I once read an excellent book about single life that included this recipe for depression: “Go out and rent a movie with Cary Grant in it, come back and put the kettle on.” This advice has never failed me. You cannot go wrong with Cary Grant; his movies are invariably cheering (although “Arsenic and Old Lace” can be headache-inducing). Even in a weepy thriller like “Notorious,” it’s just nice to see him, you know?

The best thing about “His Girl Friday” is what a great ensemble he’s got. Ralph Bellamy is hilarious and Billy Gilbert always absolutely slays me in his small part as Joe Pettibone, but the movie really belongs to the magnificent, suit-wearing, bon-mot-slinging Rosalind Russell. Usually with Cary Grant movies you want to be Cary Grant, but here you really want to be Rosalind.

Does the plot need rehashing? Grant plays Walter Burns, editor of the Morning Post newspaper, and Russell is his ex-wife and ex-star-reporter Hildy Johnson. She drops by to tell Walter she’s marrying boring insurance man Bruce (Bellamy); she’s tired of the exhausting, unpredictable newspaper business and she’s got no regrets about divorcing Walter: “Instead of two weeks in Atlantic City with my bridegroom, I spent two weeks in a coal mine!” she snarls. Distraught but externally unflappable, Walter starts pulling strings to get her back in the newsroom.

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