His Girl Friday

Being a child of the '80s I missed a lot of 'classic' films and have tended to shy away from anything in black and white unless I can't be bothered to change channel or move away from the TV, but that of course means I really have missed a lot of very good films.

My brother Leo got me a subscription to Empire magazine for Christmas and after a short but glowing review of an old Carry Grant movie, His Girl Friday, I decided to buy it. It just got re-released on DVD this week and is on Amazon for just under £6.

It's the tale of a newspaper editor who tries to win back his ex-wife (due to re-marry) through all manner of cunning plots over the course of a manic day. The dialogue is fast-paced and there are some real laugh-out-loud moments.

In doing a quick Google video search to find a clip to post here, I just found out Google Video has the whole film available to watch under a Creative Commons Public Domain licence, so here it is:

It's still worth buying on DVD (especially as it's so cheap), but I'm definitely gonna have to check out Google Video for any more old gems of movies under CC licences now.

EDIT: Just watched It's A Wonderful Life for the first time (I said I'd missed some classics) and it truly is a fantastic film.