View source for Comedy of remarriage

{{Short description|Film genre}}
The '''comedy of remarriage''' is a subgenre of American [[comedy film]]s of the 1930s and 1940s. At the time, the [[Production Code]], also known as the [[Hays Code]], banned any explicit references to or attempts to justify [[adultery]] and illicit sex. The [[comedy]] of [[remarriage]] with the same spouse enabled filmmakers to evade this provision of the Code. The protagonists [[divorce]]d, flirted, or even had relationships, with strangers without risking the wrath of [[censorship]], and then got back together.

The [[genre]] was given its name by the philosopher [[Stanley Cavell]]<ref>{{Cite Q | Q119777123 }}</ref>
in a series of academic articles that later became a 1981 book, ''Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage''. Cavell argues that the genre represented Hollywood's crowning achievement, and that beneath all the [[slapstick]] and [[innuendo]] is a serious effort to create a new basis for [[love marriage|marriage centered on mutual love]] &ndash; religious and economic necessity no longer applying for much of the [[American middle class]].

In response to Cavell's article, scholar David R. Shumway claims it is possible "to make too much of the remarriage 'genre'{{-"}}. He points out that "only two of Cavell's seven comedies deal with characters who we actually see interacting as husband and wife for any length of time" and points out that all seven films fit into the [[screwball comedy]] genre.<ref name=Shumway>{{cite book |last=Shumway |first=David R. |chapter=Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage |title=Film Genre Reader III |url=https://archive.org/details/filmgenrereaderi00barr |url-access=registration |editor1-last=Grant |editor1-first=Barry Keith |publisher=University of Texas Press |date=2003 |oclc=936762738 |isbn=9780292701854 |page=[https://archive.org/details/filmgenrereaderi00barr/page/396 396]}}</ref>

More recently, film critics [[A. O. Scott]] and [[David Edelstein]] both argued that ''[[Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]]'' was a 21st-century example of the genre.<ref>[[David Edelstein|Edelstein, David]]. [http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2004/03/forget_me_not.html "Forget Me Not: The genius of Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"]. ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' (March 18, 2004)</ref><ref>[[A. O. Scott|Scott, A. O.]] [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/arts/film-charlie-kaufman-s-critique-of-pure-comedy.html "Charlie Kaufman's Critique of Pure Comedy"]. ''[[The New York Times]]'' (April 4, 2004)</ref>

==Notable comedies of remarriage==
<small>('''Bold text''' denotes inclusion in ''Pursuits of Happiness'')</small>
* '''''[[It Happened One Night]]''''' (1934), directed by [[Frank Capra]], starring [[Clark Gable]] and [[Claudette Colbert]]
* ''[[Theodora Goes Wild]]'' (1936), directed by [[Richard Boleslawski]], starring [[Irene Dunne]] and [[Melvyn Douglas]]
* '''''[[The Awful Truth]]''''' (1937), directed by [[Leo McCarey]], starring [[Cary Grant]] and Irene Dunne
* ''[[Second Honeymoon (1937 film)|Second Honeymoon]]'' (1937), directed by [[Walter Lang]], starring [[Tyrone Power]] and [[Loretta Young]]
* '''''[[Bringing Up Baby]]''''' (1938), directed by [[Howard Hawks]], starring Cary Grant and [[Katharine Hepburn]]
* '''''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]]''''' (1940), directed by [[George Cukor]], starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn
* '''''[[His Girl Friday]]''''' (1940), directed by [[Howard Hawks]], starring Cary Grant and [[Rosalind Russell]]
* ''[[My Favorite Wife]]'' (1940), directed by [[Garson Kanin]], starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne
* ''[[Love Crazy (1941 film)|Love Crazy]]'' (1941), directed by [[Jack Conway (filmmaker)|Jack Conway]], starring [[Myrna Loy]] and [[William Powell]]
* '''''[[The Lady Eve]]''''' (1941), directed by [[Preston Sturges]], starring [[Barbara Stanwyck]] and [[Henry Fonda]]
* ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941 film)|Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]'' (1941), directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]], starring [[Carole Lombard]] and [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]]
* ''[[That Uncertain Feeling (film)|That Uncertain Feeling]]'' (1941), directed by [[Ernst Lubitsch]], starring Melvyn Douglas and [[Merle Oberon]]
* ''[[Bedtime Story (1941 film)|Bedtime Story]]'' (1941), directed by [[Alexander Hall]], starring [[Fredric March]] and Loretta Young
* ''[[The Palm Beach Story]]'' (1942), directed by [[Preston Sturges]], starring Claudette Colbert and [[Joel McCrea]]
* ''[[Woman of the Year]]'' (1942), directed by George Stevens, starring [[Spencer Tracy]] and Katharine Hepburn
* '''''[[Adam's Rib]]''''' (1949), directed by [[George Cukor]], starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
* ''[[We're Not Married!]]'' (1952), directed by [[Edmund Goulding]], starring [[Ginger Rogers]], [[Fred Allen]], [[Victor Moore]], [[Marilyn Monroe]], [[David Wayne]], [[Eve Arden]], [[Paul Douglas (actor)|Paul Douglas]], [[Eddie Bracken]], and [[Mitzi Gaynor]].
* ''[[Phffft!]]'' (1954), directed by [[Mark Robson (film director)|Mark Robson]], starring [[Judy Holliday]] and [[Jack Lemmon]]
* ''[[Marriage on the Rocks]]'' (1965), directed by [[Jack Donohue (director)|Jack Donohue]], starring [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Deborah Kerr]]

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* {{cite book |first=Stanley |last=Cavell |author-link=Stanley Cavell |title=Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage |url=https://archive.org/details/pursuitsofhappin00cave |url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=1981 |isbn= 978-0-674-73906-2 |oclc=918410925 }}

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{{Film genres}}
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[[Category:Comedy of remarriage films| ]]
[[Category:Film genres]]