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Keeping up with Hawks - Style in Cinema - filmmaker Howard Hawks

Style, Fall, 1998 by Lea Jacobs

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MOLLY. That's a rotten lie. I met Mr. Williams just once in my life. When he was wandering around in the rain without his hat and coat on like a sick dog, the day before the shooting. I went up to him like any human being would and asked him what was the matter. He told me about being fired after working at the same place for fourteen years.

Hawks makes this sound faster, not only by having Mack speak the lines more quickly, but also by "filling up" the pauses with the running commentary of the poker game (here and in other quotations from the films, character names in bold face indicate overlapping dialogue).

MOLLY. I met Mr. Williams just once in my life.

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SANDERS. How many?

MURPHY. Two.

MOLLY. When he was wandering around in the rain without his hat and coat on, like a sick dog. The day before the shooting.

ENDICOTT. Give me one.

MOLLY. I went up to him like any human being would . . .

WILSON. Two.

MOLLY. . . . and I asked him what was the matter. And . . . and he told about being fired after being on the same job for fourteen years.

SANDERS. Who bets?

WILSON :That's twenty cents.

MOLLY. And I brought him up to my room because it was warm there.

Thus, Hawks makes the scene faster in part by adding dialogue so that there are more words per second Without the rests and with the larger number of speakers, the sound track also becomes more complex, an effect that contributes to the spectator's sense of speed. It should be noted that both films have a pronounced pause after Molly is expelled from the press room (and indeed this pause is noted in the published version of the original play). There are a few minimal lines of dialogue as Murphy asks the guys if they want to play more poker and they refuse (and in the Hawks version, Walter calls asking for Hildy). This pause (to the beginning of the next scene) is 30 seconds in the Milestone version, and 47 seconds in the Hawks; but it seems more pronounced in the Hawks given the sonic density which has preceded it.

There are a number of devices that serve to motivate the elimination of pauses between the speech of different characters. These do not originate with Hawks - they are present in the original play and in the Milestone as well - but Hawks exploits them to an unprecedented degree. One device is to have a number of characters echoing each other on a common theme, one chiming in directly after the next. This device is used extensively in constructing the speech of the reporters. A good example, also present in both The Front Page and the play, occurs in His Girl Friday when the reporters return after following the rifle squad in their futile attempt to locate Earl Williams, and find Molly with Hildy in the pressroom.

WILSON. Hello, Jim? Yeah, it's a false alarm. They surrounded the house all right, but they forgot to tell Williams and he wasn't there.

MURPHY. Some Halloween going on outside. The whole police force standing on its ear. Oh, hello Hildy. I thought you were gone.

HILDY. I'm waiting for some money from Walter.

Keeping up with Hawks - Style in Cinema - filmmaker Howard Hawks

Style, Fall, 1998 by Lea Jacobs

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