Trivia / His Girl Friday

• Throw It In!:
  • Howard Hawks encouraged spontaneity and ad-libbing. Rosalind Russell thought, while shooting, that she didn't have as many good lines as Cary Grant had, so she hired an advertisement writer through her brother-in-law and had him write more clever lines for the dialog. Since Howard Hawks allowed for spontaneity and ad-libbing, he, and many of the cast and crew didn't notice it, but Grant knew she was up to something, leading him to greet her every morning: "What have you got today?"
  • According to Ralph Bellamy, Cary Grant ad-libbed the scene where describes Bruce Baldwin as looking like Ralph Bellamy.
• What Could Have Been:
  • This was originally going to be a straight-forward adaptation of The Front Page, until Howard Hawks got the idea of making Hildy Johnson a woman. The idea came to him during auditions when his secretary, a woman, read Hildy's lines and Hawks liked how the dialogue sounded when read by a woman.
  • Jean Arthur was the first choice for Hildy, but she refused to work with Hawks again after Only Angels Have Wings. Carole Lombard was considered, but was deemed too expensive. Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne were offered the role, but turned it down, Dunne because she felt the part was too small and needed to be expanded. Joan Crawford was reportedly also considered.
• Working Title: The Bigger They Are.

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