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His Girl Friday
Walter Burns, a hard-boiled newspaper editor, learns that his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildy Johnson, is about to marry insurance man Bruce Baldwin and settle down as a housewife in Albany. Walter, determined to sabotage these plans, asks a reluctant Hildy to cover one last story: the pending execution of Earl Williams, who has been convicted of murdering a black policeman. Walter maintains that Williams is innocent and that the city fathers are only going through with the execution so as to curry favor with black voters. Hildy accepts the assignment on the condition that Walter buy a life insurance policy from Bruce.
While Hildy works on the story, Walter does everything he can to keep Bruce from taking her to Albany, including framing him for theft (forcing Hildy to bail him out of jail). Exasperated, Hildy quits, but when Williams escapes, her journalistic instincts get the better of her. Walter frames Bruce again, and he is immediately sent back to jail.
Williams suddenly appears at the window of the press room where Hildy is working. She hides him in a rolltop desk. Meanwhile, a messenger from the governor arrives at the mayor's office with a reprieve for Williams. The mayor, who is determined to see Williams hanged, bribes the messenger to keep the reprieve under his hat until it is too late.
Mrs. Baldwin, Hildy's future mother-in-law, enters the press room, having eluded a kidnapper sent by Walter. She reveals to the assembled crowd (which includes the mayor) that Hildy is keeping Williams in the desk. Williams is taken back to his cell and Walter and Hildy are arrested for abetting his escape. At this point, the messenger returns with the reprieve, telling the mayor that he has decided not to take the bribe after all. Walter uses this information to blackmail the mayor into letting them go.
Walter tells Hildy that she is free to go to Albany with Bruce. Hildy is put out by this, realizing that she still loves Walter and is not ready to give up her career as a journalist. Bruce then calls to say he has been arrested again, this time for carrying counterfeit money (that Walter gave him). Hildy is relieved to learn that Walter never had any intention of letting her go quietly. Walter proposes to Hildy for the second time and promises to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls. He then learns that there is a strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls. Hildy agrees to honeymoon in Albany, accepting that Walter will never change.