Reading His Girl Friday

This screenplay is one of those that runs long and you hope it's all dialogue and little action writing. But I was optimistic going in to read a draft of His Girl Friday. The script I read is close to 200 pages long, and the film turned out to be quite faithful to the script, but as with most scripts there were differences. The length for one was cut, but the dialogue itself changed a bit from page to screen, leaving a much sharper and quicker product in the end.

While the script is incredibly long for what turned out to be an hour and a half film, it's not all the running dialogue that makes it long. It trips you up in a sense, the dialogue because you're used to hearing it at such a fast pace when in reality it's quite a mouthful. What turns out to make the script long and dragged-out a bit is the extra scenes, and even the different ending. One of the things that did stand out for me in this film is that there is so much exposition, but I found myself quite entertained in spite of the endless backstory. In the script, this exposition remains, but along with the exposition that explains what's going on concurrently, we get to see the scenes acted out, which are scenes mostly with Bruce and his mother.

Looking back, perhaps because I may have confused it with The Awful Truth, I was surprised to realize that Bruce's mother doesn't show up until about two-thirds into the film. In the script though, she gets her own big scene with Louie and the car crash. Bruce we barely see throughout except when he's either with Walter or Hildy, and I think it works better this way. In the script though, we see Bruce out on his own in the city, getting accused of stealing with Louie pointing the finger at him. We see him in jail, arguing with the cops, all scenes that just took up time and really weren't that necessary to show. One could argue if it's done really well, really standout and downright funny, then it's worth to include, but for whatever reason these scenes aren't included in the film, and it helps speed up the story.

The dialogue is another noticeable difference from script to film. While I had suspected and then confirmed when I read up on the film that a good chunk of the dialogue had been improvised, this proved to be quite true upon reading the script. The truth of it is that the best lines in the film were completely made on the day of shooting. You'll still find some memorable lines in the script, Walter calling Bruce's mother a cock-eyed liar is one that comes to mind, but even dialogue like when Walter tells Hildy that she practically proposed to him with her googoo eyes, the "Oh Walter" bit isn't in the script, nor is any of the action.

The other thing about the dialogue that I've already mentioned is that it's a mouthful. So you sit and read it and you don't get the same effect as when you watch it. There's plenty of dialogue and one of the things that Howard Hawks did here brilliantly is have the actors talk on top of one another. There's one bit when Walter and Hildy are both talking on different phones to different people. It's not smooth to read and follow but it's pretty much verbatim as to what is seen on screen, and Hawks directed this so well so that it seems authentic as how you'd expect the newspapermen to be while on the phone, and it speeds it up too. Sure, half the time you might be like, what happened here? But you get the gist of it and you get the jokes, so you're entertained in the end.

But the big difference between the screenplay and the finished film is the ending. And to be honest, the film's ending is so much better. I think the problem with the script is that it did drag on too much, and nothing shows this more than the ending. You actually get to see Hildy make a conscious decision to stay and leave Bruce behind, write the story, get the byline, and then have a shotgun wedding with Walter that didn't seem quite funny to me. The script's ending didn't just slow things down, it seemed to change the tone as well. If you look at the film's ending, Hildy starts to cry when she realizes Walter never had any intention of letting her go once she learns Bruce is in jail for handling counterfeit money. Hildy wipes her tears and tells Walter to get Louie down there so they can bail Bruce out, knowing after everything they've gone through she isn't the woman for Bruce. Walter calls up Duffy and then proposes to Hildy by telling Duffy that he and Hildy are getting married. The tone here does go soft but then with Walter getting on the phone, the mood's changed and everything's more upbeat, and even as the film fades out, you see Walter his usual self, making Hildy carry her own luggage, and just not being that ideal man and husband Hildy said she wanted. This is more realistic and funny than the script which finds Walter telling Hildy he wants to be a father so that he can have someone follow in his footsteps. It just didn't work for me. The film's ending is not only funnier and quicker, but it's more immediate, continuing with the sense of urgency that's prevalent throughout the film.

Quite long with some extra scenes, but with some great dialogue, the screenplay of His Girl Friday sets a great story out that satirizes just about anyone and anything. While the film focuses more on just the relationship between Hildy and Walter and journalism, the script deviates for a bit, looking at Bruce and his mother for some comic relief that doesn't turn out to be that essential to show. The dialogue was memorable and if anything set off a starting point for the actors to improvise on the finished film, while the ending fell a little flat. In the end, this script is a good working draft that was perfected while shooting and enabled the players and crew to deliver a great screwball comedy.