I'm sure my first thought was the same as most - a movie from 1940?! That means no special effects, no sex appeal, and no cursing - how can a movie be good enough to make the top 250 without any of those (it's black and white too!)?
How about by having a plot and witty dialogue? Honestly, there are no action scenes, no scantily clad women, and no foul language in 'His Girl Friday' (HGF); however, it kept my attention for all 92 minutes of run time. Every scene seemed to have some new quirky artifact from the past - dime poker, old-style telephones, expensive $12 hats. I really do believe the false anachronisms are what kept me involved (no real anachronisms - they all fit HGF's time of production and plot, but to me watching it in 2010 they felt out of place) waiting to see what peculiar-ness would come next.
A particular bit that made me laugh - really, I did... out loud - is part of a scene with Walter Burns (Cary Grant) describing Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) to an accomplice to pick him out on the streets. He misses nary a beat in mentioning Bruce's striking resemblance to an actor, Ralph Bellamy. If you hear a faint bell ringing reading the name "Ralph Bellalmy", that is probably because you have seen Trading Places - and that you are old. I cheated and used the DVD's accompanying Filmography sections to discover this little gem: Ralph Bellamy is one of the scheming Wall Street'ers wagering on human nature in 'Trading Places'! *BAM* Take that to the trivia bank!
It boiled down to this: does the tired-of-the-same-old-run-you-ragged-job damsel decide to keep her new life with the boring insurance salesman or does she realize the non-stop pace of the news business is where she belongs?
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