The Extras - HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Robert Kalloch, & 100 Years of Columbia Pictures

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Celebrate a century of cinematic splendor with us as film historian Steven C. Smith and fashion expert Kimberly Truhler peel back the curtain on Columbia Pictures' illustrious history. From Harry Cohn's strategic cunning to the studio's transformation under the guiding hand of Frank Capra, this episode promises a treasure trove of insider knowledge. We'll reflect on the indelible mark left by "His Girl Friday"—a film that continues to sparkle with wit and wisdom 84 years after its debut.  With Steven and Kimberly's expertise, we'll also discover the crucial role of fashion in film, celebrating Robert Kalloch's contributions to some of the era's most iconic looks.Steven C. Smith websiteKimberly Truhler GlamAmore websiteAmazon purchase links: Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4Film Noir Style: The Killer 1940s bookMusic by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer BookA Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann Book The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Frickie. I've written books about Judy Garland and The Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies and animation, and then release on digital DVD, Blu-ray and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim, a larger host. And joining me today are two very special guests to talk about the 100th anniversary of Columbia

Pictures and more specifically the 1940 comedy classic, His Girl Friday. Stephen C. Smith is an author and producer of hundreds of documentaries and extras and a good friend that I had the privilege to work with during my time at Warner Home Entertainment. He was previously on the podcast to discuss his award-winning book Music by Max Steiner, which I highly recommend for film and film music enthusiasts. You may have seen film fashion historian Kimberly Truller on TCM, or at one of the many appearances she has made as a lecturer and film historian. She's also the author of film noir style, The Killer 1940s and the creative force behind Glam Amore, which was

founded to celebrate the history of fashion and film. Well, Stephen, it's great to have you back on the podcast. Been a while. Pleasure. And Kimberly, it's a pleasure to finally meet you as well. Nice to meet you too. I think it was just kind of serendipitous, but today actually happens to be the anniversary of the release date of his girl Friday, uh, 84 years ago. And when we picked this time to record, didn't necessarily do that on purpose, but that's kind of fun. Now, when this podcast releases, we'll be beyond it.

But I'm looking forward to talking to the two of you about this 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures. So I thought we could get into that first, because that's really the huge part of the background of our discussion today. So, Stephen, I know you're both film historians, but maybe you could take the lead here and take us into a little bit of the early history of Columbia Pictures.

Absolutely. And Kimberly, feel free to chime in anytime you like. Yes, Columbia turns 100 this year. It's actually a little older if you count its very first name because back in 1918, Harry Cohn, his brother Jack and their friend Joe Brant formed CBC, there are three names, and that was the name of the company for six years, but because the, it was such a small operation, once people started calling it corned beef and cabbage CBC, they decided to go for a more elegant name and they chose a very good one, Columbia in 1924. So yes yes, 100 years ago, that fledgling operation became Columbia. And they went through some various figures of ladies holding shields. And then ultimately, of course, the Columbia torch that has continued to evolve through the years because now Columbia is part of Sony. So, that's the early history. And the person who was really behind the studio who ran it, who was the production chief, was the legendary Harry Cohn, one of the most colorful moguls,

let's say. And that's saying a lot. He was a savvy man and the fact that he could be so explosively angry and then in moments turn on charm suggests to me that he was a very good actor, that he knew how to intimidate people. And when people stood up to him, you know, he backed off and he could be very charming in the same conversation. When I was writing my biography of Max Steiner, he had a very funny story about Harry Cohn who was blowing his top in 1937 over the scoring of Lost Horizon, the Frank Capra epic that was the most expensive film Columbia had made at that time, I believe.

And when Cohn walked in and saw roughly 100 musicians and choral singers at the scoring session, the next morning he demanded that Capra and Max Steiner, who was the musical director and anyone involved, get in his office and he was yelling and yelling. And then according to the composer, Max Steiner, Cohen suddenly lunged from behind his desk and ran towards him and Max was terrified and he ran out the door and Cohen grabbed him and he said, Max, what is the name of that gorgeous cellist that was sitting three rows back?

Yeah, that's right. That tells you all, maybe I can really need to say about Harry Cohen to start this. And I think I read a little bit in my research about Harry Cohn that even though he was at one of the smaller studios, obviously at the time, he endured beyond pretty much everybody other than maybe with the exception of one of the Warner Brothers there. But he had the longest reign, kind of so to speak, in terms of actual years as head of a studio. 1918 to February of 1958 when he died.

No doubt he would have gone on and on because he was still very much running the show at that time, seeing it into the new age of television, just the start of that. Because it was not, because they didn't own theaters, that was part of the reason why they were also one of the smaller ones. Is that right? Yes. It was like Universal in that it didn't own theaters and during the 30s and most of the 40s, it was very advantageous for the studios to own their own theaters because they had

a great place to program their, as we would call it, now content. But ultimately, ultimately, Columbia and Universal, you know, who are both of which are still around, it was to their advantage that they didn't own theaters after 1948 when there was a government ruling that studios could not own those chains of theaters. So that's why Columbia and Universal just continued to grow during that period. And there was a considerable period of adjustment for studios like MGM. Well, and I mean, it wasn't some of Harry's strategy in the early days that he didn't own much versus Paramount had this huge studio. MGM had this huge studio where they had, they own cameras. It's like Columbia was renting everything for about as long as he could do it.

So it was a very different setup. Including actors. Right. Yeah, this is not a studio that was built up with a star system. So you're using the star system like Warner Brothers or MGM. They did almost accidentally have a few stars who began under contract like Rita Hayworth and Gene Arthur, but Harry Cohn preferred to have Kerry Grant say,

or Catherine Hepburn come in for a film to do their big prestige title of the year, and that worked out very well for him. And Kimberly, I would say for us, wouldn't you? I would, and he had Stanwyck and Kappa early on, so I mean, if you're gonna have someone have Barbara Stanwyck, that's early on. So, I mean, if you're going to have someone have Barbara Stanwyck, that's not too shabby. Yeah, and I think one of the featurettes that we'll be talking about, Stephen, when I was

watching it, I think you kind of got into some of the importance of a few of the films that kind of took Columbia and started to, I guess what, give it a prestige a little bit more than it had at least before. So maybe you could take us into some of, what was maybe one of the early films that kind of bumped it up in status and who was the director?

Well, there was definitely one in 1934 that changed everything. And because I know Kimberly knows a great deal about this. Kimberly, would you like to take it from there? Well, I mean, it happened one night, came out in 1934 and it just blew everyone away. I'm sure it shocked, shocked everybody, probably Herring Cohen most of all. Definitely, Clark Gable, who won an Oscar for Best Actor. He was an MGM contract player who had been loaned to Columbia as punishment for his bad behavior. Claudette Colbert had to be wrangled into her part

in She Was a Paramount Player. She won an Oscar and it yanked her from a train station to accept the other. So everyone was pretty shocked when it swept the main categories at the Academy Award. So that was definitely a pivot point in Columbia's history. And of course, I would argue that one of the reasons that it had a pivot in its reputation was because they hired costume designer Robert Kellogg as well. Stephen, who is the director on that film?

Do you remember? Oh, I remember. It was a gentleman named Frank Capra who had been working in Columbia for a number of years, made some very good films already like A Lady for a Day, American Madness. But it was really it happened one night that, as Kimberly told us, absolutely astonished everyone. And it really still is, it sets the bar, I think, for romantic comedy. I recently had a screening over here where I live in Rancho Mirage, introduced it and spoke about it, and it was a packed house and people just cheered at the end. It's

fortunate in that, although it evokes the depression that it's in, it's about two people who fall in love on a night bus traveling across the country during the depression, it has very much a timelessness about it. And the chemistry between Gable and Colbert is so strong. And the script by Robert Riskin is just superb. And Capra knew how to get people who, as Kimberly mentioned, didn't necessarily want to be there and make them feel loose and comfortable. And it's one of those great stories where even though Colbert had apparently no faith in the project all the way to Oscar night, she couldn't be more charming. I think it's her best film. So that showed that Harry Cohn's mission of the last two years of getting Robert Callican to do these glamorous costumes

for stars, to support Capra and Robert Riskin, basically to make one or two major quality films a year and then more kind of bread and butter pictures, that became a template that was successful for a long time. And do you know how he got Capra in there? I mean, was Capra just a young director that was kind of unknown? Well, he wasn't quite unknown, but he came out of slapstick comedy. That's the wonderful thing. I think he had worked for, didn't he work Kimberly for Max Senate, and he directed

Harry Langdon, the silent comedian in his last Good Silent Features. And then he went over to Columbia, and he, Capra was very, very hungry, very ambitious to succeed. And he gave Columbia many of its biggest titles of the 1930s, not necessarily in this order, but Mr. Smith goes to Washington, lost to Verizon, Mr. Deeds goes to town, the best picture-winning you can't take it with you. Capra really had kind of, he had the golden touch for quite a while there. And although he sparred with Harry Cohn considerably, who didn't?

And I think out of that occasional conflict came good things. Cohn, for all that's said about him, he supposedly was incredibly vulgar and really extreme. But he had good taste, I think, when it came to good films. I mean, in the 1940s, he continued to make quality productions. He teamed Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth into films that were very successful. He made All the King's Men another best picture winner, and From Here to Eternity, another best picture winner for which I did about an hour's worth of special features recently. I want to go back a little bit to the fashion design, Kimberly,

because that's obviously an area that you know so much about. Can you talk about how Caliq did make that transition and help the studio kind of appeal to the actors and actresses? Well, first, for any costume designers that might be listening, I want to make a statement about there is a difference between fashion design and costume design. They should not be conflated with one another. Costumes are created for characters to be a part of the story, to show the character

arc. The reason why I often weave fashion into the stories of the costume designers because so many of them came from the fashion industry. And Bobby Kellogg is one of these people. In fact, he was internationally renowned as a fashion designer before he came to Columbia.

He worked at the best couturiers in the world, Lucille being one of them, Lucille also produced Howard Greer, Travis Banton, and Vera West had an association with Lady Duff Gordon who ran the Lucille couturier. So you know these are all the head costume designers of MGM, Columbia and Universal. So you know the quality of the workmanship there. And then also Madame Francis, a couturier in New York City, as well as Hattie Carnegie,

who was internationally known based out of New York City. So Kellogg had an international reputation. If you were royalty, the social elite, actresses, Broadway stars, if you were anyone who was anyone who had money, you were probably wearing Kellogg long before he came to Columbia. And one of his clients was Harry Cohen's wife, Rose. And so that is how Kellogg got on Harry Cohen's radar. And Stephen alluded to Harry's colorful character

And Stephen alluded to Harry's colorful character and background, which pretty much everybody's got a Harry Cone story for better or for worse. But I give him a tremendous amount of credit for bringing Kellogg to the studio. He saw that so much of MGM and Paramount in particular, their reputations, were coming from the glamour of the costume design. Cecil B. DeMille, very early on, created fashion films, his words, with Gloria Swanson, and proved out that these were money makers. And if anyone valued making money, it was Harry Cohn. So it was a win-win. You know, he got a lift and reputation for the studio as a whole. All of a sudden, even B pictures just looked so much better because Cal-Lung was designing for them. But also, people went to these movies to see these stars in costumes.

And you had stars who were loaned to Columbia. Jean Arthur was loaned to Columbia for a couple of pictures before she went to MGM. Carol Lombard was loaned to Columbia while she was at Paramount to kind of get her experience going. She was someone who got along really well with Harry Cohn likely because she, you know, was such a tough lady and could go ahead to head with him. So people went to these films to see these stars in these incredible costumes. So even if they were lacking in script and story, all costumes. So even if they were lacking in script and story, the stars and the look of them helped bring people in. So that was, he started with Columbia in 1932. And what was his first film with Columbia?

Well, in 1932, he did, he worked with Barbara Stanwyck, who again, she was one of, like, if you could call her a contract player in Columbia, like she was one of its early stars. So the bitter tea of General Yen was one of his first pictures at Columbia. Yeah, which, I mean, it has just jaw dropping costumes in that one. And then two years later, he had it happen one night, and it happened one night, is one of the most iconic films from a standpoint of its costume design. Both for Clark and for Claudette Colbert, they continue to live on in the fashion industry today. It is a point of inspiration for modern fashion designers. And I have to say that, Steven, thank you for letting me see the featurette a little bit

earlier here before it's released as part of Columbia's classics volume four. But I heard that story of it happened one night and everything. And that kind of then took us right into the film that we're going to talk about, which I believe was what, just a year or so later. Yes. His Girl Friday, that actually was filmed in 1939, released in 1940. So a little time yet. Not an enormous one. And in between, Calak continued to do good work. But yes, it's interesting. His Girl Friday is part of the next Columbia Classics set, as you mentioned, which will also include titles like Kramer vs. Kramer, Sleepless in Seattle. There are a lot of gorgeous new transfers on this and special

features. But it's interesting, and this is something again that Kimberly can speak too far more than I, but in the case of his Girl Friday, we're almost talking about a single wardrobe. And yet with that single wardrobe, Callick makes His Girl Friday one of the most important costume design films of its time. Would you agree, Kimberly? 100%. You know, what's interesting about both It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday is that the bulk of the picture rests on a single costume. Now it happened one

night had more costumes in it and more of a variety of costumes but his girlfriend essentially has two through the whole picture and one of the things that I credit Kellogg with is his gift at layering. So her opening costume is that dramatic striped coat and matching hat which are pink and black as I talk about in the featurette. But as the scenes go on she takes her coat off. Now she's got a blouse and skirt on so it's a different same costume but a slightly different look. Similarly in It Happened One Night sometimes she puts Clark Gable's sweater around her shoulder sometimes she's got her little hat on.

So he finds ways to make a single costume visually interesting for the audience. And then of course in His Girl Friday, it is that striped suit, that skirt suit that she wears when she's working, she's in action. That is Hildi. That is her persona. And partial credit to that costume goes to the director Howard Hawks, who if you look at the history of the strong women in his pictures. So if you think of Tabernam not the big sleep even Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings, he loves women in checked suits. You know, the Gangham suit, Hounstut checked suits or striped suits. And so his direction to Rosalind Russell when she started the picture is go to wardrobe and get yourself a smart look and striped suit. And so that was the direction that Kellogg had in creating that. And what's fascinating to me, knowing fashion history,

now I am talking about fashion, is that that striped suit was essentially signature 1940s style that Kellogg was defining in 1939. And further speaking as a career woman, everyone I know through the decades has had a navy pinstripe skirt suit in her wardrobe. It's just like this classic basic that everybody has and Kela came up with it in 1939. It's just incredible. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Tim Mallard, host of the Extras podcast, and I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page

or look for the link in the podcast show notes. Yeah, I was looking at a poster of the film. And after I had heard you talk about the fact that the colors, obviously it's a black and white film, but that the colors of the suit were pink and black and that that had some real meaning because there is what one other wardrobe change where she's then in the with the reporters later. Do we have that right? Yeah. And so then I'm looking at a poster of his girl Friday and she's in a yellow dress. Exactly. And I'm like, wait a second, why did they put her in a solid yellow dress in this

poster when I know from, from listening to your story that there was so much power in that outfit? Now, obviously it's probably because maybe they did before they even had the word. I don't know. But even in the publicity stills, they don't have her in that outfit. They have her in like in a solid black, many of the publicity stills, not the stills from the film, but from some other publicity stills. Well, I can guess why that decision was made. The studio heads certainly certainly didn't like their women in pants and they didn't like their women in anything that looked to men's wear. And so if you're going to promote a picture, you're going to make her look her most feminine.

And Rosalyn Russell through the 30s had already established herself as quite a little glamour girl. And she was on the heels of the women, where she was in the most outrageous adrienne designs in the world. So the studio has thought to lure people into the studios, you had to put her in the most feminine ensemble you can think of. And again, his girl Friday's got two outfits. Neither one of them are revealing or overtly feminine. So they were likely trying to tap into you know, Rosalind Russell looking this way and being glamorous, and did a little bit of a bait and switch, at least in their minds. Then it became like, wow, she's incredible. And that wardrobe and so forth.

You know, so the storyline completely changed with publicity after it came out. But I can guess that that's the reason why originally it was like that. And I think you're right, Kimberly, because this is something the studios all did across the board. They would choose costumes that often had nothing to do with the film. But as she said, position them to be either more masculine and looking more feminine and looking. And one thing they also did pretty consistently was period films.

Like this is a different studio entirely, but for the ghost of Mrs. Muir, a 1940s film set at the turn of the century, 19th to 20th, all the costumes that the people are depicted in contemporary clothes, as in most of the posters and such that I've seen, they seem to feel that people, some people would be discouraged if it was a period film. So, you get these kind of incongruously modern looks to movies that we now think of instantly as taking place in another time or if it's a Christmas movie, they hide that it's a Christmas movie. And also the darkness of her costume, which breathes so well in the film, probably wouldn't pop as much on a poster. So they went for that yellow, you know, to really

just be bright. Well, and I think too, what you just said, I mean, when you watch his girl Friday, it's about this woman who is being pulled by two worlds, right? She's got the career world and then the home, the family. And that's really, Let me jump in there because she's creating that pull. She's trying to tell herself, get out of this. You want a wife. You don't want to be 24 seven with your ex-husband, with a bunch of guys all the time.

You want to be more feminine. Hence why that first costume is, you know, it's got pink in it, which I'm sure is not a color that Hildy Johnson normally was wearing. Still got stripes though, so it's like it's her tiptoeing into that feminine role. She's trying to will herself to marry a normal guy, a nice guy, but she gets pulled. I mean, it's Cary. So who cares what Carrie Grant acts like, but it's like she's trying to get out of that other world. And so it's her push ball.

Right. It's hers, but that's still there, right? Yes. 100%. And it's like, maybe was there some fear that she was, it was she was too career minded for the publicity to your point, so they toned that down, which is a bummer because the reason why I think that film is enduring, obviously the acting is fantastic, the script is fantastic, but the theme still resonates. Oh my God. I mean, my wife has a full career

and she still struggles with the exact same thing. Amen, hallelujah. I wrote about his girl Friday during, and she still struggles with the exact same thing. Amen. Hallelujah. I wrote about his girl Friday during, I'm not even going to say who was running for president, but it was a contentious election where we thought it was going to be the other person who was female. And so I was writing about it and saying the sad thing is we are still fighting for equal rights, equal pay, equal everything. And what's so inspiring about this movie is we all know Hildi

is better than everyone. She's a better writer. She's a better reporter. She's a better person than everyone who's on this screen. And so like that's why it is such a powerful movie, especially for women to return to because it's like, oh, yes, that's someone who's aspirational right there. And may I just jump in to say it's also unusual in Hollywood films at the time because usually when there was a film about a strong woman, whether it was a movie with Ruth Chatterton that Warner Brothers made in the 30s, it's a female where she's the boss of an entire industry. She's like the Howard Hughes who's running the company and she's the woman and all the

employees are men serving her. But at the end of the movie and then two years after his girlfriend, Spencer Tracy and Catherine Hepburn appear in Woman of the Year and they reshot the ending so it would be this isn't exactly it. But tonally it's, oh, I guess I just I don't belong in this world. I'm really a woman. I need to be a wife." So that was usually what happened in films, was that if there was a career woman, she had to ultimately accept the fact that it wasn't right for her. This movie does not do that.

And that's one of the reasons I think it holds up so beautifully. Right. And when I wrote about it too, if you look at how many women were professionals at that time, it's a very low, it's a single digit percentage of women. So it made it even more exceptional that it came out in 1940 because of course it's before World War II where I mean eventually 36% of the workforce during World War II was women. But as we cruised into the 1940s, it was very low and to have a job of her caliber, because most women were in domestic service if they had a job, teachers, that kind of thing. So it really is spectacular and I'm sure that was uncomfortable.

I mean, God bless Howard Hawks for having Hildi be a woman because of course it's based on the front page which had two male leads but Howard Hawks, who loves strong women, saw that there was an opportunity there to have Hildi be a woman in this picture. Exactly. In the original play, it's Hilderbrand and the genius choice was made to make that Hildi be a woman in this picture. Exactly. In the original play, it's Hildibrand, and the genius choice was made to make that Hildegard. And I just want to say, parenthetically, as you know, Tim, there's also a feature that I produced

with the wonderful Jeremy Arnold, author of many books for TCM. And Jeremy talks about how Hawks timed the film, so the dialogue could be so fast and furious that when it overlapped, they ensured that extra words were added at the very end of a sentence so that you didn't miss the important information. That the genius sound man could switch between multiple mics so quickly and that's another reason i think that the film is never gone out of style probably never will is it just has this incredible force that starts from the first shot of the film, this tracking shot of Hildi walking in and it just carries you through it to the very end, like this breathless, you know, e-ticket adventure in pacing, also very contemporary and feeling.

The TV series Moonlighting that's come back to us after years and is finally available this stream used his Girl Friday very much as the template for the relationship and that between Bruce Willis and Civil Shepherd. Yeah, that was a fascinating feature and also highly recommended as part of this new release. That just points to the brilliance of the direction, right, Howard Hawks? But you also, I think, talk about in there just the challenge that was for the sound design team to do that. And then to your point, make sure that the dialogue, they had, what, multiple microphones to try to capture everybody in the larger group ones and everything.

Yeah. And the cinematographer said that it was a very challenging production because even though movies are traditionally blocked, people don't think about this watching it. Hopefully they don't. But actors walk to certain marks on the floor, so they stay in focus. And the focus puller on the camera is constantly working to keep them in focus. This was a movie where apparently both Kerry Grant and Roslyn Russell had more latitude than usual to move around. So the cameraman really had to keep up with

them on this film. And again, I think that when everyone is on their toes in this way, the sound team, the camera team, everyone, and it's this incredible rhythm, it's just an exceptional piece of direction and writing. Yeah, I rewatched it, and then I was reminded of the broyance of it and I wanted to watch it again. That sounds funny. I literally wanted to watch it again because I'm like, I missed half that banter. I mean, I didn't miss it, but I want to hear it again.

I want to like, and the other thing I found myself, Kimberly, is anytime Hilda guard is in the scene. My eyes can't because of that outfit. My eyes can't go anywhere else. Even when Carrie Grant is standing right next to her and usually your eye goes to Carrie, I just found myself always looking at her. That's the power of that outfit. And the power of her. Let's give Rosalind Russell some credit now,

considering that she was far from the first choice. I mean, they were trying to pair Kerry with previous co-stars like Gene Arthur and Irene Dunn. And then they went through Ginger and Catherine. I mean, basically any star of the 1930s before they hit Rosalyn Russell, which Ros found out about by reading it in the paper. So she's not cruising into this production with a lot of confidence and confronted hawks

about it. And that's when he said, go down to wardrobe and get yourself that suit. And she just becomes hildy. And the reason you can't take your eyes off her is because she so is in to use modern terminology in her power in this movie. Like she, she doesn't have to, there's no bravado about her. You know she's confident. You know she's confident. She's not bragging about, you know, you're not getting an indication of her character by her bragging about past things. Carrie does talk about assignments that they had been on, but it's not coming from Hildi. And so that's why she's just so riveting

and we've already talked about the dialogue, like 240 words a minute, something ridiculous like that. And so yeah, that's why you can't take your eye. What is she gonna do? What is she gonna say? And so that suit is her armor and that's why it just all works together. Now, what about the Cary Grant outfit though?

How is that purposefully toned down or to, how does that work for the men versus the women there? No, I don't think it was toned down. What's interesting about his girl Friday, if we want to talk about Cary ever so briefly, Cary was always through his career, very involved in his look and in his style evolution and his suiting in the 30s and then in the 40s and then in the 50s. You know, it's like you think of

the awful truth, 30 suiting, notorious, 40 suiting, North by Northwest, 50 suiting, all different. And so he was playing with cut and he was playing with the vents of the jacket to get into man speak here a little bit. And Carrie was very conscious of his neck being too thick. So he was always working with tailors on the collar to make it a little higher, to make the sleeves a little

longer, everything to lean him out. So what you're seeing in his Girl Friday is a great opportunity to see the transition of his style from that 30s suiting, which is more double breasted, a little bit boxier, moving into 1940s suiting. And again, like even though we have a costume designer the caliber of Kellogg, Kerry always very involved with his look in his costumes. And if I could just say one of the great things about seeing these films, a film like His Girl Friday and a really excellent high definition transfer is that you can appreciate the details of the wardrobe and you can also really see the interaction between Grant and Russell on a level that you can't in a, and this is a film that went into the public domain. So it looked terrible in most of the releases that people watched for years or on television.

And Grant and Russell had a friendly competition going on in this movie. They liked each other tremendously. They were lifelong friends. But just the way actors do, particularly where these two characters are in kind of a struggle with each other, there's very little improvisation in the film, but their physical activity is, there's a lot of improvisation. There were a few lines that Carrie Grant threw in and with a writer planning and then Rosalyn Russell did the same. She got a few lines in her pocket and threw them at him and they were keeping each other

on the toes and as I put together these two new pieces about the film for the 4K release I never ever tired of rewatching them because I could always look at their eyes and also look at the other news people who are so fabulous. You have a great supporting cast of 30s, 40s character actors in this movie and there is so much vitality but there is real listening going on. This is not the kind of movie where people could check out and then just hear the cue for their next line. Everybody has to listen. And you can watch that on the 20th viewing of the movie and still find something fresh in it.

You're so right. Everyone and the scene stealers, the supporting players, every single one of them is so good. So everyone is doing their A game in his Girl Friday. Well, it's such an iconic film, and kind of going back to the Columbia 100. This film, among others, I mean, the studio is kind of known for their comedy, right? Their screwball comedy? I would say that's true in the 30s.

I mean, they became known after it happened one night as a studio that reliably produced star-driven romantic comedies. You could argue that Kerry Grant created his Kerry Grant persona through his films at Columbia because you get The Awful Truth, which was an Oscar winner in 1937, which some people consider the first Kerry Grant movie in that he's really playing the kind of character we know. And then the next year for Columbia, he makes Holiday with Catherine Hepburn. 39, he makes Only Angels Have Wings, a Howard Hawks film with Gene Arthur at Columbia.

1940, his Girl Friday at Columbia. So really his most formative time and some of his really his greatest performances that period are all in Columbia films. So that was something, you know, the audience didn't go to a Columbia film and say, oh, we're gonna see a Columbia movie tonight. The way they might in later years say we're gonna go see an MGM musical. They generally went for the stars, but Harry Cohn was so shrewd to pay Kerry Grant, not an inexpensive performer, to do these films and to make sure that the vehicles were worthy of him, the talk of the town in the early 40s, and everybody benefited, including us all these years later.

Yeah, I was a little surprised to hear from your featurettes and everything, that history of how many great films Kerry Grant did there at Columbia when the studio didn't really have these expensive contract players and so many other good ones, good actors as well. So that was surprising. Well, I really enjoyed it. I mean, I enjoyed the featureettes. Can you kind of give us a little recap of the two that you did for that release, Stephen? Yes, absolutely. One features the wonderful author Jeremy Arnold in a look at how Hawks created the rapid-fire

dialogue of the movie. The other features, Kimberly Truller talking about the great Robert Callak, who, as we have discussed, does not get the attention he deserves. Yeah, and they're part of the 4K remaster, I believe. That's a part of the, as we mentioned, the Columbia Classics Collection Volume 4. And it comes out February 20... Oh, no, excuse me. February 13th. Just in time for Valentine's Day. So really, the 4K owner in your home, this is the ultimate Valentine's gift. You get punch drunk love, sleepless in Seattle, Starman, Kramer versus Kramer, guess who's coming to dinner and his Girl Friday with bonus features.

Yeah. So it's a great release. Obviously, to your point, the version of his Girl Friday that I had to watch is not a 4K. And I'm very much looking forward to the 4K version because it had a lot of dropouts and it had a, you know, it just is not up to par. I mean, I watched it on a streaming service. So I'm looking forward to the 4K because that's going to really help, especially with these, with the costumes that we just talked about. It's a different movie. And I will say just for the fun of teasing something that if you like movies like His Girl Friday, there are more things ahead coming in the year.

Oh, okay. Well, thank you so much for that. I have no idea what that means because it's so vague. But I guess what it means is there's more Columbia stuff coming out for their anniversary hopefully. Well, before we wrap this up, Kimberly, maybe you could let our listeners know how can they follow you or find out a little bit more about you? I am known as Glam Amor online. So you can find me at Glamour.com. It's my handle on social media. I will often do events primarily in the Los Angeles area. I most recently did a speaking screening series with the American Cinematheque with my book Film Noir Style. So those are the ways to keep in touch with me and informed as what I'm up to.

And I'm going to be doing an event before the TCM Classic Film Festival. This year, not at the festival, it's right before it. It's gonna be at the Hollywood Heritage Museum. And this will be the seventh year that I've done this event. I select six or so movies that the festival will be showing. And I share the story of the costume designer, discuss the costumes, if they're influential, and people really enjoy the event. Yeah, and I'll put the links to your website

and some of your other social media on there to make it easy for people to follow you so that they can know about your events or just read your blogs and watch your appearances on TCM or your videos on YouTube and other things as well. And then Stephen, tell us a little bit about what you went up to. Obviously you were on the podcast over a year ago, I think now, to talk about your

book. But what else are you up to these days? Well, I had the pleasure of introducing and speaking about two films at the Library of Congress recently. One is a film that you and I may talk about later in the year, the wonderful All That Money Can Buy. Since we're talking about books, thank you for putting one of mine behind you. That book to the left is Music by Max Steiner, The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer. I'm also the biographer of Bernard

Herman and you can find more about those books at mediesteven.com. That's Stephen with the V. MediaSteven.com. And I've had the good fortune in the past of producing slightly over 200 television documentaries, most of them about classic Hollywood. I've done at least a hundred documentaries for home video on classic films, including some Columbia titles like Oliver and Lawrence of Arabia. So I'm always glad when a studio goes back into its history and gives an opportunity for people like Kimberly and Jeremy Arnold and myself to help not only celebrate them, but maybe, you know, illuminate an area they don't know about like Robert Callak, like how the sound design and scripting of His Girl

Friday was done. So that's how you can find me, mediasteven.com. And I follow you, Stephen. Obviously, we're good friends going way back, way, way, way back. But I follow you on Facebook and LinkedIn and a few others. So I'll have those as well in the podcast show notes. And I'm always surprised at what you have going and how much you have going. And I also love your webinars that you do on film history, film noir, all kinds of different things in your knowledge of film history is quite diverse. And so I'll have those links for people who want to follow you and check out some of those

things as well. But I did want to ask you, are you working on another book? I am writing another book. It may be related to Alfred Hitchcock. That's all I'm going to say at the moment. And I am hoping that people can purchase it in 2025, more soon. Okay. Well, there's a long lead, right there. Because we know writing a book is such a huge process, especially with all the research that you have to do for the type of books

you write. Yes. And I will say there's a lot of information in this one that has not been published before or I wouldn't do it. So yeah. And I do notice, Stephen, knowing you that you choose topics where you have to travel to Europe to England to do research. I mean, it's such a chore. It's so horrible.

Yes, yes. You know, you do it. Somebody's got to do it. If Bernard Herrmann preferred to live in London, I have to go to London. If Max Steiner came from Vienna, I have to go to Vienna just for the first of the work I do. It's first-hand research. He's got to go and walk in the streets on the cobblestones of these great masters. It is amazing. I'm all kidding aside. It is amazing the footprints that they have left there because when I wrote my book about Max Steiner

This man passed away in 1971. You wouldn't think that there would be a lot to really find anymore But because his family for three generations Had been a major part of the Vienna music scene when Vienna was like the Broadway of Europe Not only does Vienna have a theater museum. They have like an entire room devoted to the Steiner family. It was incredible. So I felt like it was incredible time travel to do that. And that is the fun of doing the kind of featurettes that I got to work with, collaborate with Kimberly and Jeremy on or books to write is.

And certainly watching these films, it's the best kind of time travel you can do. Yeah. And I'm excited every time I hear about the projects that you're working on. And I will have links to your books, both of you got your books here in the podcast show nuts as well so that people can dive in even deeper into these topics. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Thanks for watching. volume 4 4k collection that is releasing on February 13th. You can find a link in the podcast show notes or on our website at www.TheExtras.tv

So be sure and check those out. If you're on social media, be sure and follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at TheExtrasTV or Instagram at TheExtras.tv to stay up to date on our upcoming guests and to be a part of our community. And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Lard. Stay slightly obsessed. The extras is a production of Otaku Media, producers of podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work

together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.