Behind The Scenes III

James Stewart on the set of 'It's A Wonderful Life'. The special effects team created an awesome new type of fake snow for the film, made of sugar and water mixed with foamite. This is a LIFE article about it.

His Girl Friday

To kickoff this blog, I am going to start with my favorite movie of all time! Released in 1940 and starring Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant, 'His Girl Friday' is a mad-cap sprint into journalism at its . . .  best? Rosalind Russell play Hildy Johnson, a recently engaged reporter giving her two weeks notice to her boss and ex- husband, the theatrical newspaper editor Cary Grant. As awesome as Rosalind's character is, you can't watch this movie without falling in love with this idiot. Grant's Walter Burns will do anything to keep Hildy from getting married again, including bribing her with money, lying through his teeth, and repeatably getting her new fiance thrown in jail.

This twisted love story is told against the backdrop of an incredibly grim scene: a hanging scheduled to happen the next morning. Through Walter's scheming, Hildy is thrust back into the newspaper world. Most of the best scenes in the film come from her interaction with a group of fellow reporters in the criminal courts building. Their dry, teasing, cringe-worthy conversations play up the crassness and complete insincerity of media at that time. You'll notice several prominent character actors of the period playing the newspapermen, such as Porter Hall and Roscoe Karns. Hilarious performances from all!

The story just keeps speeding up, mounting more and more stakes until the characters are fighting for a man's life and betting their own careers on the mad hope they can get away with it. . . Secrets, jailbreaks, Rosalind Russell tackling a policeman . . .  You don't want to miss a moment!