Hawks followed this film two years later with His Girl Friday, about the inner workings of the newspaper industry, and specifically about the tension which still exists between ex-spouses Cary Grant, editor-in-chief, and Rosalind Russell, star reporter. The film does not go to the greatest of lengths in terms of cinematic insanity that Bringing Up Baby did, but it still moves at a fast clip. Instead, the film places an even bigger emphasis on cynical representations of the world, especially romance.
In general, the newspaper world gets a lashing. Cary Grant himself is a very amoral, opportunistic editor, who would do anything in order to get what he wants. For example, even though the paper is a Democratic supporter, Grant is willing to print an editorial supporting the Republican mayor, so the newspaper will be granted their wish of a reprieve for an about-to-be-executed criminal. Grant then says they can go back to being a Democratic paper tomorrow. Many of the reporters of the city papers are portrayed as crooked as well. Throwaway scenes in which reporters keep topping each other with even bigger exaggerations of the truth are common during the course of the story. The forthright depiction of all kinds of tricky business necessitates a silly title card during the credits which tries to convince us that this movie does not reflect the real-life newspaper world of today (1940). Right!!!!
In the romantic department, Cary is equally persistent in getting his own way. Even after the divorce, he still attempts to woo the ex-wife, who claims to be frustrated by his behaviour and who is about to get married to Ralph Bellamy. While this is much more plausible than Katherine Hepburn`s pursuit of Grant, there is still a lot of manipulation and desperation, resulting in the wearing down of the other person`s defences. This occurs after Cary Grant has successfully stalled the new couple`s escape to married bliss by getting Bellamy in jail numerous times: once for carrying counterfeit money, another for associating with what appears to me to be a prostitute, and another for robbery. Of course, it is Grant who plants all this "evidence" on him, and is buying time so Russel will see the error of her ways and remarry Grant. Just as in Bringing Up Baby, the romantic world is seen through humourously cynical eyes.
The thing which is rather apparent to someone like me is that the people who made these films must have been on crack (or, if one knows a little bit about Cary Grant`s personal life, perhaps a bit of LSD as well!!)! The films themselves are crazy, and yet move like a piece of music, in that the insanity flows smoothly and gracefully. These films exist to make you laugh, and be entertained. They do not contain much in the line of sober thought, or the kind of romance you see in genuine love stories, but at the same time these films are not lacking in quality. There is usually comic inspiration everywhere in these two films, all of the performers are impressive, Rosalind Russell a personal favourite, and Cary Grant, in particular, gives some of his best performances in movies of this kind (although my favourite C. G. comedy is a later film, H. C. Potter`s Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House). That is exactly why such films ought to be considered classics: they contain absolute purity of form. While many films of today, even comedies, feel the need to get mushy and solemn for the climax, the screwball comedies do not suffer the same urges. Almost every moment is touched by some sort of comedic inspiration, and you`ll never hear (at least in the Hawks films) weepy melodramatic score music. All you`ll hear is great talk, and all you`ll see is utter lunacy, which is what these films were meant to contain. These movies are romantic comedies in the truest sense, as the romance and the comedy are intertwined at every moment.
