Screwball comedy

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File:BabyPoster2.jpg
Bringing Up Baby (1938) is a screwball comedy from the genre's classic period.

Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged,[1] and the two engaging in a humorous battle of the sexes.[2]

The genre also featured romantic attachments between members of different social classes,Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". as in It Happened One Night (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936).[2]

What sets the screwball comedy apart from the generic romantic comedy is that "screwball comedy puts the emphasis on a funny spoofing of love, while the more traditional romantic comedy ultimately accents love."Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Other elements of the screwball comedy include fast-paced, overlapping repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, physical battle of the sexes, disguise and masquerade, and plot lines involving courtship and marriage.[2] Some comic plays are also described as screwball comedies.

Name

Screwball comedy gets its name from the screwball, a type of breaking pitch in baseball and fastpitch softball that moves in the opposite direction from all other breaking pitches. These features of the screwball pitch also describe the dynamics between the lead characters in screwball comedy films. According to Gehring (2002):Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Still, screwball comedy probably drew its name from the term's entertainingly unorthodox use in the national pastime. Before the term's application in 1930s film criticism, "screwball" had been used in baseball to describe both an oddball player and "any pitched ball that moves in an unusual or unexpected way." Obviously, these characteristics also describe performers in screwball comedy films, from oddball Carole Lombard to the unusual or unexpected movement of Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938). As with the crazy period antics in baseball, screwball comedy uses nutty behavior as a prism through which to view a topsy-turvy period in American history.

History

Screwball comedy has proved to be a popular and enduring film genre.[3] Three-Cornered Moon (1933), starring Claudette Colbert, is often credited as the first true screwball,[4] though Bombshell starring Jean Harlow followed it in the same year. Although many film scholars agree that its classic period had effectively ended by 1942,[5] elements of the genre have persisted or have been paid homage to in later films. Other film scholars argue that the screwball comedy lives on.

During the Great Depression, there was a general demand for films with a strong social class critique and hopeful, escapist-oriented themes. The screwball format arose largely due to the major film studios' desire to avoid censorship by the increasingly enforced Hays Code. Filmmakers resorted to handling these elements covertly to incorporate prohibited risqué elements into their plots. The verbal sparring between the sexes served as a stand-in for physical and sexual tension.[6] Though some film scholars, such as William K. Everson, argue that "screwball comedies were not so much rebelling against the Production Code as they were attackingTemplate:Snd and ridiculingTemplate:Snd the dull, lifeless respectability that the Code insisted on for family viewing."[7]

The screwball comedy has close links with the theatrical genre of farce,Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and some comic plays are also described as screwball comedies. Other genres with which screwball comedy is associated include slapstick, situation comedy, romantic comedy and bedroom farce.

Characteristics

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File:Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night.jpg
A still from a trailer for It Happened One Night

Films that are definitive of the genre usually feature farcical situations, a combination of slapstick and fast-paced repartee, and show the struggle between economic classes. They also generally feature a self-confident and often stubborn central female protagonist and a plot involving courtship, marriage, or remarriage. These traits can be seen in both It Happened One Night (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936). The film critic Andrew Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex."[8]

Like farce, screwball comedies often involve masquerades and disguises in which a character or characters resort to secrecy. Sometimes screwball comedies feature male characters cross-dressing, further contributing to elements of masquerade (Bringing Up Baby (1938), Love Crazy (1941), I Was a Male War Bride (1949), and Some Like It Hot (1959)). At first, the couple seems mismatched and even hostile to each other, but eventually overcome their differences amusingly or entertainingly, leading to romance. Often, this mismatch comes about when the man is of a lower social class than the woman (It Happened One Night (1934), Bringing Up Baby and Holiday, both 1938). The woman often plans the final romantic union from the outset, and the man is seemingly oblivious to this. In Bringing Up Baby, the woman tells a third party: "He's the man I'm going to marry. He doesn't know it, but I am."

File:The-Lady-Eve.jpg
In The Lady Eve, Jean (center, played by Barbara Stanwyck) passes herself off as an upper-class woman.

These pictures also offered a cultural escape valve: a safe battleground to explore serious issues such as class under a comedic and non-threatening framework.[6] Class issues are a strong component of screwball comedies: the upper class is represented as idle, pampered, and having difficulty coping with the real world. By contrast, when lower-class people attempt to pass themselves off as upper class or otherwise insinuate themselves into high society, they can do so with relative ease (The Lady Eve, 1941; My Man Godfrey, 1936). Some critics believe that the portrayal of the upper class in It Happened One Night was brought about by the Great Depression, and the financially struggling moviegoing public's desire to see the upper class taught a lesson in humanity.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Another common element of the screwball comedy is fast-talking, witty repartee, such as in You Can't Take It with You (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940). This stylistic device did not originate in the genre: it is also found in many of the old Hollywood cycles, including gangster films and traditional romantic comedies.

Screwball comedies also tend to contain ridiculous, farcical situations, such as in Bringing Up Baby, where a couple must take care of a pet leopard during much of the film. Slapstick elements are also frequently present, such as the numerous pratfalls Henry Fonda takes in The Lady Eve (1941).[9]

One subgenre of screwball is known as the comedy of remarriage, in which characters divorce and then remarry one another (The Awful Truth (1937), His Girl Friday (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940)).Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Some scholars point to this frequent device as evidence of the shift in the American moral code, as it showed freer attitudes toward divorce (though the divorce always turns out to have been a mistake: "You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part.' Why divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.")

Another subgenre of screwball comedy is the woman chasing a man who is oblivious to or uninterested in her. Examples include Barbara Stanwyck chasing Henry Fonda (The Lady Eve, 1941); Sonja Henie chasing John Payne (Sun Valley Serenade, 1941, and Iceland, 1942); Marion Davies chasing Antonio Moreno (The Cardboard Lover, 1928); Marion Davies chasing Bing Crosby (Going Hollywood, 1933); and Carole Lombard chasing William Powell (My Man Godfrey, 1936).

The philosopher Stanley Cavell has noted that many classic screwball comedies turn on an interlude in the state of Connecticut (Bringing Up Baby, The Lady Eve, The Awful Truth).Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Unsubst". In Christmas in Connecticut (1945), the action moves to Connecticut and remains there for the duration of the film. New York City is also featured in a lot of screwball comedies, which critics have noted may be because of the economic diversity of the city and the ability to contrast different social classes during the Great Depression.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". The screwball comedies It Happened One Night (1934) and The Palm Beach Story (1942) also feature characters traveling to and from Florida by train. Trains, another staple of screwball comedies and romantic comedies from the era, are also featured prominently in Design for Living (1934), Twentieth Century (1934) and Vivacious Lady (1938).

Examples from the classic period

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Year Title Director Stars Ref
1928 Script error: No such module "sort". Script error: No such module "sort". Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, and Lawrence Gray
1931 Platinum Blonde Script error: No such module "sort". Loretta Young, Robert Williams and Jean Harlow Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1931 Script error: No such module "sort". (remade as His Girl Friday) Script error: No such module "sort". Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien [10]
1932 Trouble in Paradise Script error: No such module "sort". Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, and Herbert Marshall [11][12][13]
1933 Three-Cornered Moon Elliott Nugent Claudette Colbert and Richard Arlen [4]
1933 Bombshell Victor Fleming Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1934 Design for Living Script error: No such module "sort". Fredric March, Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins [14]
1934 It Happened One Night Script error: No such module "sort". Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert [9][15]
1934 Twentieth Century Script error: No such module "sort". John Barrymore and Carole Lombard [10][15]
1934 The Richest Girl in the World William A. Seiter Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, and Fay Wray
1935 Hands Across the Table Script error: No such module "sort". Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray and Ralph Bellamy [16]
1935 She Couldn't Take It Script error: No such module "sort". George Raft and Joan Bennett Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1935 If You Could Only Cook William A. Seiter Herbert Marshall and Jean Arthur Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1936 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town Script error: No such module "sort". Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur [17]
1936 The Ex-Mrs. Bradford Stephen Roberts William Powell and Jean Arthur [17]
1936 My Man Godfrey Script error: No such module "sort". William Powell and Carole Lombard [9]
1936 Cain and Mabel Script error: No such module "sort". Marion Davies and Clark Gable
1936 Libeled Lady Script error: No such module "sort". Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy
1936 Theodora Goes Wild Script error: No such module "sort". Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas [18]
1936 Love on the Run W. S. Van Dyke Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
1937 Love Is News Script error: No such module "sort". Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche
1937 Easy Living Script error: No such module "sort". Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold and Ray Milland [19]
1937 Topper Script error: No such module "sort". Constance Bennett and Cary Grant [9]
1937 Script error: No such module "sort". Script error: No such module "sort". Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Ralph Bellamy [9][15]
1937 Double Wedding Script error: No such module "sort". William Powell and Myrna Loy
1937 Nothing Sacred Script error: No such module "sort". Carole Lombard and Fredric March [9][19]
1937 True Confession Script error: No such module "sort". Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray and John Barrymore [19]
1938 The Divorce of Lady X Tim Whelan Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier [20][21]
1938 Merrily We Live Script error: No such module "sort". Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1938 Bringing Up Baby Script error: No such module "sort". Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant [9]
1938 Bluebeard's Eighth Wife Script error: No such module "sort". Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper
1938 Joy of Living Script error: No such module "sort". Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1938 Vivacious Lady Script error: No such module "sort". Ginger Rogers and James Stewart [17]
1938 Holiday Script error: No such module "sort". Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
1938 You Can't Take It with You Script error: No such module "sort". Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart and Edward Arnold [22][23][24]Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1938 Three Loves Has Nancy Script error: No such module "sort". Janet Gaynor, Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1938 The Mad Miss Manton Leigh Jason Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda [19]
1938 Say It in French Andrew L. Stone Ray Milland and Olympe Bradna Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1939 Midnight Script error: No such module "sort". Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche [9]
1939 It's a Wonderful World Script error: No such module "sort". Claudette Colbert and James Stewart Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1939 Bachelor Mother Script error: No such module "sort". Ginger Rogers, David Niven and Charles Coburn Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1939 Ninotchka Script error: No such module "sort". Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas
1940 His Girl Friday Script error: No such module "sort". Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy [9][15]
1940 Too Many Husbands Script error: No such module "sort". Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas [17]
1940 My Favorite Wife Script error: No such module "sort". Cary Grant and Irene Dunne
1940 The Great McGinty Script error: No such module "sort". Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus and Akim Tamiroff
1940 I Love You Again Script error: No such module "sort". William Powell and Myrna Loy [25]
1940 Christmas in July Script error: No such module "sort". Dick Powell and Ellen Drew Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1940 Script error: No such module "sort". Script error: No such module "sort". Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart
1941 Mr. and Mrs. Smith Script error: No such module "sort". Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard
1941 Script error: No such module "sort". Script error: No such module "sort". Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda [9][15]
1941 The Devil and Miss Jones Sam Wood Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1941 Love Crazy Jack Conway William Powell and Myrna Loy Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1941 Tom, Dick and Harry Garson Kanin Ginger Rogers
1941 The Bride Came C.O.D. William Keighley James Cagney and Bette Davis
1941 Unfinished Business Script error: No such module "sort". Robert Montgomery and Irene Dunne
1941 You Belong to Me Script error: No such module "sort". Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda
1941 Ball of Fire Script error: No such module "sort". Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper [26][27]
1941 Sullivan's Travels Script error: No such module "sort". Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake
1942 To Be or Not To Be Script error: No such module "sort". Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack [28]
1942 The Major and the Minor Billy Wilder Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland [16]
1942 Girl Trouble Harold Schuster Don Ameche and Joan Bennett
1942 I Married a Witch René Clair Fredric March and Veronica Lake [29]
1942 Script error: No such module "sort". Script error: No such module "sort". Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea [9]
1943 The More the Merrier Script error: No such module "sort". Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea
1944 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Script error: No such module "sort". Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken [30]
1944 Arsenic and Old Lace Script error: No such module "sort". Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane [9]
1944 Bride by Mistake (remake of The Richest Girl in the World) Script error: No such module "sort". Alan Marshal and Laraine Day
1945 Eve Knew Her Apples (the first musical remake of It Happened One Night) Will Jason Ann Miller and William Wright
1945 Christmas in Connecticut Peter Godfrey Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan [31]
1946 Cluny Brown Script error: No such module "sort". Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones
1946 Easy to Wed (musical remake of Libeled Lady) Edward Buzzell Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn
1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer Irving Reis Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple
1948 Romance on the High Seas Michael Curtiz Jack Carson and Doris Day
1948 A Song Is Born (musical remake of Ball of Fire) Script error: No such module "sort". Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo
1948 That Wonderful Urge (remake of Love Is News) Robert B. Sinclair Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney
1949 I Was a Male War Bride Script error: No such module "sort". Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan
File:His Girl Friday still 2.jpg
A promotional photo for the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday

Other films from this period in other genres incorporate elements of the screwball comedy. For example, Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The 39 Steps (1935) features the gimmick of a young couple who finds themselves handcuffed together and who eventually, almost despite themselves, fall in love with one another, and Woody Van Dyke's detective comedy The Thin Man (1934), which portrays a witty, urbane couple who trade barbs as they solve mysteries together. Some of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930s also feature screwball comedy plots, such as The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), and Carefree (1938), which costars Ralph Bellamy. The Eddie Cantor musicals Whoopee! (1930) and Roman Scandals (1933), and slapstick road movies such as Six of a Kind (1934) include screwball elements. Some of the Joe E. Brown comedies also fall into this category, particularly Broadminded (1931) and Earthworm Tractors (1936). Screwball comedies such as The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Ball of Fire (1941) also received musical remakes, High Society (1956) and A Song is Born (1948).

Actors and actresses featured in or associated with screwball comedy:

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Directors of screwball comedies:

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Later examples

File:Marilyn Monroe and Alexander D'Arcy in How to Marry a Millionaire trailer.jpg
A screenshot from a trailer for How to Marry a Millionaire
File:One two three43.jpg
One, Two, Three (1961)

Later films thought to have revived elements of the classic era screwball comedies include:

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Elements of classic screwball comedy often found in more recent films which might otherwise be classified as romantic comedies include the "battle of the sexes" (Down with Love, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), witty repartee (Down with Love), and the contrast between the wealthy and the middle class (You've Got Mail, Two Weeks Notice). Many of Elvis Presley's films from the 1960s had drawn, consciously or unconsciously, the many characteristics of the screwball comedy genre. Some examples are Double Trouble, Tickle Me, Girl Happy and Live a Little, Love a Little. Modern updates on screwball comedy are also sometimes categorized as black comedy (Intolerable Cruelty, which also features a twist on the classic screwball element of divorce and remarriage). The Coen Brothers often include screwball elements in a film which may not otherwise be considered screwball or even a comedy.

The Golmaal films, a series of Hindi-language Indian films, has been described as a screwball comedy franchise.[45][46]

Screwball comedy elements in other media and genres

The screwball film tradition influenced television sitcom and comedy drama genres. Notable screwball couples in television have included Sam and Diane in Cheers, Maddie and David in Moonlighting, and Joel and Maggie in Northern Exposure.[47][48] The comedy-drama series Gilmore Girls has been compared by scholars to the screwball comedy genre, particularly for its fast-paced repartee and emphasis on class divisions.[49] Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has stated that repartee was inspired by the Spencer-Tracy films.[50]

In his 2008 production of the classic Beaumarchais comedy The Marriage of Figaro, author William James Royce trimmed the five-act play down to three acts and labeled it a "classic screwball comedy". The playwright made Suzanne the central character, endowing her with all the feisty comedic strengths of her classic film counterparts. In his adaptation, entitled One Mad Day! (a play on Beaumarchais' original French title), Royce underscored all of the elements of the classic screwball comedy, suggesting that Beaumarchais may have had a hand in the origins of the genre.

The plot of Corrupting Dr. Nice, a science fiction novel by John Kessel involving time travel, is modeled on films such as The Lady Eve and Bringing Up Baby.[51]

See also

References

Citations

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  4. ↑ a b Three-Cornered Moon AllMovie review by Craig Butler, accessed October 28, 2023
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  10. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  19. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  33. ↑ https://www.mcavinchey.org/film/foul-play
  34. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  35. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  36. ↑ Described as a screwball comedy in Roger Ebert's contemporary review.
  37. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  38. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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Works cited

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Further reading

External links

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