FAQ for
His Girl Friday (1940) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for His Girl Friday can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032599/parentalguide.

His Girl Friday is a remake (with a twist) of the 1931 film The Front Page, which was adapted from the play of the same name, written by American film writer Charles Lederer [1906-1976] and American playwright Ben Hecht [1894-1964] .

The "twist" to His Girl Friday is that one of the lead roles in The Front Page was converted from a man to a woman.

"Girl Friday" or "man Friday" are terms for someone's main all-around helper, as taken from the character in Robinson Crusoe, a 1719 novel by English author Daniel DeFoe [d.1731].

The opening title card reads:

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It all happened in the 'Dark Ages' of the newspaper game ~~ when to a reporter 'getting that story' justified anything short of murder.

Incidentally you will see in this picture no resemblance to the men and women of the press today.

Ready?

Well, once upon a time ~~

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Countless distributors, large and small, have released this film. His Girl Friday fell out of copyright and into the public domain, which means any distributor can legally sell copies without paying royalties. Beware. Some small distributors market copies of public domain films with poor picture and sound. Others are more reputable and deliver good transfers of the best available prints. Shop around.

You can begin your search here at Amazon.com. The best available version was restored from its original negative and released by its original studio, Columbia Pictures. Its Region-1 release can be found here

Watch His Girl Friday (1940) on :

archive.org here

It's also available via Netflix's Watch Instantly subscription feature.