It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who is about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife, Hildy Johnson, newly engaged to another man. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murderer Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife. This was the second time the play had been adapted for the screen, the first occasion being the film which kept the original title The Front Page.
The major change in this version, introduced by Hawks, is that the role of Hildy Johnson is a woman. Filming began in September and finished in November, seven days behind schedule. Production was delayed because the frequent improvisation and numerous ensemble scenes required many retakes.
Hawks encouraged his actors to be aggressive and spontaneous. His Girl Friday has been noted for its surprises, comedy, and rapid, overlapping dialogue. Hawks was determined to break the record for the fastest film dialogue, at the time held by The Front Page. He used a sound mixer on the set to increase the speed of dialogue and held a showing of the two films next to each other to prove how fast his film was.
Walter Burns, the hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post of Chicago , learns his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson, is about to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin and settle down as a housewife in Albany. Walter, determined to sabotage these plans, entices a reluctant Hildy to cover one last story: the execution of Earl Williams, a white bookkeeper portrayed as a shy, confused man, convicted of murdering a black policeman.
Walter is committed to stop the execution, claiming it is a political move to get the Mayor reelected, since the victim is "of color". In the meantime, she bribes the warden to let her interview Williams in jail. She induces the convicted man to make a compelling argument in his defense, that he was not fully aware of his own actions when he shot the police officer. Exasperated, Hildy quits, but when the convicted man escapes, her journalistic instincts take over.
