His Girl Friday: the fastest-talking movie in the world?
San Diego Reader
By BILL MANSON
I have always loved the word “loquacious.” I also love the word “screwball.” And I especially love when the two come together in screwball comedies. If ever a rash of movies was by definition loquacious, it was those screwball comedies from the ’30s and ’40s. First up, the movies of Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Second up, and this surprised me, anything Cary Grant. That Cockney boy knew how to deadpan fast-talking funny. So when I heard they were doing a season of screwball comedies at The Athenaeum in La Jolla, I knew I had to cancel everything and go and see that motormouth masterpiece His Girl Friday. It played last week, at 240 words per minute, maybe the fastest-talking movie in the world. (Most old movie dialogues coast along at 90 words a minute. Even today, in real life, we normally talk no faster than 140. And one thing is for sure, whatever the speed, current movies just seem to have way less dialogue, period. We have to face it: we moderns aren’t as... loquacious. So let’s bring back the fast-talking dames! Bring back Humphrey Bogart with his endless plot reveals while he’s holding a gun to some malheureux’s stomach. More tell, less show!
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2021/aug/18/golden-dreams-his-girl-friday-fastest-talking/