“Get Me Rewrite!”

For today’s New York Times’ Critics’ Picks, A. O. Scott discusses the screwball comedy His Girl Friday, a remake of The Front Page, (although Mr. Scott never indicates that) a farce about newspapers, newspaper people, capital punishment, politicians, and marriage. The play (by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur) was later updated for Kathleen Turner for the film Switching Channels (1988) and the marriage-divorce plot was used for the 1946 film The Thrill of Brazil.