in this second film version of the hit play by ben hecht and charles macarthur the front page and new york newspaper reporter hildy johnson ( play by pat obrien in 1931 ) be now a sassy and confident woman ( rosalind russell ) . hildy have have enough of the newspaper life and be go to quit and marry dependable ( bore ) bruce baldwin ( never get the girl ralph bellamy ) and move to albany . the thing be and her editor and ex husband walter burn cary grant ) doesn not want either thing to happen and trick hildy into cover just one more story that of a deluded radical charge with murder . what follow be a super charge side split satire of the headline hungry newspaper business and of course and a bit of romance . howard hawk direct his star and a brilliant cast of support player ( billy gilbert and a real scene steal stand out ) at a breathless pace and use overlap dialog to increase the feeling of frenzy . you will want to watch this one again and again to catch all of the terrific dialog . some of those witty line ( at least a legend have it ) be improvise and such a when grant describe bruce baldwin and say that he look like that film actor and ralph bellamy . later and during a rapid fire telephone exchange and grant responds to another actor line with the last person to say that to me be archibald leach just before he cut his throat . ( archibald leach of course and be grant real name . ) name to the national film registry in 1993 .