HIS GIRL FRIDAY
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 1940 version of The Front Page takes Ben Hecht’s 1929 play and revises it by making room for a leading lady. In this version, directed by Howard Hawks at breakneck verbal speed, Cary Grant plays newspaper editor Walter Burns, who adopts desperate measures when his ex-wife Hildy Johnson, played by Rosalind Russell, threatens to leave the paper. Ex-wife, he was fine with – but she’s so good a reporter, “ex-employee” is a deal-breaker. No wonder Cher, who co-hosts this TCM showing tonight as part of her celebration of female roles, is so high on this clever comedy.