Another great example of that rare and amazing quality of lightning dialog (in fact, one of the most cited examples) that is completely lost today, all of it funny or meaningful. Just for synchronizing it all, you have to tip a hat to Cary Grant...
[+] Read Full Review

Another great example of that rare and amazing quality of lightning dialog (in fact, one of the most cited examples) that is completely lost today, all of it funny or meaningful. Just for synchronizing it all, you have to tip a hat to Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

Hawk's does a good job orchestrating a movie that's mainly a set theater piece, but the drama of an active newspaper and the craziness of the pressroom at the courthouse makes up for it. The roles are interesting as well, typical for period comedies in that a woman thinks she wants a domestic life but shows over and over again that she is as sharp and capable as any of the male protagonists. Of course, nobody in movies dissects potential beaus with language like Grant.

The plot has some depth, a harried man about to be hanged, a city plot to trump up his offense, and Grant's hysterical plans to keep Russell's character from leaving town with her fiance (who - as Grant tells an assistant - "looks just like Ralph Bellamy").

An excellent movie, a little more meat than many of Hawks' "screwball" comedies.