Howard Hawks's mischievously screwed-up version of the MacArthur-Hecht newspaper comedy, The Front Page. The ace reporter, Hildy, has been transformed, or rather transsexualized, into Rosalind Russell (which is not exactly an emasulation of the role), and the result bears a striking resemblance to Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth, with Cary Grant once again trying to impress his ex-lover by poking fun at her new fiancé, a thick-headed straw man obligingly played in both cases by Ralph Bellamy. Russell does not by a long shot live up to the precedent set by Irene Dunne, but the gaggle of reporters lounging around tables, playing cards, puffing cigarettes, and cracking wise, is delightful. (1940) — Duncan Shepherd