one of the fine example of 1930s comedy and and an excellent adaptation of a story that have be tell many time and his girl friday be hollywood at it best . perfectly pair grant and russell with an excellent script by charles lederer and base on ben hecht and charles macarthur 1931 play and the front page and it be the kind of studio magic that could occur when the power that be assign the best work to the best candidate . grant and whom i find arrogant and repellant later in his career not to mention redundant be at his suave and smooth best here a walter burn and newspaper editor and and with the perfect foil in rosiland russell . a hildy johnson and burn ex wife and russell play be in the process of cut her teeth develop character like this . hildy be the archetype that give russell her reputation a a fast talk dame and with machine gun delivery and and a smart mouthed answer for everything . hildy be off to marry bruce and play by bellamy and but her ex and walter and still need her to be his star reporter and cover the execution of a convict killer . every early journalistic stereotype be in full force from reporter who would stop at nothing to get their story and to the city editor with a visor and sleeve garter . gene lockhart and ernest truex and clarence kolb be all in fine form and but even the fine supporting performance pale against grant and russell . they be both delightful in this stylish slapstick farce that have previously be film a the front page ( and later and again a the front page in 1974 and and a switch channel ) . it also spawn a slew of imitator and not the least of which be tv moonlighting . screenwriter lederer script have a freshness even today 1995 saw a remake of his script kiss of death and 2001 brings u ocean eleven and which lederer write the script for in 1960 .