His Girl Friday

The legend goes that to prove a point, Howard Hawks had a reading of "The Front Page," and was startled to discover it played even better between a man and a woman than two men. He contacted Ben Hecht and suggested a remake with the switch. Hecht loved the idea, and Harry Cohn was quickly persuaded to give it the green light. Cary Grant was cast as the hilariously unscrupulous newspaper editor Walter Burns, and Rosalind Russell took on the now-female (and ex-wife) star reporter, Hildy Johnson, who wants to retire and get married (to Ralph Bellamy, her fiance). Hawks directed the actors to speak as fast as they could, even stepping on each other's lines, resulting in what is generally considered the fastest comedy ever made. Hecht (uncredited) wrote the script with Charles Lederer, and the supporting cast was a who's-who of ace character actors. "The Front Page" has been remade twice since, but no version has ever topped this one.