawks, written by Charles
Lederer. He did a screenplayBased on a play, the Front Page by
Ben hecht and CharlesMacArthur. Music by Sidney Kutner
(02:21):
and Felix Mills. The budgetunder box office were not released.
I don't know if it was, if itwas bothered about. That won't be
much public domain that backin there.
Three sets, isn't it?
Yeah, there's not a lot to it.
We'll estimate it cost them $10.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. So the synopsis. So itwas your choice, Darren. So.
(02:42):
Yep.
Give it a go.
No, I'm gonna pass.
You're gonna pass?
Can you do that? I didn't knowthat was an option.
Like I've tried and I've evenread other synopses and I was just
like how do you do this thatyou can't, you, you can't bring in,
you can't bring in everythingthat's going to happen. Like I can
keep it simple. So it'll belike a, a newspaper journalist. I
(03:04):
know I can't even do it. Likehow, how would you start?
Broke the format. Mark, he'sbroke the format.
Do you think you could do it?
No, I don't even want to trybecause Cameron's going to look at
me and be like no, no.
But, but here's one of thethings with it is if, when you've
got a movie script, one pageof a script usually amounts to one
minute of screen time. So ifyou have a 90 page script, it's usually
(03:27):
90 minutes film. The scriptfor this was 191 pages long.
Okay.
Yes. Because it breaks aformula because they speak so fast
that they get through it thatquickly. But it still means there's
191 minutes or pages of actionthat happen in this film. So to do
a synopsis for that, it's like crazy.
Or is it just something like anewspaper man and his ex wife end
(03:51):
up in a escapade of chaos?Okay, well I can't do either.
Right. The official synopsisis actually very short.
Okay.
A newspaper editor uses everytrick in the book to keep his ace
reporter XY from remarrying.
That doesn't bring dare to.How much did they miss out? Like
did they miss out thepolitical bit? It's like I know there's
(04:14):
a murderer who's on gang. Ithink that's the.
There's obviously multiplethings going on, but that's the core
of what this is about.
I see. That's the film postertagline or something, isn't it?
Oh, don't get me started onthe film poster. But I'm Gonna find
it.
I did see that.
It's the beautiful. It's a beautiful.
This is where he points outsomething I've missed.
I know.
Well, we've all missed it.
We'll all have missed.
I'll find it in a minute andI'll hold it up and be. Look at this
(04:35):
silliness.
We're gonna get T shirtsprinted with. Darren taught us something
about this movie.
That's the T shirt of this podcast.
What did we miss?
It's okay. You crack on.
Okay. Onwards we go.
Okay. Yeah. Well, we are. Withthis. The next point is the nutshell.
What are we. What are we gonna.
191 pages in a nutshell. Yeah,let's do that.
He's got a lot of notes. Iknow you can't see this, listeners,
(04:57):
but he has a lot of notes.
Because we'll just think,Darren, someone like. We're trying
to explain this for someonewho hasn't seen it.
Yeah, totally. So, okay, sothis is probably about two things.
It's the battle of the sexes,predominantly, in a really good way.
It's also about. I don't knowwhat the word I would use. It's like.
It's basically. It's kind offake news. It's kind of counterfeit.
I guess in this, he's telling us.
(05:18):
What we miss here.
I know. So in a nutshell, whatis this movie about?
Oh, sorry. It's about battleof the sexes and it's about being
counterfeit or fake.
Yeah, yeah.
It gives you kind of an insideview of a newsroom back in the day
and how kind of the thirstythe press were even back then and
how it all sort of worked, butunder the umbrella, if you will,
(05:41):
of this relationship, likeDarren said, because that's the core
of the whole thing. But thenit's set in these. And, yeah, it
brings in lots of themes whichwe'll get into later, but I've got
a few things that if you likethis, maybe you'll like this. Darren,
you might not agree withthese, but try them.
Oh, yeah.
So I got flashes of Fish ColdWonder, Fierce Creatures, kind of
when it was.
They could be Skrull comedies.
That's why.
(06:01):
Yeah, yeah.
That's why I was getting. Imean, Fierce Creatures, the sequel.
Fish Cold Wonder, not thesequel, but sort of made by the same
team. Doesn't hold up. Sorry.Slight tangent, listeners. But yeah,
when it's into the kind ofmanic scenes, I just started thinking
to myself, yeah, it's kind ofFaulty Towers. It's that fish called
Wander. It's fish creatureswhen they have them, sort of. And
yeah, screwball, they probablygone to that thing. So that's one
(06:23):
bit I almost compared it toanother one was. And this is a bit
lighter, but it's more thenewsroom element. If you like your
Lois and Clark. Clark Kent,Lois Lane thing. It's got a bit of
that in there. But obviouslythe Clark Kent in this one is more
like Hank Moody from Californication.
Excellent reference.
I know Darren will enjoy thisreference, which we'll expand on
(06:45):
later, but I feel like he'smore that kind of character. But
it's got that Lois and Clarkkind of newsroom banter.
Yeah.
And then the final one, whichis a really random take, but I'll
throw it in just in casethere's a scene. And this isn't going
to give away too much. So Istill feel we're free in the nutshell
and not Spoiler City. Butthere's a scene where there's a lot
of fast talking in this film.It's very rapid fire. And there's
(07:06):
a bit where, who's this? Who'sshe? What's this? And they all sort
of say it. And straight away Ithought of the Hamilton intro into
my shot. I don't know ifthere's any Hamilton fans listening,
but he goes, who's this? Who'sthis guy? What's he gonna do? And
it goes, I'm not gonna throw him.
Just before you said that, Ismirked because I see where I was
going. I was thinking ofHamilton. And when I said, I'm gonna
pass on the synopsis, I reallywish you said, I didn't know that
(07:29):
was something you could do inthe style of Hamilton. Didn't know
there was something you could do.
Sorry, we won't sing on this podcast.
But the Hamilton is excellent.You really should watch. Go see the
show.
But yeah, and Hamilton's verykind of fast paced, obviously, within
its songs and everything. AndI don't know why. It was just that
particular, who's this? Who'sthat? What's gonna. And I was like,
oh, my God, I'm expectingCarrie Grant to go into. I'm not
(07:49):
gonna throw away my shot.
But it could also be NightmareBefore Christmas. What's this? What's
this? That's why stuff every day.
That's true. Jack Skeleton. Soit's very fast paced, it's got that
comedy thing. And yeah, myreferences were kind of Lois and
Clark, screwball comedies,Fish, Cold wonder, that kind of thing.
And Hamilton in the Middle ofit, I was like, yeah, that's kind
of fast paced, sort of jumpingacross the wall. So if you enjoy
(08:10):
them things, maybe this. Andalso if you like old school.
Movies, I guess even with therapid fire dialogue, a little bit
of Gilmore Girls.
Oh, okay.
If you can keep up the GilmoreGirls, you'd be able to keep up with
this.
Yeah, yeah. It's almostexhausting at times. It is that rapid
fire. But again, if you likethem sort of old school films as
well, it's really.
She should.
Yeah. As you should all.
So the beginning of the film,the premise, the start is she goes
(08:32):
basically into her old work,her ex husband.
To the man's world, to say that.
She'S remarrying, she'sleaving, goodbye. And it's kind of
the tale, the journey she goes on.
And like Darren said, it'shard then to explain it without going
into the spoilers of theactual story itself because certain
things happen within thenewsroom that then build on it so
(08:54):
we can get them into spoilercity. But we obviously don't want
to destroy that. In the nutshell.
Yeah. Like you said, it'sdefinitely battle sexes. It's ethics
of journalism, love versuscareer ambitions.
Yeah. To a certain extentit's, it's. I go into it. What did
we miss? But it's also about awoman's role in society.
Yes. Yeah. And there's a bitof political corruption in there
and.
Yeah.
The role of the press shapingpublic opinion.
(09:15):
Which is why I also love thefact they had that legend at the
beginning. Being like, this isnot in any way a representation of
our noble journalists whowould never act in a way like this.
It's very fast, but like thedynamics of divorce and reconciliation
in 1940s.
I know, I didn't think thatdivorce was something you could do.
You should sing that bit. Butthe bit as well is I'm making my
(09:37):
notes and I write, oh, it'sfrom the play, the page. It's based
off a play. And then I writelater on in my notes when I've forgotten
that fact, I'm like, oh, thisis a bit like a play. Oh, yeah, it
is a play. Yeah, There we go.It does run like a play. So if you're
someone who goes to watch,they do a lot of them at the cinema
now, don't they? Where youwatch like the West End shows on
the cinema. If you enjoy thatkind of thing, I think you'd enjoy
(09:58):
this as well.
Should we go into the ratingsand reviews?
Yes. Hear what they've got to say.
So we'll start with theratings. Rotten Tomatoes. The critics
score was 99%.
Yeah, see, that's what we'relooking for. Mark this. This is cinema.
There we go. Darren's right.We need to bring this back for every
week.
I was going to say see in thehouse right there. This is cinema.
(10:18):
Hang on. Darren, are youshowing your hand before we get to
the.
I'm too excited.
The user score is 90, IMDb was7.8 out of 10. The Metacritic, the
critic score, there wasn't onefor some reason, I don't know why,
but the user score was 8.5 outof 10. So I'll do the. The yin and
the yang and the reviews. SoFrank S. Nugent of the New York Times,
his Girl Friday is a boldfaced reprint of what was once and
(10:41):
still remains the maddestnewspaper comedy of our time. So
on the flip side, whilecontemporary reviews were obviously
overwhelmingly positive, somemodern viewers have not noted a darker
undertone. To me, this moviestarts out as a screwball comedy
and then you start to realizethe whole environment is toxic.
Yeah, totally.
Which is.
Which is pretty spot on point.
Yeah, yeah, I think the film'saware of that.
(11:01):
Yeah, probably. Yeah, I thinkso. It's totally self aware.
Yeah.
Okay, so on the whole, pretty positive.
But very, very well received.Yeah. Even like over the test of
time, like since it came out,would you say 85 years. Yeah, until
now to still get that becauseobviously people review it all the
time every year and it's stillgot. What was it? 99 on Rotten Tomatoes.
(11:24):
That's it for part one. Solet's go to part two and we enter
into spoiler territory. So inpart two we have what did we miss?
Where we mainly Darren willtell us what we've did not spot when
we first watched this film.Are you laughing? Because it's true.
I know. He illuminates ourminds with these.
(11:45):
So much pressure, these key bits.
Makes you think.
He does make you think.
And then we'll do takeawayswhich is where we first will give
our opinions and then we willsee if this movie stood the test
of time. Okay, so let's startwith what did we miss? This is your
choice, Darren. So we'll gowith you first.
Okay, but I need to give a fatto set up the. What do I miss?
So you can, you can step ontoon Paul's toes. He doesn't mind.
(12:07):
Yeah, he's a nice guy.
Get them facts out there.
So what? So with the play, theTwo leads were male, and it was about
a kind of newspaper editor andhis lead journalist, who was a guy
also called Hildy, which is, Ithink in a way sometimes if you dig
a little bit deep, there's alittle bit of. I wouldn't call it
homophobia, but it's a littlebit of homosexuality is definitely
the other, or femme beingfeminine is definitely the other.
(12:30):
So the guy was called, hisnickname was Hildy was two guys in
the play. And then HowardHawkson all his fricking genius decides
to switch up Hildy's role tobe a woman instead. And so instead
of the male journalists go offand get married and have babies,
it's a woman who now istempted to go off and have babies,
which is really, really cool.And that's where the battle of the
sexes comes in, really. Andshe isn't just like a woman who is
(12:54):
subservient to men. She's aspowerful as the men. Like she's as
powerful as Cary Grant'scharacter in this movie. And even
in the opening scene, you seethis bustling newspaper scene and
there's a big sign saying likeno admittance. And. And the camera
goes past the secretaries whoare obviously female, doing their
paperwork, and men come in andout of this newspaper area, all the
(13:14):
important decisions are made.In walks Hildy, strong, powerful,
confident, with her littlefiance following behind her. And
then she turns and puts handin. And you know what? You wait here.
And I think it gets a littlebit. I'm not sure when in the movie
it happens maybe a little bitlater, he's like. He says something
like, I sure would like tosort that guy out or whatever. And
she's like, oh, sweetie, youknow, she makes a cowboy reference
(13:36):
like. Like, yeah, you're notgoing to do that. And then she saunters
into the men's room and she'slike, I'm here now. And then this
amazing. What is that? Howlong's that scene? Like 10 minutes
of them just banter, banteringwith each other and everything's
a really cool choreographed.At some point she throws something
at him and it's just amazing.
There was another scene lateron as well that I thought sort of
showed the respect they allhad for at her as a woman where she
(13:59):
kind of walks in where they'reall playing cards and she walks in
there and the kind of warmthtowards this character is on the
screen. You've got all thesekind of oldie worldy guys if you
want playing cards, newspapermen. And she walks in and they're
all, hey, how's it going?There's none of that judgment there.
It's just very much. She'spart of the team. And I was like,
oh, that's cool. And youwouldn't have thought that would
(14:19):
be part of a 1940s film. Isuppose you'd have a conversation
that first.
When she walks into there, youcan. That's what I was. Oh, yeah,
this is definitely taken froma play, a stage show. It's cool.
And for me, I was, you know,big comic book geek here. But it's
like, it's Lois Lynn. She's astrong, powerful reporter, too. But,
yeah, them sort of vibes.
But she also really likes CaryGrant's character. He's. She's. When
(14:41):
she sees him being schemy, youcan see her kind of get a little
thrill out of it. And it'skind of sweet. But also, if you think
about 1940s, that's. That'sthe height of, like, politeness,
surely is holding doors open.Carrie Grant does none of that for
this guy. Like, at one point,like, he'll light a cigarette, but
then she's like, oh, can Ihave one? He just throws it at her.
She's like, matches. And he'llopen. He'll storm out and. And basically
(15:04):
slam doors behind her in aface. And I was like, wait, are you
doing it on purpose? Becausehe's that intelligent, he could be,
like, nagging her orsomething. I don't know what. Or
is it because he's. He keepsregard. Talking to her. He's like,
she's the finest newspaperman. Like, yeah, you're one of us.
Why would I hold the door for you?
You're one of the boys.
So, yeah, I think that's kindof the key things I've got. How.
(15:24):
How just, well, respect and.But she's also desperate to break
away and go. Because she'slike, oh, you know, I want to be
out of here. You guys arechumps, and you guys are this. And
you're loathsome in a really,I love you, but you're loathsome
or whatever. She says to Kay,run. I want to go bring up babies
and let them kind of growteeth and all that kind of stuff.
And just like, you got. Notthat person. But what I like about
(15:44):
this is, in 1940, you wouldhave had all these women go off and
join the war effort or go outand kind of work in factories. And
then this massive propagandamachine came about and to send women
back to the kitchen, whichhappened to, like, the 50s and 60s.
And it's like, you know, withour new laundromatic, housework is
a breeze. You won't even bedoing anything.
I feel like you should do themadverts. That was good. He was telling
(16:05):
me that there.
And around this point, thisthing called the Hays Code is kicked
in, which was like, you had tohave decency in movies. And it had
this massive list of stuffthat you weren't allowed to do. And
it's like there was noprofanity. Like, God, Lord Jesus,
Son of a bitch. Damn God.Couldn't say anything vulgar, Mark.
Nothing. You couldn't have anylicentious or suggestive nudity,
(16:26):
not even a silhouette. And youcouldn't have any illegal drugs,
any sex perversion. No. Whiteslavery. No, like, sex hygiene or
venereal diseases, scenes ofactual birth, willful offense to
any nation, race or creed.Basically, you couldn't make movies
anymore.
How did they make this withthat list?
A lot of that would mean. Ifyou think about that, that would
(16:47):
mean that Hildy really shouldgo and get married and have kids
and go back into the kitchenand kind of where she belongs. Obviously,
I don't mean that, but that'skind of the narrative that, you know,
women belong in the kitchen.But instead, yes, she does end up
back with Kylie Grant'scharacter, but she also stays in
her profession. I mean, theirideal would. She told them both to
off and just went and livedher own life, set up her own newspaper.
(17:08):
But, you know, that was kindof cool.
It was. It was against thenorm, didn't it?
Back as the newspaper man, asthey referred to her. Also the contrast
between the two characters ofthe new guy. That was it. The fiance.
The new fiance.
Yeah.
Where he was the. Even 10minutes is long time to be away from
you.
But no, that's not how you sayit. Because he's coded as a girl.
(17:30):
So he's like, even 10 minutesis a long time to be away from you.
Complete role reversal, wasn'tit? Which was, I thought was really
cool just to have a female lead.
Yeah.
And I thought it was amazing.
And then, of course, you'vegot Kagar on the other side being
the voice. I just did more ofthat kind of masculine male. Get
out of here. Newspaper.
But, yeah, leading lady wasgood. You know, like when she was
(17:52):
asking him to. Say that again.Yeah, say it again.
I know.
That was a good. That was agood role reversal. But, like. And
the. Her ex is a dick. He'sright. He's the dick. Oh, he's unbelievably
egotistical, arrogant selfentitled douchebag. But she's kind
of obviously attracted to thatkind of bad boy. Kind of. That's
what, that's what got intothis mess in the first place.
They both give as good as theyget as well. They both fire at each
other.
(18:13):
I had a massive grin on myface the whole time because there's
so many things like he'llchange his mind immediately. Yeah,
like he said something about,he's like, you know, disrespectful.
You know, when I hired you,you were a baby face girl. She was
like, you want to hide? Hideme. And that's was a baby face girl.
He said, well, can you blameme? I'm looking at all this stuff
over here that would give me aheart attack. You know, he would
just spin. It was amazing. Andthere's a bit where he's. He's luring
(18:35):
in the fiance and he's cryingand he's like wiping his eye and
the fiance is not looking athim so he's like getting attention.
Yeah, I wrote that one down.That was funny. I enjoyed that.
It was a bit where they weretrying to. Oh, because he said, I
want to see my wife who, whogave birth or something. And she.
Yeah, he said, but they onlygave, they only got married four
months ago. Yeah, and he wason there so they couldn't have been
(18:56):
married.
Yeah.
As if to say, well, you don'tget married unless, you know, you
don't have kids unless you getmarried. It's just like, it's just
a weird assumption.
But that's when Hildy worksout what he's done. And he was like,
oh, you caught me. But yeah,because you lie. If you're speaking,
you're lying. You full of lies.
In terms of the filmmaking ofit. You had these really long takes,
like a play, really longtakes. But then when, when it all
(19:17):
gets really suspenseful lateron, there's these really quick takes
that were really effectivebecause you were used to these long
takes.
I wonder, I often wonder howlong, how long those. There's a choreography
almost in those scenes and theoverlapping and the. You talk, then
you talk, then you talk andyou talk.
The rhythm of thatconversation was very much like a
dance.
I thought, well, that'sinteresting you say that because
I know like every time we do ashow you guys are like, oh, the composer,
(19:38):
the music. Yeah. And it's likehardly any. The music is the dialogue.
Yeah, yeah.
And. But then they, and theycrash into silence a lot. So I think
the first silence is when shegoes. Because even though this is
a fun romantic ish, kind ofmanipulative movie, it's also about
a guy who shot a cop. The cophappens to be a black cop. And because
(19:59):
there's a lot of kind ofaffirmative action or whatever going
on, it's political that thisguy, you know, basically gets a chase.
He's going to be, he's goingto be killed. He's going to be. Go
to the actual chair because of it.
They're going to hang him.
Oh, they're going to hang. Sothey're going to hang him over this.
There's so much corruption init as well.
Right.
Like what if I give you$50,000? You can just. We'll, we'll
print this. I thought we were,I thought we were the left wing.
(20:19):
Yeah, but we'll change, we'llchange tack. Doesn't matter.
And he, he doesn't want tofree him because it's the right thing
to do. He, he might want tofree him because it's a good story
that they saved him. But yeah,she goes down to talk to him and
it's just, she just sits thereand it's quiet and there's no dialogue
and I think she offers him acigarette and he's like oh, I don't,
don't smoke and hands it back.And she said, you know, you didn't
(20:41):
mean to kill that guy, didyou? And it's also quite for like,
like.
A 10 minute scene diffusing.She's confusing.
And then the other time itgoes quiet is when is her name Molly?
I think. And so this girl whotook the guy in, I'm sure her name's
Molly and, and the press madeher relationship into more than it
was. She basically took pity,I mean one evening and gave him a
meal or whatever and she'slike, I never said I want you to
(21:03):
marry him. I wasn't going tomarry him on the hangman's news.
You made it up. You'redisgusting. You guys are sickening.
And she's throwing all thisstuff at him and gets over emotional
and they say something like acalm down will you? You're interrupting
our game. And it's almost likean over emotional woman is just getting
in way discussing business orwhatever it is they're doing. And
there is a lot of like.
(21:24):
They'Re not human, they'renewspaper men.
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
And then she yeets herself outthe window.
Yes, that took me by surprise.
But also after that speech shegives, they do go quiet and they.
It's a shift, isn't? It's like20 seconds, 25 seconds. And they
just sit there. And then Ithink he already says, you know,
find a bunch of newspaper men.But she knows that she's one of them.
(21:46):
Yeah.
You know, it's like they weretaking this moment of like, yeah,
we're kind of gross, but backto business.
Yeah. Anyway, we go, yeah.Anything else, Darren?
Yeah, I think that's probablyit. I think. I think it's a. An attack
on the patriarchy as well. Toa certain extent. It's sort of going
back to that counterfeit then.It's just. This is a patriarchal
world and everything is fake.And there's no kind of empathy or
(22:11):
just.
Certainly money talks.
Yeah, money talks. Like,there's not one really redeeming
guy character you could argue.Maybe the fiance.
Maybe he's just a bit of aweak character. Those knees.
The bit at the end that got mewas, this is the romantic in me,
obviously speaking.
Oh, Paul.
I know, but you were expectingkind of this reunite of the two of
(22:33):
them. I'm like, oh, this isgonna be the kiss scene. But they
don't really. They just sortof go, okay, let's go to the place.
And then they kind of go off.
Down, obviously how theyalways were.
And I wrote down. It's like,this has just been the latest in
one of. Latest in the line ofwhat's probably been lots of adventures,
which they kind of. They talkabout at some point. They're like,
oh, this is like the time wewere in the thing with. They just
(22:54):
sort of walk off at the end.It's like, yeah, this is just the
latest.
They slipped back into therole the way they were.
Yeah, they've just rolled backinto it all. But I was like, oh,
they didn't have, like, what Iimagined would have the romantic
ending scene where theyreunite. It's like, oh, no. They're
just.
I'm glad they didn't do that.
Yeah, I am, too. Really? I wasexpecting it. And the fact it didn't
have that. I was like, no,that's good.
Yeah.
Not. Not only that, becauseshe's like, oh, there's a new case
(23:15):
in Albany. We'll go. Got to gothere. And she's like, fine, we'll
have the honeymoon in Albany.But that's where the fiance lives.
And Cary Grant says somethinglike, oh, I wonder if. Was it Bruce?
I wonder if your fiance thatI've just stolen you from will put
Us up. Love it.
He is arrogant, isn't he?
Yes.
I remembered it mentioned someother films in the same bracket.
It had the front page. 1931.
(23:37):
Yeah.
The original film adaptationBroadcast News from 1987 explores
similar media themes in moderncontext. What was the other one?
The Philadelphia Story. Youheard of that one? 1940, another
classic with Cary Grant aswell. And rapid fire dialogue. Let's
do facts of the day.
Facts of the day. Okay. Asusual, there's lots, but I have picked
(23:58):
a few out for you. This onetalks about kind of the rhythm of
what we were talking aboutwith how many words in it. It's estimated
that the normal rate of verbaldialogue in most Films is around
90 words in a minute. In hisGirl Friday, the delivery has been
clocked at 240 words a minute.So if you're thinking it's fast dialogue,
you are correct. RosalindRussell thought while she was shooting
(24:21):
that she didn't have as manygood lines as Cary Grant had. So
she actually hired anadvertisement writer through her
brother in law and had himwrite more clever lines for the dialogue.
I think he also ended upwriting lines for Cary Grant as well
because he was so good.
Quite possibly because it saysHoward Hawks ee allowed for the spontaneity
in the ad libbing and thatkind of thing. So he and many of
(24:44):
the cast and crew didn'tnotice it. But Grant knew she was
up to something, leading himto greet her every morning with,
what have you got today? Sothat's interesting. To capture the
film's fast paced dialogueclearly, Howard Hawks decided to
use multiple microphonesrather than the overhead boom mics,
since the microphones could beturned on simultaneously and a sound
(25:05):
technician had to switch frommic to mic on cue. Some scenes required
as many as 35 switches. Sotechnologically there was a lot going
on with the recording of saiddialogue. I did read one when I was
looking through all thesefacts around how when he was encouraging
them to ad lib and do theirown thing, he was also encouraging
them to step on each other'slines and talk over and. And do that.
(25:26):
Which obviously is Worked.Worked, yeah. And a big part of the
chaos of the film. One scenerequired Cary Grant to push Rosalind
onto a couch. And Howard Hawksasked the actors to try shoving her
harder. And when Grantprotested that he didn't want to
try and kill her, Hawks said,try killing her. So it sounds like
(25:47):
he liked to push his actors toget the thing. And like we mentioned
before, the movie is so fastpaced that it has absolutely no Incidental
music score. Other than thatover the opening and closing credits,
like Darren said, because thedialogue very much is the rhythm
of the music itself.
Okay, let's move on totakeaways. So what did we think of
(26:07):
the film? Your choice, Darren,we'll go with you.
Oh, okay, fine. I rememberloving this. And I can remember watching
it, you know, when I wasstudying film and I loved it. I can
remember when I was at my whowould. And my wife and I was. It's
really bad when you're a hugefilm geek. I'm much more tame now.
But, you know, if your partnersays something like, they don't like
black and white movies. It isin a summer of watching movies and
(26:27):
having PowerPoints thrown atthem. So I can remember, like a challenge
says that. But she'd be like,why don't we like westerns? I'm like,
what the. Does that mean we'regoing to watch some westerns now?
I feel like that's what CaryGrant would have done, too.
Yeah, exactly. I don't knowwhy we're divorced, so. So I remember
fondly, and it wasn't myimmediate film I wanted to choose.
(26:49):
Like I said when we werechoosing it, there's so many other
movies like Bringing Up Babythat I would have wanted to, but
we stick with the mainstream.
Why did you choose it?
Because it was one of the onlyfilms of this era I could find on
the key streaming services.
Cool. Yeah. But I do try andkeep it still.
Howard Hawks is still a goodmovie. But then when I was watching
it, I had totally forgottenabout the suicide, about the death,
about the hanging. I was like,oh. But once I got used to it being
(27:12):
four by three, it wasn't aremastered version or whatever. Bit
grainy. I was like, oh, am Igoing to. Is this going to hold up?
And then once you're five, tenminutes in, you forget it. And then
I was just watching with agrin on my face because the dialogue
is just so good, so fast, soludicrous. It's like almost watching
a cartoon. It's almost likewatching, like Wiley Coyote or something.
(27:33):
Yeah, it's amazing. Andthere's so many, like, quotes I love
that just stand out. ObviouslyI love the one about getting divorced,
but there's another one. It'shis delivery as well. It's just fantastic.
This. He's almost stoic whenhe speaks. He's very to the point,
but he's venom at points isamazing. Where's that one I've got
(27:53):
about where he says somethinglike, you Know when I put, you know,
I was tight when I proposed toyou, and that's like a 1947 for drunk.
So it's basically, you know, Iwas drunk when I proposed to you.
If you were any kind of agentleman, you would. Forgot the
whole thing. What a greatdialogue. How. How do you come up
with that? So, yeah, it's justwonderful. I loved the dialogue.
I loved the writing. I lovedher as a powerful woman. I loved
(28:16):
those scene moments ofsilence. I just had a grin on my
face the whole time.
I enjoyed it.
There's another quote.Diabetes. I also know better than
to hire anybody with adisease. What?
Yeah, that was. That waspretty like, oh, no, I enjoyed it.
I'm still trying to processit. I think in terms of where I would
(28:38):
rank it in my world of moviethings. I like watching an old one
now and again. I feel like Ienjoy the nostalgia of. That's how
they made them back in theday. And I feel like I should watch
more of them. So thank you,Darren, for recommending this one
because the problem is there'sso. And I don't know if you're like
this listener as well. There'sso many old films to choose from.
(28:58):
Darren was Damien Laws before.And I'm thinking I've heard of a
lot of these, but I haven'tactually seen them. And I feel like
I need to get.
You need someone to give you anudge in. Like, what's this one?
I love Audrey Hepburn filmsbecause I love Audrey Hepburn. So
I've watched a lot of themjust because it's like, oh, it's
got Audrey Hepburn.
They're hit and miss, though.
Yeah. So. So when yourecommend one that's part of these,
this massive catalog of oldfilms, you're like, okay, cinema,
(29:19):
but where do you start? Yeah,so I did enjoy it in that sense.
I enjoyed the dialogue, likeI've said. I enjoyed the fast pacedness
of it. I did get exhausted attimes. I think I'd had a busy day
at work and I was like, oh. Soif I watched it again, I'd have to
be in the right mood to takeit all in because it is so fast paced.
I tell you what, if you're. Ifyou know some of the films to recommend,
(29:41):
in fact, you know, you now offthe top of your head.
Only Angels have Wings.Bringing Up Baby. Rio Bravo. Yeah,
they're the key 3. I would go with.
Yeah.
What did you think?
I love this film. Yeah. Ithank you for.
I genuinely thought you weregonna hate it.
I Loved it.
It looks like a proud fatherfigure right now.
Oh, let me wipe away a tear.
Hang on, I missed that. Oh,there it is.
(30:01):
Yeah, that was great. I lovethe. Yeah, the pace of it was fantastic.
And yeah, I love the fact thatit was a lead female in it. I wasn't
expecting. I wasn't expectingthat based on when it was released.
But then again, I haven't seenmany of these films from then.
I mentioned the posterearlier. I'm holding up to the lads
now, but the Rosalind Russellcharacters in basically like a long
lingerie kind of like nightdress. And Cary Grant is leering
(30:24):
at her. And then the taglineis she learned about men from him.
The.
Has that got to do with the movie?
I love the fact in his notes.
He'S wrote, yeah, I've taken aphoto of this and I've put. I'll
put it in the show notes ofDarren's. Just John's notes for this
movie poster is an arrow withwtf. What the is this? So, yeah,
I'll put that in the show notes.
The marketing, that's nothingto do with the film.
No marketing were like, thisis too feminist. We need to get an
(30:46):
audience in. We're going totrick them. We're going to get them
in the door and then hit themwith feminism.
We're going to miss sell this film.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I thought it wasgreat. I really enjoyed from beginning
to end. I didn't get bored init. I like the pace of it.
Yeah.
I liked everything about it.So I want to watch more of those
films and I've just. I don'tknow why, but I've just avoided old
films. I don't know why. Ithink I thought they were gonna be
like, boring. My black andwhite, I think boring. I no longer
(31:08):
think they kind of.
Pull you in, don't they?They're very captivating.
Yeah.
Because I always think, oh,I'll give this a watch. And then
within, like you said, five,ten minutes, you'd sort of. In that
world of the old school.
Well, the first thing I reallynoticed was the lack of music. But
then I quickly realized thatit doesn't. It doesn't need it. There's
so much to pay attention tothat just. It's not necessary. So,
yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Excellent. And there's.There's tension as well because the
(31:29):
deadline they have is keepsgetting shorter. It's like the guy's
going to be.
Hung ark in the store, isn't it?
Yeah. Can we push the timeback but she's going to catch a train.
Can they push the train back?And then he's like manipulating them.
Being like, you know, justbecause she's going to catch a train
two hours earlier but she'sgoing to cause a man to die. Like
it will all forever be unconscious.
It's like at any point whenshe lets her fiance loose or alone,
something he's just. He just.Something bad happens to him. Useless.
(31:52):
She knows it. She's likeplaying chess right back. She's like
put that check into your hat.Cuz he's going to try something.
Yeah.
It is a battle of. It's almostlike the princess pride kind of battle
of wits almost.
I was just thinking that it's like.
You and I were just likeinsane like you too.
Right? Let's move on to testof time. So this would be an interesting
one. So bring this filmforward 85 years. 2025.
(32:18):
Okay, so you got the fastpaced dialogue wouldn't hold. There's
no way. I don't think.
Is it too fast?
Yeah, it's too fast.
We normally discuss thingsthat are like too slow.
Yeah.
Like the pacing's too slow formodern audiences and this is too
fast.
Exhausting, isn't it?
I must admit it was hard tokeep up. I was like. I had to like
rewind a few times.
My students will put subtitleson normal speed movies to keep up.
(32:42):
I don't know. What are youdoing? Listen to what they're saying.
The rest of it though, I thinkthe. The white guy killing a black
cop, that would be reallyrelevant these days. I think the
woman being pushed towardssuicide because of press coverage
that would carry today. Ithink that's fine.
I don't think it's impactfultoday to have a leading woman like
(33:03):
that.
Not shocking but I would arguethat between the 1970s and 2010.
ISH Women's main role whichlook pretty. So.
Okay.
I still had some tough onesthough like Marion Ravenwood in Raiders
and.
Yeah, but we know thosebecause they stand out.
I guess so. Yeah. Whereas yourprincess layers of the world, that
kind of stuff.
Yeah. But even now, I meanactually this year one of my students
(33:24):
was doing a presentation onthis today or preparing it. This
year was one of the worstyears for a female leads in movies.
2024 was.
Yeah, 24. I guess it must havebeen. Yeah.
Oh wow.
Wow.
But it doesn't mean theyweren't there. But I think there
was. The percentages was alot. So I don't know. Maybe I'm not
watching These types ofmovies, but there's just not that
(33:44):
many movies like this.
I suppose when we do Test ofTime, we're not just saying what
would happen if this. We justfound this film and put it out as
it is. Like, what if someonehad the idea for this film.
Yeah. And made it?
How would it be made today?
What would you change to do aremake? I mean, no one's made a read.
I like, I like the fastpacedness of it. Like, it's. Sometimes
it's a struggle to keep up. Itchallenges your brain.
Yeah, it's really good.
So, yeah, if you have theright cast with the right chemistry
(34:07):
and the good.
Right writing like this is in1940, Howard Hawk's career started
with silent movies, you know,and then the talking started. So
when they suddenly had towrite dialogue and the fact that,
you know, the silent movieswere dominated by men, you know,
it's like Charlie Chaplin andBuster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. So
the fact that they thenstarted making talkies and they gave
(34:29):
women dialogue this good. Andpart of it is when they started writing
dialogue, they hired the bestwriters. They had playwrights and
satirists and journalistslists and stuff. So the dialogue
is amazing.
And if, if any listeners arecurrently twitching like I am, I
think I may have said thewrong person. Before. Michael Keaton
was in the paper with GlennClose. Glenn Close, he was in multiplicity
with Andy McDowell.
(34:49):
Yeah, I thought you weretalking nonsense when you said it.
What did you say? What did yousay? I'm like, that's. That's a different
Michael Keaton film. So, yeah,he's corrected himself. Yeah, I sat
here twitching. I didn'tGoogle that. I just sat here twitching
him. That's not right.
You brought glory back to yourancestors. You're doing okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So, yeah, I think, I think itwould as a premise.
I think so as a premise.
Cast, Right.
(35:10):
Darren's right. Yeah. Get theright cast.
Let's move on to part three ofthe podcast. In part three, we have
Worth a Watch. Oh, what aboutrenaming the Listener section to
the Listener Lounge?
I like that, actually.
I do like that a lot.
There we go. That's the firstone we've all agreed on. So we'll,
we'll go with that for now.The Listener Lounge and next week's
(35:32):
movie. So in Worth a Watch,whoever's choice of movie is gives
us something to watch thatthey've. Let's call their eye. It
can be a TV series, adocumentary, or a movie. Then we
head to Listener Lounge, whichis where we have your comments, question,
your answers to questionswe've put out and anything else,
any mail, emails you guys havesent in. And then obviously next
week's movie is the reveal ofwhat we will be reviewing in the
next episode. Let's go on toWorth a watch.
(35:54):
Can you remember what I saidlast time round? Was it high potential?
Yes. And I have since startedwatching that and it's really good.
Oh nice.
Yes. I'm a wife. Watch it together.
And it's Thursday today, sothere's a. Another episode out.
We're still at the beginning.So yeah, we just started watching
really good.
So I'm kind of a bit tornbetween two things, but they do the
same thing for me. Sosometimes I need a really almost
(36:16):
old fashioned sense ofmasculinity on screen to get me to
clean my flat. And so I'mbouncing between two things. I'm
being, I'm being cheekyreally. But I started watching Yellowstone.
Have you guys seen that?
I keep seeing. There's a newseries just come out on. Is it Netflix?
Yeah.
Was it Disney? I kind of.Yeah, it's just come out and I've.
I know of it but I've neverseen any of it.
So there's three seasons andit's basically a guy who owns Yellowstone
(36:39):
kind of branch and it's theside of size of Rhode island or something
like that. It's like huge.They basically own all this land
and they're trying to protectit and stuff and you know, every.
But it's really, reallycomplex. It's almost, it's really
stepping into like anotherworld of codes of behavior. Like
they will take people who havecommitted crimes and they literally
brand them and to give them anew life. And they're like, you know,
(37:02):
you die on this ranch, likeyou're your family or you kind of
build up to being seen as kindof family.
Wow.
And the women are strong. Likethere's a sister, the daughter and
a sister, I think her name'sBeth, who's just, it's, it's slow
paced and it builds. And thiswoman is, she seems toxic. She's
a hard drinker, she crushespeople and she crushes people in
the boardroom. But then itflashes back as to why that is and
(37:24):
like how her mother treatedher. And the character development
is really, really powerful. Soit's not for everyone because it's
a lot of unpleasant charactersdoing unpleasant, morally wary things.
But it's a really, reallyinteresting world. And what it made
me do is get up and Clean myflat. Because these guys aren't like
whining about how, you know,their legs are sore from riding or
(37:46):
they're tired. Woe is me notworries me. It's like, get the fuck
up and fix that fence. It'slike, you've got to put barbed wire
down there. But if you watchYellowstone, let us know what you
think. Because we don't seeWesterns that often for one to be
running this long, it'ssomething good about it.
Darren's worth of watch isYellowstone. So, yeah, if you guys
have watched it or you'regonna watch it because of his recommendation,
(38:07):
let us know and let us knowwhat you thought. Okay, let's move
on to the listener lounge. Sothe question we put out was, I mean,
we only did it just likeearlier today. So we've not had much
time to. For responses, butwe've had a few. The question was,
let me remind myself.
Bad film that you love.
Yeah. So a movie, you know, isa bit shitt it, but you love it.
(38:27):
So, yeah, we only. I only putthis out not long before we went.
We recorded this. So BenNicholson, who was a new. A new.
He's newly followed us.Followed us, like earlier today.
He's commented saying, thanksSpace Jam. He's put Space Jam. He
likes Space Jam.
I like space.
Nothing wrong with Space Jam.
Bugs Bunny.
Ollie Cake has put CocaineBear, which.
I gotta thank Ollie Cake forthe repeated listenings.
(38:48):
Yeah.
No, directed by Elizabeth Banks.
Oh, is it? Yeah, I. I just. Itsounds intriguing.
I think it's a bear oncockades with cocaine bear. And like
snakes on the plane, you getwhat you expect.
I've not seen Cocaine Bear. I.I've heard the premise of it.
I've had enough of this bearwith his mother.
And another regulation, RosieHodgson says Norbit. Oh, she's put.
(39:13):
It's in my top 10. I said, Idon't even know what that is.
Murphy and lots of differentcharacters, characters.
You can't argue with thoseguilty pleasures.
I imagine it's a bit likeNaughty professor, but I haven't
seen it.
Bad movies that you like. Theyare bad movies, but if you.
Like them, you like theCocaine Bears.
I think is probably quite good.
So before we reveal nextweek's movie, we really need your
(39:34):
help in spreading the word ofthis podcast to help us grow. So
there's two ways you can doit. You can give us a rating and
a review in whatever app orplatform you're listening. So be
it Spotify or Apple podcasts,whatever it is, go to the ratings
review section, give us arating and tell us what you think.
And also just share the show.So on your socials, maybe do a post
about the podcast or in theapp, hit the share button. If you
(39:55):
can think of just one personwho would like this show or this
particular episode, pleasesend them our way.
Why wouldn't you want to sendaround joy in the current climate?
Send happiness to yourfriends, your co workers, your family.
I like it.
Sold.
Yeah, I'm just going to putthat as the. I'm going to put that
at the beginning of the whole thing.
That's the trailer right there.
(40:17):
That takes us on to nextweek's movie, which is going to be
Paul's Choice.
Go, Paul. It's your birthday.
Okay.
Is it your birthday?
No.
No. Well, it is because I getto pick the film. I'm gonna go very
artistic, obviously, with this one.
Okay.
We've gone from one of thegreatest movies in all of cinema
to another.
(40:38):
One of the greatest movies inall of cinema. Darren.
I'm intrigued.
We're going back to the 90s,going back to the original Bad Boys.
Okay, let's go. Michael Bay'sfirst film. Let's go. Bad Boys. Bad
Boys. What you gonna do?Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.
Not seen that for a long time.
That's. That's what I feellike. Prime at the moment. It's on
(40:59):
Amazon Prime.
I think they all are, aren't they?
I think they are. Apart frommaybe the latest one, but.
Yeah, I've seen 1 and 2. I'venot seen any of those, so.
Okay.
We would have seen the firstin the cinema, right?
I did, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not sure I did.
What year was it?
I was far too young.
Was it 95? 5? Yeah.
Yeah.
You guys.
(41:20):
You guys must have been oldenough, but I was far too young.
But I did watch it a lot, so,yeah, that's my choice. I'm going
Bad Boys.
Excellent.
The first one. Okay. Bit of anaction comedy for you there.
Nice one. Let us know what youthink, listeners, about that Pulse
choice. Do you rate it? Do youhate it?
They love it.
Let us know if you've seen it.Let us know what you think of the
film as well, and we'll readout some of the responses on the.
(41:42):
On the episode. Okay, sothat's it. Episode over. Until next
time. This is Mark sayinggoodbye and me.
Saying bye for now.
Get back in there, you mock turtle.
Hello and welcome to Movies ina Nutshell with me, Mark Farquhar
and I, Paul Day.
Join us every week for quick,entertaining, spoiler free movie
breakdowns followed by funfacts and trivia.
From timeless classics to cultfavorites to the latest releases,
here are three reasons.
To listen to this podcast.Save time by quickly learning what
(00:32):
a movie's about, spoiler free,and decide if it's worth your time.
Discover hidden details andthings you may have missed. And that
includes Darren challengingthe way you see a movie, even if
you've seen it 100 times.
Get recommendations for yournext watch.
So grab some popcorn and let'sjump into this week's movie. So,
(00:52):
gentlemen, let's discuss hisGirl Friday.
Woo.
Woo.
Wow. I enjoyed the whoop.
So part one, we call thediagnostics. So in part one of the
show, we take a look at themovie stats, then we look at the
synopsis and we compare it toour own version. We give you the
movie in a nutshell, spoilerfree, and then we take a brief look
at some ratings and reviews.So I'll start with the stats. So
if you're in the us, I know wehave some US listeners. It's available
(01:16):
with ads on Vudu, now known asFandango at home and in the UK it's
on Prime Video. So it wasreleased January 1940. Definitely
the oldest film we havereviewed. And I love the fact that
we are actually.
That's scary. I'm just tryingto work out how long ago that is.
What, 85 years?
Yes. Yeah.
Wowzers.
It's not rated. It's that old.It's not rated.
(01:37):
Oh wow, that's interesting.
There was no classification.Oh well, the run time is 1 hour 32,
which I think they were. Theywere always trying to be bang on
back in the day when they wasjust the default time genre is screwball
comedy. Romantic comedy. Don'tget screwball anymore. Really? Do
you?
Oh, that's a good question.
I never heard that for a while.
I think so.
And if you do, maybe they justdon't call it that anymore. Maybe
they put it under, I think screwball.
I was thinking of somethinglike Spaceballs.
(01:58):
No, no, like a spoof.
What is the definition of screwball?
That's a really good question.It's kind of like outlandish and
out there. Tends to be quitefast paced as well. Yes, like fast
dialogue.
That makes sense. So it starsCary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph
Bellamy. It was directed byHoward Hawks, written by Charles
Lederer. He did a screenplayBased on a play, the Front Page by
Ben hecht and CharlesMacArthur. Music by Sidney Kutner
(02:21):
and Felix Mills. The budgetunder box office were not released.
I don't know if it was, if itwas bothered about. That won't be
much public domain that backin there.
Three sets, isn't it?
Yeah, there's not a lot to it.
We'll estimate it cost them $10.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. So the synopsis. So itwas your choice, Darren. So.
(02:42):
Yep.
Give it a go.
No, I'm gonna pass.
You're gonna pass?
Can you do that? I didn't knowthat was an option.
Like I've tried and I've evenread other synopses and I was just
like how do you do this thatyou can't, you, you can't bring in,
you can't bring in everythingthat's going to happen. Like I can
keep it simple. So it'll belike a, a newspaper journalist. I
(03:04):
know I can't even do it. Likehow, how would you start?
Broke the format. Mark, he'sbroke the format.
Do you think you could do it?
No, I don't even want to trybecause Cameron's going to look at
me and be like no, no.
But, but here's one of thethings with it is if, when you've
got a movie script, one pageof a script usually amounts to one
minute of screen time. So ifyou have a 90 page script, it's usually
(03:27):
90 minutes film. The scriptfor this was 191 pages long.
Okay.
Yes. Because it breaks aformula because they speak so fast
that they get through it thatquickly. But it still means there's
191 minutes or pages of actionthat happen in this film. So to do
a synopsis for that, it's like crazy.
Or is it just something like anewspaper man and his ex wife end
(03:51):
up in a escapade of chaos?Okay, well I can't do either.
Right. The official synopsisis actually very short.
Okay.
A newspaper editor uses everytrick in the book to keep his ace
reporter XY from remarrying.
That doesn't bring dare to.How much did they miss out? Like
did they miss out thepolitical bit? It's like I know there's
(04:14):
a murderer who's on gang. Ithink that's the.
There's obviously multiplethings going on, but that's the core
of what this is about.
I see. That's the film postertagline or something, isn't it?
Oh, don't get me started onthe film poster. But I'm Gonna find
it.
I did see that.
It's the beautiful. It's a beautiful.
This is where he points outsomething I've missed.
I know.
Well, we've all missed it.
We'll all have missed.
I'll find it in a minute andI'll hold it up and be. Look at this
(04:35):
silliness.
We're gonna get T shirtsprinted with. Darren taught us something
about this movie.
That's the T shirt of this podcast.
What did we miss?
It's okay. You crack on.
Okay. Onwards we go.
Okay. Yeah. Well, we are. Withthis. The next point is the nutshell.
What are we. What are we gonna.
191 pages in a nutshell. Yeah,let's do that.
He's got a lot of notes. Iknow you can't see this, listeners,
(04:57):
but he has a lot of notes.
Because we'll just think,Darren, someone like. We're trying
to explain this for someonewho hasn't seen it.
Yeah, totally. So, okay, sothis is probably about two things.
It's the battle of the sexes,predominantly, in a really good way.
It's also about. I don't knowwhat the word I would use. It's like.
It's basically. It's kind offake news. It's kind of counterfeit.
I guess in this, he's telling us.
(05:18):
What we miss here.
I know. So in a nutshell, whatis this movie about?
Oh, sorry. It's about battleof the sexes and it's about being
counterfeit or fake.
Yeah, yeah.
It gives you kind of an insideview of a newsroom back in the day
and how kind of the thirstythe press were even back then and
how it all sort of worked, butunder the umbrella, if you will,
(05:41):
of this relationship, likeDarren said, because that's the core
of the whole thing. But thenit's set in these. And, yeah, it
brings in lots of themes whichwe'll get into later, but I've got
a few things that if you likethis, maybe you'll like this. Darren,
you might not agree withthese, but try them.
Oh, yeah.
So I got flashes of Fish ColdWonder, Fierce Creatures, kind of
when it was.
They could be Skrull comedies.
That's why.
(06:01):
Yeah, yeah.
That's why I was getting. Imean, Fierce Creatures, the sequel.
Fish Cold Wonder, not thesequel, but sort of made by the same
team. Doesn't hold up. Sorry.Slight tangent, listeners. But yeah,
when it's into the kind ofmanic scenes, I just started thinking
to myself, yeah, it's kind ofFaulty Towers. It's that fish called
Wander. It's fish creatureswhen they have them, sort of. And
yeah, screwball, they probablygone to that thing. So that's one
(06:23):
bit I almost compared it toanother one was. And this is a bit
lighter, but it's more thenewsroom element. If you like your
Lois and Clark. Clark Kent,Lois Lane thing. It's got a bit of
that in there. But obviouslythe Clark Kent in this one is more
like Hank Moody from Californication.
Excellent reference.
I know Darren will enjoy thisreference, which we'll expand on
(06:45):
later, but I feel like he'smore that kind of character. But
it's got that Lois and Clarkkind of newsroom banter.
Yeah.
And then the final one, whichis a really random take, but I'll
throw it in just in casethere's a scene. And this isn't going
to give away too much. So Istill feel we're free in the nutshell
and not Spoiler City. Butthere's a scene where there's a lot
of fast talking in this film.It's very rapid fire. And there's
(07:06):
a bit where, who's this? Who'sshe? What's this? And they all sort
of say it. And straight away Ithought of the Hamilton intro into
my shot. I don't know ifthere's any Hamilton fans listening,
but he goes, who's this? Who'sthis guy? What's he gonna do? And
it goes, I'm not gonna throw him.
Just before you said that, Ismirked because I see where I was
going. I was thinking ofHamilton. And when I said, I'm gonna
pass on the synopsis, I reallywish you said, I didn't know that
(07:29):
was something you could do inthe style of Hamilton. Didn't know
there was something you could do.
Sorry, we won't sing on this podcast.
But the Hamilton is excellent.You really should watch. Go see the
show.
But yeah, and Hamilton's verykind of fast paced, obviously, within
its songs and everything. AndI don't know why. It was just that
particular, who's this? Who'sthat? What's gonna. And I was like,
oh, my God, I'm expectingCarrie Grant to go into. I'm not
(07:49):
gonna throw away my shot.
But it could also be NightmareBefore Christmas. What's this? What's
this? That's why stuff every day.
That's true. Jack Skeleton. Soit's very fast paced, it's got that
comedy thing. And yeah, myreferences were kind of Lois and
Clark, screwball comedies,Fish, Cold wonder, that kind of thing.
And Hamilton in the Middle ofit, I was like, yeah, that's kind
of fast paced, sort of jumpingacross the wall. So if you enjoy
(08:10):
them things, maybe this. Andalso if you like old school.
Movies, I guess even with therapid fire dialogue, a little bit
of Gilmore Girls.
Oh, okay.
If you can keep up the GilmoreGirls, you'd be able to keep up with
this.
Yeah, yeah. It's almostexhausting at times. It is that rapid
fire. But again, if you likethem sort of old school films as
well, it's really.
She should.
Yeah. As you should all.
So the beginning of the film,the premise, the start is she goes
(08:32):
basically into her old work,her ex husband.
To the man's world, to say that.
She'S remarrying, she'sleaving, goodbye. And it's kind of
the tale, the journey she goes on.
And like Darren said, it'shard then to explain it without going
into the spoilers of theactual story itself because certain
things happen within thenewsroom that then build on it so
(08:54):
we can get them into spoilercity. But we obviously don't want
to destroy that. In the nutshell.
Yeah. Like you said, it'sdefinitely battle sexes. It's ethics
of journalism, love versuscareer ambitions.
Yeah. To a certain extentit's, it's. I go into it. What did
we miss? But it's also about awoman's role in society.
Yes. Yeah. And there's a bitof political corruption in there
and.
Yeah.
The role of the press shapingpublic opinion.
(09:15):
Which is why I also love thefact they had that legend at the
beginning. Being like, this isnot in any way a representation of
our noble journalists whowould never act in a way like this.
It's very fast, but like thedynamics of divorce and reconciliation
in 1940s.
I know, I didn't think thatdivorce was something you could do.
You should sing that bit. Butthe bit as well is I'm making my
(09:37):
notes and I write, oh, it'sfrom the play, the page. It's based
off a play. And then I writelater on in my notes when I've forgotten
that fact, I'm like, oh, thisis a bit like a play. Oh, yeah, it
is a play. Yeah, There we go.It does run like a play. So if you're
someone who goes to watch,they do a lot of them at the cinema
now, don't they? Where youwatch like the West End shows on
the cinema. If you enjoy thatkind of thing, I think you'd enjoy
(09:58):
this as well.
Should we go into the ratingsand reviews?
Yes. Hear what they've got to say.
So we'll start with theratings. Rotten Tomatoes. The critics
score was 99%.
Yeah, see, that's what we'relooking for. Mark this. This is cinema.
There we go. Darren's right.We need to bring this back for every
week.
I was going to say see in thehouse right there. This is cinema.
(10:18):
Hang on. Darren, are youshowing your hand before we get to
the.
I'm too excited.
The user score is 90, IMDb was7.8 out of 10. The Metacritic, the
critic score, there wasn't onefor some reason, I don't know why,
but the user score was 8.5 outof 10. So I'll do the. The yin and
the yang and the reviews. SoFrank S. Nugent of the New York Times,
his Girl Friday is a boldfaced reprint of what was once and
(10:41):
still remains the maddestnewspaper comedy of our time. So
on the flip side, whilecontemporary reviews were obviously
overwhelmingly positive, somemodern viewers have not noted a darker
undertone. To me, this moviestarts out as a screwball comedy
and then you start to realizethe whole environment is toxic.
Yeah, totally.
Which is.
Which is pretty spot on point.
Yeah, yeah, I think the film'saware of that.
(11:01):
Yeah, probably. Yeah, I thinkso. It's totally self aware.
Yeah.
Okay, so on the whole, pretty positive.
But very, very well received.Yeah. Even like over the test of
time, like since it came out,would you say 85 years. Yeah, until
now to still get that becauseobviously people review it all the
time every year and it's stillgot. What was it? 99 on Rotten Tomatoes.
(11:24):
That's it for part one. Solet's go to part two and we enter
into spoiler territory. So inpart two we have what did we miss?
Where we mainly Darren willtell us what we've did not spot when
we first watched this film.Are you laughing? Because it's true.
I know. He illuminates ourminds with these.
(11:45):
So much pressure, these key bits.
Makes you think.
He does make you think.
And then we'll do takeawayswhich is where we first will give
our opinions and then we willsee if this movie stood the test
of time. Okay, so let's startwith what did we miss? This is your
choice, Darren. So we'll gowith you first.
Okay, but I need to give a fatto set up the. What do I miss?
So you can, you can step ontoon Paul's toes. He doesn't mind.
(12:07):
Yeah, he's a nice guy.
Get them facts out there.
So what? So with the play, theTwo leads were male, and it was about
a kind of newspaper editor andhis lead journalist, who was a guy
also called Hildy, which is, Ithink in a way sometimes if you dig
a little bit deep, there's alittle bit of. I wouldn't call it
homophobia, but it's a littlebit of homosexuality is definitely
the other, or femme beingfeminine is definitely the other.
(12:30):
So the guy was called, hisnickname was Hildy was two guys in
the play. And then HowardHawkson all his fricking genius decides
to switch up Hildy's role tobe a woman instead. And so instead
of the male journalists go offand get married and have babies,
it's a woman who now istempted to go off and have babies,
which is really, really cool.And that's where the battle of the
sexes comes in, really. Andshe isn't just like a woman who is
(12:54):
subservient to men. She's aspowerful as the men. Like she's as
powerful as Cary Grant'scharacter in this movie. And even
in the opening scene, you seethis bustling newspaper scene and
there's a big sign saying likeno admittance. And. And the camera
goes past the secretaries whoare obviously female, doing their
paperwork, and men come in andout of this newspaper area, all the
(13:14):
important decisions are made.In walks Hildy, strong, powerful,
confident, with her littlefiance following behind her. And
then she turns and puts handin. And you know what? You wait here.
And I think it gets a littlebit. I'm not sure when in the movie
it happens maybe a little bitlater, he's like. He says something
like, I sure would like tosort that guy out or whatever. And
she's like, oh, sweetie, youknow, she makes a cowboy reference
(13:36):
like. Like, yeah, you're notgoing to do that. And then she saunters
into the men's room and she'slike, I'm here now. And then this
amazing. What is that? Howlong's that scene? Like 10 minutes
of them just banter, banteringwith each other and everything's
a really cool choreographed.At some point she throws something
at him and it's just amazing.
There was another scene lateron as well that I thought sort of
showed the respect they allhad for at her as a woman where she
(13:59):
kind of walks in where they'reall playing cards and she walks in
there and the kind of warmthtowards this character is on the
screen. You've got all thesekind of oldie worldy guys if you
want playing cards, newspapermen. And she walks in and they're
all, hey, how's it going?There's none of that judgment there.
It's just very much. She'spart of the team. And I was like,
oh, that's cool. And youwouldn't have thought that would
(14:19):
be part of a 1940s film. Isuppose you'd have a conversation
that first.
When she walks into there, youcan. That's what I was. Oh, yeah,
this is definitely taken froma play, a stage show. It's cool.
And for me, I was, you know,big comic book geek here. But it's
like, it's Lois Lynn. She's astrong, powerful reporter, too. But,
yeah, them sort of vibes.
But she also really likes CaryGrant's character. He's. She's. When
(14:41):
she sees him being schemy, youcan see her kind of get a little
thrill out of it. And it'skind of sweet. But also, if you think
about 1940s, that's. That'sthe height of, like, politeness,
surely is holding doors open.Carrie Grant does none of that for
this guy. Like, at one point,like, he'll light a cigarette, but
then she's like, oh, can Ihave one? He just throws it at her.
She's like, matches. And he'llopen. He'll storm out and. And basically
(15:04):
slam doors behind her in aface. And I was like, wait, are you
doing it on purpose? Becausehe's that intelligent, he could be,
like, nagging her orsomething. I don't know what. Or
is it because he's. He keepsregard. Talking to her. He's like,
she's the finest newspaperman. Like, yeah, you're one of us.
Why would I hold the door for you?
You're one of the boys.
So, yeah, I think that's kindof the key things I've got. How.
(15:24):
How just, well, respect and.But she's also desperate to break
away and go. Because she'slike, oh, you know, I want to be
out of here. You guys arechumps, and you guys are this. And
you're loathsome in a really,I love you, but you're loathsome
or whatever. She says to Kay,run. I want to go bring up babies
and let them kind of growteeth and all that kind of stuff.
And just like, you got. Notthat person. But what I like about
(15:44):
this is, in 1940, you wouldhave had all these women go off and
join the war effort or go outand kind of work in factories. And
then this massive propagandamachine came about and to send women
back to the kitchen, whichhappened to, like, the 50s and 60s.
And it's like, you know, withour new laundromatic, housework is
a breeze. You won't even bedoing anything.
I feel like you should do themadverts. That was good. He was telling
(16:05):
me that there.
And around this point, thisthing called the Hays Code is kicked
in, which was like, you had tohave decency in movies. And it had
this massive list of stuffthat you weren't allowed to do. And
it's like there was noprofanity. Like, God, Lord Jesus,
Son of a bitch. Damn God.Couldn't say anything vulgar, Mark.
Nothing. You couldn't have anylicentious or suggestive nudity,
(16:26):
not even a silhouette. And youcouldn't have any illegal drugs,
any sex perversion. No. Whiteslavery. No, like, sex hygiene or
venereal diseases, scenes ofactual birth, willful offense to
any nation, race or creed.Basically, you couldn't make movies
anymore.
How did they make this withthat list?
A lot of that would mean. Ifyou think about that, that would
(16:47):
mean that Hildy really shouldgo and get married and have kids
and go back into the kitchenand kind of where she belongs. Obviously,
I don't mean that, but that'skind of the narrative that, you know,
women belong in the kitchen.But instead, yes, she does end up
back with Kylie Grant'scharacter, but she also stays in
her profession. I mean, theirideal would. She told them both to
off and just went and livedher own life, set up her own newspaper.
(17:08):
But, you know, that was kindof cool.
It was. It was against thenorm, didn't it?
Back as the newspaper man, asthey referred to her. Also the contrast
between the two characters ofthe new guy. That was it. The fiance.
The new fiance.
Yeah.
Where he was the. Even 10minutes is long time to be away from
you.
But no, that's not how you sayit. Because he's coded as a girl.
(17:30):
So he's like, even 10 minutesis a long time to be away from you.
Complete role reversal, wasn'tit? Which was, I thought was really
cool just to have a female lead.
Yeah.
And I thought it was amazing.
And then, of course, you'vegot Kagar on the other side being
the voice. I just did more ofthat kind of masculine male. Get
out of here. Newspaper.
But, yeah, leading lady wasgood. You know, like when she was
(17:52):
asking him to. Say that again.Yeah, say it again.
I know.
That was a good. That was agood role reversal. But, like. And
the. Her ex is a dick. He'sright. He's the dick. Oh, he's unbelievably
egotistical, arrogant selfentitled douchebag. But she's kind
of obviously attracted to thatkind of bad boy. Kind of. That's
what, that's what got intothis mess in the first place.
They both give as good as theyget as well. They both fire at each
other.
(18:13):
I had a massive grin on myface the whole time because there's
so many things like he'llchange his mind immediately. Yeah,
like he said something about,he's like, you know, disrespectful.
You know, when I hired you,you were a baby face girl. She was
like, you want to hide? Hideme. And that's was a baby face girl.
He said, well, can you blameme? I'm looking at all this stuff
over here that would give me aheart attack. You know, he would
just spin. It was amazing. Andthere's a bit where he's. He's luring
(18:35):
in the fiance and he's cryingand he's like wiping his eye and
the fiance is not looking athim so he's like getting attention.
Yeah, I wrote that one down.That was funny. I enjoyed that.
It was a bit where they weretrying to. Oh, because he said, I
want to see my wife who, whogave birth or something. And she.
Yeah, he said, but they onlygave, they only got married four
months ago. Yeah, and he wason there so they couldn't have been
(18:56):
married.
Yeah.
As if to say, well, you don'tget married unless, you know, you
don't have kids unless you getmarried. It's just like, it's just
a weird assumption.
But that's when Hildy worksout what he's done. And he was like,
oh, you caught me. But yeah,because you lie. If you're speaking,
you're lying. You full of lies.
In terms of the filmmaking ofit. You had these really long takes,
like a play, really longtakes. But then when, when it all
(19:17):
gets really suspenseful lateron, there's these really quick takes
that were really effectivebecause you were used to these long
takes.
I wonder, I often wonder howlong, how long those. There's a choreography
almost in those scenes and theoverlapping and the. You talk, then
you talk, then you talk andyou talk.
The rhythm of thatconversation was very much like a
dance.
I thought, well, that'sinteresting you say that because
I know like every time we do ashow you guys are like, oh, the composer,
(19:38):
the music. Yeah. And it's likehardly any. The music is the dialogue.
Yeah, yeah.
And. But then they, and theycrash into silence a lot. So I think
the first silence is when shegoes. Because even though this is
a fun romantic ish, kind ofmanipulative movie, it's also about
a guy who shot a cop. The cophappens to be a black cop. And because
(19:59):
there's a lot of kind ofaffirmative action or whatever going
on, it's political that thisguy, you know, basically gets a chase.
He's going to be, he's goingto be killed. He's going to be. Go
to the actual chair because of it.
They're going to hang him.
Oh, they're going to hang. Sothey're going to hang him over this.
There's so much corruption init as well.
Right.
Like what if I give you$50,000? You can just. We'll, we'll
print this. I thought we were,I thought we were the left wing.
(20:19):
Yeah, but we'll change, we'llchange tack. Doesn't matter.
And he, he doesn't want tofree him because it's the right thing
to do. He, he might want tofree him because it's a good story
that they saved him. But yeah,she goes down to talk to him and
it's just, she just sits thereand it's quiet and there's no dialogue
and I think she offers him acigarette and he's like oh, I don't,
don't smoke and hands it back.And she said, you know, you didn't
(20:41):
mean to kill that guy, didyou? And it's also quite for like,
like.
A 10 minute scene diffusing.She's confusing.
And then the other time itgoes quiet is when is her name Molly?
I think. And so this girl whotook the guy in, I'm sure her name's
Molly and, and the press madeher relationship into more than it
was. She basically took pity,I mean one evening and gave him a
meal or whatever and she'slike, I never said I want you to
(21:03):
marry him. I wasn't going tomarry him on the hangman's news.
You made it up. You'redisgusting. You guys are sickening.
And she's throwing all thisstuff at him and gets over emotional
and they say something like acalm down will you? You're interrupting
our game. And it's almost likean over emotional woman is just getting
in way discussing business orwhatever it is they're doing. And
there is a lot of like.
(21:24):
They'Re not human, they'renewspaper men.
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
And then she yeets herself outthe window.
Yes, that took me by surprise.
But also after that speech shegives, they do go quiet and they.
It's a shift, isn't? It's like20 seconds, 25 seconds. And they
just sit there. And then Ithink he already says, you know,
find a bunch of newspaper men.But she knows that she's one of them.
(21:46):
Yeah.
You know, it's like they weretaking this moment of like, yeah,
we're kind of gross, but backto business.
Yeah. Anyway, we go, yeah.Anything else, Darren?
Yeah, I think that's probablyit. I think. I think it's a. An attack
on the patriarchy as well. Toa certain extent. It's sort of going
back to that counterfeit then.It's just. This is a patriarchal
world and everything is fake.And there's no kind of empathy or
(22:11):
just.
Certainly money talks.
Yeah, money talks. Like,there's not one really redeeming
guy character you could argue.Maybe the fiance.
Maybe he's just a bit of aweak character. Those knees.
The bit at the end that got mewas, this is the romantic in me,
obviously speaking.
Oh, Paul.
I know, but you were expectingkind of this reunite of the two of
(22:33):
them. I'm like, oh, this isgonna be the kiss scene. But they
don't really. They just sortof go, okay, let's go to the place.
And then they kind of go off.
Down, obviously how theyalways were.
And I wrote down. It's like,this has just been the latest in
one of. Latest in the line ofwhat's probably been lots of adventures,
which they kind of. They talkabout at some point. They're like,
oh, this is like the time wewere in the thing with. They just
(22:54):
sort of walk off at the end.It's like, yeah, this is just the
latest.
They slipped back into therole the way they were.
Yeah, they've just rolled backinto it all. But I was like, oh,
they didn't have, like, what Iimagined would have the romantic
ending scene where theyreunite. It's like, oh, no. They're
just.
I'm glad they didn't do that.
Yeah, I am, too. Really? I wasexpecting it. And the fact it didn't
have that. I was like, no,that's good.
Yeah.
Not. Not only that, becauseshe's like, oh, there's a new case
(23:15):
in Albany. We'll go. Got to gothere. And she's like, fine, we'll
have the honeymoon in Albany.But that's where the fiance lives.
And Cary Grant says somethinglike, oh, I wonder if. Was it Bruce?
I wonder if your fiance thatI've just stolen you from will put
Us up. Love it.
He is arrogant, isn't he?
Yes.
I remembered it mentioned someother films in the same bracket.
It had the front page. 1931.
(23:37):
Yeah.
The original film adaptationBroadcast News from 1987 explores
similar media themes in moderncontext. What was the other one?
The Philadelphia Story. Youheard of that one? 1940, another
classic with Cary Grant aswell. And rapid fire dialogue. Let's
do facts of the day.
Facts of the day. Okay. Asusual, there's lots, but I have picked
(23:58):
a few out for you. This onetalks about kind of the rhythm of
what we were talking aboutwith how many words in it. It's estimated
that the normal rate of verbaldialogue in most Films is around
90 words in a minute. In hisGirl Friday, the delivery has been
clocked at 240 words a minute.So if you're thinking it's fast dialogue,
you are correct. RosalindRussell thought while she was shooting
(24:21):
that she didn't have as manygood lines as Cary Grant had. So
she actually hired anadvertisement writer through her
brother in law and had himwrite more clever lines for the dialogue.
I think he also ended upwriting lines for Cary Grant as well
because he was so good.
Quite possibly because it saysHoward Hawks ee allowed for the spontaneity
in the ad libbing and thatkind of thing. So he and many of
(24:44):
the cast and crew didn'tnotice it. But Grant knew she was
up to something, leading himto greet her every morning with,
what have you got today? Sothat's interesting. To capture the
film's fast paced dialogueclearly, Howard Hawks decided to
use multiple microphonesrather than the overhead boom mics,
since the microphones could beturned on simultaneously and a sound
(25:05):
technician had to switch frommic to mic on cue. Some scenes required
as many as 35 switches. Sotechnologically there was a lot going
on with the recording of saiddialogue. I did read one when I was
looking through all thesefacts around how when he was encouraging
them to ad lib and do theirown thing, he was also encouraging
them to step on each other'slines and talk over and. And do that.
(25:26):
Which obviously is Worked.Worked, yeah. And a big part of the
chaos of the film. One scenerequired Cary Grant to push Rosalind
onto a couch. And Howard Hawksasked the actors to try shoving her
harder. And when Grantprotested that he didn't want to
try and kill her, Hawks said,try killing her. So it sounds like
(25:47):
he liked to push his actors toget the thing. And like we mentioned
before, the movie is so fastpaced that it has absolutely no Incidental
music score. Other than thatover the opening and closing credits,
like Darren said, because thedialogue very much is the rhythm
of the music itself.
Okay, let's move on totakeaways. So what did we think of
(26:07):
the film? Your choice, Darren,we'll go with you.
Oh, okay, fine. I rememberloving this. And I can remember watching
it, you know, when I wasstudying film and I loved it. I can
remember when I was at my whowould. And my wife and I was. It's
really bad when you're a hugefilm geek. I'm much more tame now.
But, you know, if your partnersays something like, they don't like
black and white movies. It isin a summer of watching movies and
(26:27):
having PowerPoints thrown atthem. So I can remember, like a challenge
says that. But she'd be like,why don't we like westerns? I'm like,
what the. Does that mean we'regoing to watch some westerns now?
I feel like that's what CaryGrant would have done, too.
Yeah, exactly. I don't knowwhy we're divorced, so. So I remember
fondly, and it wasn't myimmediate film I wanted to choose.
(26:49):
Like I said when we werechoosing it, there's so many other
movies like Bringing Up Babythat I would have wanted to, but
we stick with the mainstream.
Why did you choose it?
Because it was one of the onlyfilms of this era I could find on
the key streaming services.
Cool. Yeah. But I do try andkeep it still.
Howard Hawks is still a goodmovie. But then when I was watching
it, I had totally forgottenabout the suicide, about the death,
about the hanging. I was like,oh. But once I got used to it being
(27:12):
four by three, it wasn't aremastered version or whatever. Bit
grainy. I was like, oh, am Igoing to. Is this going to hold up?
And then once you're five, tenminutes in, you forget it. And then
I was just watching with agrin on my face because the dialogue
is just so good, so fast, soludicrous. It's like almost watching
a cartoon. It's almost likewatching, like Wiley Coyote or something.
(27:33):
Yeah, it's amazing. Andthere's so many, like, quotes I love
that just stand out. ObviouslyI love the one about getting divorced,
but there's another one. It'shis delivery as well. It's just fantastic.
This. He's almost stoic whenhe speaks. He's very to the point,
but he's venom at points isamazing. Where's that one I've got
(27:53):
about where he says somethinglike, you Know when I put, you know,
I was tight when I proposed toyou, and that's like a 1947 for drunk.
So it's basically, you know, Iwas drunk when I proposed to you.
If you were any kind of agentleman, you would. Forgot the
whole thing. What a greatdialogue. How. How do you come up
with that? So, yeah, it's justwonderful. I loved the dialogue.
I loved the writing. I lovedher as a powerful woman. I loved
(28:16):
those scene moments ofsilence. I just had a grin on my
face the whole time.
I enjoyed it.
There's another quote.Diabetes. I also know better than
to hire anybody with adisease. What?
Yeah, that was. That waspretty like, oh, no, I enjoyed it.
I'm still trying to processit. I think in terms of where I would
(28:38):
rank it in my world of moviethings. I like watching an old one
now and again. I feel like Ienjoy the nostalgia of. That's how
they made them back in theday. And I feel like I should watch
more of them. So thank you,Darren, for recommending this one
because the problem is there'sso. And I don't know if you're like
this listener as well. There'sso many old films to choose from.
(28:58):
Darren was Damien Laws before.And I'm thinking I've heard of a
lot of these, but I haven'tactually seen them. And I feel like
I need to get.
You need someone to give you anudge in. Like, what's this one?
I love Audrey Hepburn filmsbecause I love Audrey Hepburn. So
I've watched a lot of themjust because it's like, oh, it's
got Audrey Hepburn.
They're hit and miss, though.
Yeah. So. So when yourecommend one that's part of these,
this massive catalog of oldfilms, you're like, okay, cinema,
(29:19):
but where do you start? Yeah,so I did enjoy it in that sense.
I enjoyed the dialogue, likeI've said. I enjoyed the fast pacedness
of it. I did get exhausted attimes. I think I'd had a busy day
at work and I was like, oh. Soif I watched it again, I'd have to
be in the right mood to takeit all in because it is so fast paced.
I tell you what, if you're. Ifyou know some of the films to recommend,
(29:41):
in fact, you know, you now offthe top of your head.
Only Angels have Wings.Bringing Up Baby. Rio Bravo. Yeah,
they're the key 3. I would go with.
Yeah.
What did you think?
I love this film. Yeah. Ithank you for.
I genuinely thought you weregonna hate it.
I Loved it.
It looks like a proud fatherfigure right now.
Oh, let me wipe away a tear.
Hang on, I missed that. Oh,there it is.
(30:01):
Yeah, that was great. I lovethe. Yeah, the pace of it was fantastic.
And yeah, I love the fact thatit was a lead female in it. I wasn't
expecting. I wasn't expectingthat based on when it was released.
But then again, I haven't seenmany of these films from then.
I mentioned the posterearlier. I'm holding up to the lads
now, but the Rosalind Russellcharacters in basically like a long
lingerie kind of like nightdress. And Cary Grant is leering
(30:24):
at her. And then the taglineis she learned about men from him.
The.
Has that got to do with the movie?
I love the fact in his notes.
He'S wrote, yeah, I've taken aphoto of this and I've put. I'll
put it in the show notes ofDarren's. Just John's notes for this
movie poster is an arrow withwtf. What the is this? So, yeah,
I'll put that in the show notes.
The marketing, that's nothingto do with the film.
No marketing were like, thisis too feminist. We need to get an
(30:46):
audience in. We're going totrick them. We're going to get them
in the door and then hit themwith feminism.
We're going to miss sell this film.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I thought it wasgreat. I really enjoyed from beginning
to end. I didn't get bored init. I like the pace of it.
Yeah.
I liked everything about it.So I want to watch more of those
films and I've just. I don'tknow why, but I've just avoided old
films. I don't know why. Ithink I thought they were gonna be
like, boring. My black andwhite, I think boring. I no longer
(31:08):
think they kind of.
Pull you in, don't they?They're very captivating.
Yeah.
Because I always think, oh,I'll give this a watch. And then
within, like you said, five,ten minutes, you'd sort of. In that
world of the old school.
Well, the first thing I reallynoticed was the lack of music. But
then I quickly realized thatit doesn't. It doesn't need it. There's
so much to pay attention tothat just. It's not necessary. So,
yeah, I really enjoyed it.
Excellent. And there's.There's tension as well because the
(31:29):
deadline they have is keepsgetting shorter. It's like the guy's
going to be.
Hung ark in the store, isn't it?
Yeah. Can we push the timeback but she's going to catch a train.
Can they push the train back?And then he's like manipulating them.
Being like, you know, justbecause she's going to catch a train
two hours earlier but she'sgoing to cause a man to die. Like
it will all forever be unconscious.
It's like at any point whenshe lets her fiance loose or alone,
something he's just. He just.Something bad happens to him. Useless.
(31:52):
She knows it. She's likeplaying chess right back. She's like
put that check into your hat.Cuz he's going to try something.
Yeah.
It is a battle of. It's almostlike the princess pride kind of battle
of wits almost.
I was just thinking that it's like.
You and I were just likeinsane like you too.
Right? Let's move on to testof time. So this would be an interesting
one. So bring this filmforward 85 years. 2025.
(32:18):
Okay, so you got the fastpaced dialogue wouldn't hold. There's
no way. I don't think.
Is it too fast?
Yeah, it's too fast.
We normally discuss thingsthat are like too slow.
Yeah.
Like the pacing's too slow formodern audiences and this is too
fast.
Exhausting, isn't it?
I must admit it was hard tokeep up. I was like. I had to like
rewind a few times.
My students will put subtitleson normal speed movies to keep up.
(32:42):
I don't know. What are youdoing? Listen to what they're saying.
The rest of it though, I thinkthe. The white guy killing a black
cop, that would be reallyrelevant these days. I think the
woman being pushed towardssuicide because of press coverage
that would carry today. Ithink that's fine.
I don't think it's impactfultoday to have a leading woman like
(33:03):
that.
Not shocking but I would arguethat between the 1970s and 2010.
ISH Women's main role whichlook pretty. So.
Okay.
I still had some tough onesthough like Marion Ravenwood in Raiders
and.
Yeah, but we know thosebecause they stand out.
I guess so. Yeah. Whereas yourprincess layers of the world, that
kind of stuff.
Yeah. But even now, I meanactually this year one of my students
(33:24):
was doing a presentation onthis today or preparing it. This
year was one of the worstyears for a female leads in movies.
2024 was.
Yeah, 24. I guess it must havebeen. Yeah.
Oh wow.
Wow.
But it doesn't mean theyweren't there. But I think there
was. The percentages was alot. So I don't know. Maybe I'm not
watching These types ofmovies, but there's just not that
(33:44):
many movies like this.
I suppose when we do Test ofTime, we're not just saying what
would happen if this. We justfound this film and put it out as
it is. Like, what if someonehad the idea for this film.
Yeah. And made it?
How would it be made today?
What would you change to do aremake? I mean, no one's made a read.
I like, I like the fastpacedness of it. Like, it's. Sometimes
it's a struggle to keep up. Itchallenges your brain.
Yeah, it's really good.
So, yeah, if you have theright cast with the right chemistry
(34:07):
and the good.
Right writing like this is in1940, Howard Hawk's career started
with silent movies, you know,and then the talking started. So
when they suddenly had towrite dialogue and the fact that,
you know, the silent movieswere dominated by men, you know,
it's like Charlie Chaplin andBuster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. So
the fact that they thenstarted making talkies and they gave
(34:29):
women dialogue this good. Andpart of it is when they started writing
dialogue, they hired the bestwriters. They had playwrights and
satirists and journalistslists and stuff. So the dialogue
is amazing.
And if, if any listeners arecurrently twitching like I am, I
think I may have said thewrong person. Before. Michael Keaton
was in the paper with GlennClose. Glenn Close, he was in multiplicity
with Andy McDowell.
(34:49):
Yeah, I thought you weretalking nonsense when you said it.
What did you say? What did yousay? I'm like, that's. That's a different
Michael Keaton film. So, yeah,he's corrected himself. Yeah, I sat
here twitching. I didn'tGoogle that. I just sat here twitching
him. That's not right.
You brought glory back to yourancestors. You're doing okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So, yeah, I think, I think itwould as a premise.
I think so as a premise.
Cast, Right.
(35:10):
Darren's right. Yeah. Get theright cast.
Let's move on to part three ofthe podcast. In part three, we have
Worth a Watch. Oh, what aboutrenaming the Listener section to
the Listener Lounge?
I like that, actually.
I do like that a lot.
There we go. That's the firstone we've all agreed on. So we'll,
we'll go with that for now.The Listener Lounge and next week's
(35:32):
movie. So in Worth a Watch,whoever's choice of movie is gives
us something to watch thatthey've. Let's call their eye. It
can be a TV series, adocumentary, or a movie. Then we
head to Listener Lounge, whichis where we have your comments, question,
your answers to questionswe've put out and anything else,
any mail, emails you guys havesent in. And then obviously next
week's movie is the reveal ofwhat we will be reviewing in the
next episode. Let's go on toWorth a watch.
(35:54):
Can you remember what I saidlast time round? Was it high potential?
Yes. And I have since startedwatching that and it's really good.
Oh nice.
Yes. I'm a wife. Watch it together.
And it's Thursday today, sothere's a. Another episode out.
We're still at the beginning.So yeah, we just started watching
really good.
So I'm kind of a bit tornbetween two things, but they do the
same thing for me. Sosometimes I need a really almost
(36:16):
old fashioned sense ofmasculinity on screen to get me to
clean my flat. And so I'mbouncing between two things. I'm
being, I'm being cheekyreally. But I started watching Yellowstone.
Have you guys seen that?
I keep seeing. There's a newseries just come out on. Is it Netflix?
Yeah.
Was it Disney? I kind of.Yeah, it's just come out and I've.
I know of it but I've neverseen any of it.
So there's three seasons andit's basically a guy who owns Yellowstone
(36:39):
kind of branch and it's theside of size of Rhode island or something
like that. It's like huge.They basically own all this land
and they're trying to protectit and stuff and you know, every.
But it's really, reallycomplex. It's almost, it's really
stepping into like anotherworld of codes of behavior. Like
they will take people who havecommitted crimes and they literally
brand them and to give them anew life. And they're like, you know,
(37:02):
you die on this ranch, likeyou're your family or you kind of
build up to being seen as kindof family.
Wow.
And the women are strong. Likethere's a sister, the daughter and
a sister, I think her name'sBeth, who's just, it's, it's slow
paced and it builds. And thiswoman is, she seems toxic. She's
a hard drinker, she crushespeople and she crushes people in
the boardroom. But then itflashes back as to why that is and
(37:24):
like how her mother treatedher. And the character development
is really, really powerful. Soit's not for everyone because it's
a lot of unpleasant charactersdoing unpleasant, morally wary things.
But it's a really, reallyinteresting world. And what it made
me do is get up and Clean myflat. Because these guys aren't like
whining about how, you know,their legs are sore from riding or
(37:46):
they're tired. Woe is me notworries me. It's like, get the fuck
up and fix that fence. It'slike, you've got to put barbed wire
down there. But if you watchYellowstone, let us know what you
think. Because we don't seeWesterns that often for one to be
running this long, it'ssomething good about it.
Darren's worth of watch isYellowstone. So, yeah, if you guys
have watched it or you'regonna watch it because of his recommendation,
(38:07):
let us know and let us knowwhat you thought. Okay, let's move
on to the listener lounge. Sothe question we put out was, I mean,
we only did it just likeearlier today. So we've not had much
time to. For responses, butwe've had a few. The question was,
let me remind myself.
Bad film that you love.
Yeah. So a movie, you know, isa bit shitt it, but you love it.
(38:27):
So, yeah, we only. I only putthis out not long before we went.
We recorded this. So BenNicholson, who was a new. A new.
He's newly followed us.Followed us, like earlier today.
He's commented saying, thanksSpace Jam. He's put Space Jam. He
likes Space Jam.
I like space.
Nothing wrong with Space Jam.
Bugs Bunny.
Ollie Cake has put CocaineBear, which.
I gotta thank Ollie Cake forthe repeated listenings.
(38:48):
Yeah.
No, directed by Elizabeth Banks.
Oh, is it? Yeah, I. I just. Itsounds intriguing.
I think it's a bear oncockades with cocaine bear. And like
snakes on the plane, you getwhat you expect.
I've not seen Cocaine Bear. I.I've heard the premise of it.
I've had enough of this bearwith his mother.
And another regulation, RosieHodgson says Norbit. Oh, she's put.
(39:13):
It's in my top 10. I said, Idon't even know what that is.
Murphy and lots of differentcharacters, characters.
You can't argue with thoseguilty pleasures.
I imagine it's a bit likeNaughty professor, but I haven't
seen it.
Bad movies that you like. Theyare bad movies, but if you.
Like them, you like theCocaine Bears.
I think is probably quite good.
So before we reveal nextweek's movie, we really need your
(39:34):
help in spreading the word ofthis podcast to help us grow. So
there's two ways you can doit. You can give us a rating and
a review in whatever app orplatform you're listening. So be
it Spotify or Apple podcasts,whatever it is, go to the ratings
review section, give us arating and tell us what you think.
And also just share the show.So on your socials, maybe do a post
about the podcast or in theapp, hit the share button. If you
(39:55):
can think of just one personwho would like this show or this
particular episode, pleasesend them our way.
Why wouldn't you want to sendaround joy in the current climate?
Send happiness to yourfriends, your co workers, your family.
I like it.
Sold.
Yeah, I'm just going to putthat as the. I'm going to put that
at the beginning of the whole thing.
That's the trailer right there.
(40:17):
That takes us on to nextweek's movie, which is going to be
Paul's Choice.
Go, Paul. It's your birthday.
Okay.
Is it your birthday?
No.
No. Well, it is because I getto pick the film. I'm gonna go very
artistic, obviously, with this one.
Okay.
We've gone from one of thegreatest movies in all of cinema
to another.
(40:38):
One of the greatest movies inall of cinema. Darren.
I'm intrigued.
We're going back to the 90s,going back to the original Bad Boys.
Okay, let's go. Michael Bay'sfirst film. Let's go. Bad Boys. Bad
Boys. What you gonna do?Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.
Not seen that for a long time.
That's. That's what I feellike. Prime at the moment. It's on
(40:59):
Amazon Prime.
I think they all are, aren't they?
I think they are. Apart frommaybe the latest one, but.
Yeah, I've seen 1 and 2. I'venot seen any of those, so.
Okay.
We would have seen the firstin the cinema, right?
I did, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not sure I did.
What year was it?
I was far too young.
Was it 95? 5? Yeah.
Yeah.
You guys.
(41:20):
You guys must have been oldenough, but I was far too young.
But I did watch it a lot, so,yeah, that's my choice. I'm going
Bad Boys.
Excellent.
The first one. Okay. Bit of anaction comedy for you there.
Nice one. Let us know what youthink, listeners, about that Pulse
choice. Do you rate it? Do youhate it?
They love it.
Let us know if you've seen it.Let us know what you think of the
film as well, and we'll readout some of the responses on the.
(41:42):
On the episode. Okay, sothat's it. Episode over. Until next
time. This is Mark sayinggoodbye and me.
Saying bye for now.
Get back in there, you mock turtle.
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