Screwball comedy

thumb|[[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, and the two engaging in a humorous battle of the sexes. Usually, the masculine part loses this battle.

The genre also featured romantic attachments between members of different social classes, as in It Happened One Night (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936). Three-Cornered Moon (1933), starring Claudette Colbert, is often credited as the first true screwball, 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, 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. 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 attacking and ridiculing the dull, lifeless respectability that the Code insisted on for family viewing."

The screwball comedy has close links with the theatrical genre of farce, 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

thumb|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."

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."

thumb|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.

| 1932|| Trouble in Paradise|| || Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, and Herbert Marshall||

| 1933||Three-Cornered Moon||Elliott Nugent||Claudette Colbert and Richard Arlen||

| 1934|| It Happened One Night|| || Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert||

| 1934||The Richest Girl in the World||William A. Seiter||Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, and Fay Wray||

| 1935||Hands Across the Table||||Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray and Ralph Bellamy||

| 1936|| My Man Godfrey|| || William Powell and Carole Lombard||

| 1936||Love on the Run||W. S. Van Dyke||Joan Crawford and Clark Gable||

| 1937||Love Is News||||Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche||

| 1937||Easy Living||||Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold and Ray Milland||

| 1938||The Divorce of Lady X||Tim Whelan||Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier||

| 1938||Merrily We Live||||Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne||

| 1938||Bringing Up Baby|| || Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant||

| 1938||Three Loves Has Nancy||||Janet Gaynor, Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone||

| 1938|| The Mad Miss Manton|| Leigh Jason|| Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda||

| 1940||Christmas in July||||Dick Powell and Ellen Drew||

| 1940|| || || Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart||

| 1941|| Mr. and Mrs. Smith|| || Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard||

| 1941|| || || Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda||

| 1941||Sullivan's Travels||||Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake||

| 1942|| To Be or Not To Be|| || Carole Lombard (her last role), Jack Benny, Robert Stack||

| 1942||The Major and the Minor||Billy Wilder||Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland||

| 1942||Girl Trouble||Harold Schuster||Don Ameche and Joan Bennett||

| 1942||I Married a Witch||René Clair||Fredric March and Veronica Lake||

| 1942|| || || Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea||

| 1944|| The Miracle of Morgan's Creek|| || Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken||

| 1944||Arsenic and Old Lace||||Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane||

| 1946||Cluny Brown||||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)||||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||||Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan||

thumb|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:

Jean Arthur
Fred Astaire
Ralph Bellamy
Constance Bennett
Eric Blore
Jack Carson
Charles Coburn
Claudette Colbert
Gary Cooper
Marion Davies
William Demarest
Melvyn Douglas
Irene Dunne
Kay Francis
Clark Gable
Cary Grant
Jean Harlow
Katharine Hepburn
Edward Everett Horton
Harold Lloyd
Carole Lombard
Myrna Loy
Fred MacMurray
Fredric March
Joel McCrea
Ray Milland
William Powell
Tyrone Power
Ginger Rogers
Rosalind Russell
Barbara Stanwyck
James Stewart

Directors of screwball comedies:

Lloyd Bacon
Frank Capra
George Cukor
Michael Curtiz
Tay Garnett
Alexander Hall
Howard Hawks
Garson Kanin
Gregory La Cava
Mitchell Leisen
Ernst Lubitsch
Leo McCarey
Norman Z. McLeod
Wesley Ruggles
William A. Seiter
George Stevens
Preston Sturges
Richard Thorpe
W. S. Van Dyke
James Whale
Billy Wilder

Later examples

thumb|A screenshot from a trailer for [[How to Marry a Millionaire]]

thumb|[[One, Two, Three (1961)]]

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

Champagne for Caesar (1950), Richard Whorf
The Mating Season (1951), d. Mitchell Leisen
Monkey Business (1952), d. Howard Hawks
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), d. Jean Negulesco
Let's Do It Again (1953), d. Alexander Hall, musical remake of The Awful Truth (1937)
Living It Up (1954), d. Norman Taurog, remake of Nothing Sacred (1937)
Three for the Show (1955), d. H. C. Potter, musical remake of Too Many Husbands
The Seven Year Itch (1955), d. Billy Wilder
You're Never Too Young (1955), d. Norman Taurog, musical remake of The Major and the Minor
The Birds and the Bees (1956), d. Norman Taurog, a musical remake of The Lady Eve (1941)
High Society (1956), d. Charles Walters, musical remake of The Philadelphia Story (1940)
You Can't Run Away from It (1956) d. Dick Powell, the second musical remake of It Happened One Night (1934)
Bundle of Joy (1956) d. Norman Taurog, musical remake of Bachelor Mother (1939)
Silk Stockings (1957), d. Rouben Mamoulian, musical remake of Ninotchka (1939)
My Man Godfrey (1957), d. Henry Koster (1936), remake of 1936 film of the same name
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), d. Satyen Bose
The Girl Most Likely (1958), d. Mitchell Leisen, a musical remake of Tom, Dick and Harry
Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), d. Frank Tashlin, a musical remake of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
Bell, Book and Candle (1958), d. Richard Quine
Pillow Talk (1959), d. Michael Gordon
Some Like It Hot (1959), d. Billy Wilder
The Grass Is Greener (1960), d. Stanley Donen
Lover Come Back (1961), d. Delbert Mann
One, Two, Three (1961), d. Billy Wilder, which contains elements of Ninotchka, co-written by Wilder
Charade (1963), d. Stanley Donen
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), d. Stanley Kramer
Move Over, Darling (1963) d. Michael Gordon, remake of My Favorite Wife (1940)
Man's Favorite Sport? (1964), d. Howard Hawks, homage to Bringing Up Baby (1938), also directed by Hawks
Send Me No Flowers (1964), d. Norman Jewison
What's New Pussycat? (1965), d. Clive Donner
Walk, Don't Run (1966), d. Charles Walters, remake of The More the Merrier (1943)
What's Up, Doc? (1972), d. Peter Bogdanovich
For Pete's Sake (1974), d. Peter Yates
Foul Play (1978), d. Colin Higgins
Heaven Can Wait (1978), d. Warren Beatty and Buck Henry
Arthur (1981), d. Steve Gordon
Under the Rainbow (1981) d. Steve Rash
To Be or Not to Be (1983), d. Alan Johnson, remake of the 1942 film of the same name
Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (1984), d. Priyadarshan, based on Charles Dickens's play 'The Strange Gentleman'
Unfaithfully Yours (1984), d. Howard Zieff, a remake of the 1948 Preston Sturges film of the same name
Une Femme ou Deux ( "One Woman or Two"; 1985), d. Daniel Vigne
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), d. Susan Seidelman
Something Wild (1986), d. Jonathan Demme
Overboard (1987), d. Garry Marshall
Raising Arizona (1987), d. Coen Brothers
Who's That Girl (1987) d. James Foley
Switching Channels (1988), d. Ted Kotcheff, a remake of His Girl Friday (1940)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), d. Pedro Almodóvar
Oscar (1991) d. John Landis
Sólo con tu pareja (1991), d. Alfonso Cuarón
Housesitter (1992), d. Frank Oz
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), d. Joel Coen
Radioland Murders (1994), d. Mel Smith from story by George Lucas
Flirting with Disaster (1996), d. David O. Russell
Runaway Bride (1999) d. Garry Marshall
Little Nicky (2000), d. Steven Brill
Rat Race (2001), d. Jerry Zucker
Intolerable Cruelty (2003), d. Coen Brothers
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), d. Adam McKay
I Heart Huckabees (2004), d. David O. Russell
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), d. Bharat Nalluri
Our Idiot Brother (2011), d. Jesse Peretz
While We're Young (2014), d. Noah Baumbach
She's Funny That Way (2014), d. Peter Bogdanovich
Mistress America (2015), d. Noah Baumbach
Night Owls (2015), d. Charles Hood
Hail, Caesar! (2016), d. Coen Brothers
Chongqing Hot Pot (2016), d. Yang Qing
Hit Man (2023), d. Richard Linklater
Anora (2024), d. Sean Baker
Splitsville (2025), d. Michael Angelo Covino

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.

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. 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. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has stated that repartee was inspired by the Spencer-Tracy films.

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.

The novel "Ticktock"(1996) by Dean Koontz showcases a blend of screwball comedy with supernatural horror.

References

Citations

Works cited

External links

Screwball Comedy—Green Cine
Screwball Comedy—Everything2
Screwball Comedy Film ()—wordiQ
Great Directors: Mitchell Leisen - Senses of Cinema
Head Over Heels—The Guardian
La Screwball Comedy—CINEMACLASSIC.free.fr
Screwball Comedies ()—University of Hamburg