Walter Burns (Cary Grant) knows he has to do something big when his ex-wife and star reporter, Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell), storms into his office to announce that she's marrying a nice insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy) and moving to Albany. He convinces her to get a final interview for a man on death row scheduled to be hanged in the morning. The Post has been running features and trying to pressure the governor into a reprieve in order to sway the upcoming election against the incumbent sheriff (Gene Lockhart) and mayor (Clarence Kolb). Hildy knows it's a scam to get her to stay and reconcile with Walter but the story is too god to pass up.
This is considered a screwball comedy because of how fast the dialogue is and how many sudden turns the story takes. However, it is a little more mean-spirited than, say, Bringing Up Baby. It is intensely cynical about the lengths reporters will go for a story, more like the comedy version of Ace in the Hole. It is based on a play that was in turn based on a story written by two reporters and already had a film adaptation in 1931 under its original name, The Front Page. For this version, the character of Hildy was gender-swapped and made into Walter's ex-wife, giving us one of the definitive performances of Rosalind Russell's career.
By modern standards, these people are toxic, self-centered, and amoral. But if you go in knowing that, this is still an incredibly funny movie. It is blisteringly fast with jokes layered on jokes. And not just from the main characters. Nearly everyone (except Bellamy and Helen Mack, as the straight man and the emotional appeal, respectively) has unending quippy lines. It is a classic comedy even if it stumbles as a romance. It's streaming on the Criterion Channel and basically everywhere else because it's in the public domain. It's even embedded in the Wikipedia page.
