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Topic: Screwball comedies

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	Comedy Films
		Screwball comedies were launched in the mid-1930s, and established their place after the advent of film sound and the social disturbances of the Depression.
		Screwball comedies were characterized by social satire, comedic relief through zany, fast-paced and unusual events, sight gags, sarcasm, screwy plot twists or identity reversals, and precisely-timed, fast-paced verbal dueling and witty sarcastic dialogue - blending the wacky with the sophisticated.
		Screwball comedies often took an anarchic tone or irreverent view of domestic or romantic conflicts ('battles of the sexes'), and usually aimed their barbs at the leisure-upper class.
	www.filmsite.org /comedyfilms3.html (1566 words)

	Screwball comedy film - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The screwball comedy has proven to be one of the most elusive of the film genres.
		As a result, the description "screwball comedy" has continued to be used even when a better descriptor would be slapstick film or situation comedy film.
		Most acknowledge that the screwball comedy had stragglers through the late 1940s and 1950s, but the onset of World War II and the end of the Depression undermined some of the themes so necessary to the genre.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Screwball_comedy_film (651 words)

	Elizabeth Abele: The Screwball Heroine
		Beginning in the 1930s, the subgenre of screwball comedy presented female characters who were active and desiring, without evoking negative characterizations as "unfeminine" or "trampish." Screwball comedies represent a specific form of romantic comedy that features a complicated situation--or more often a series of complications--centered around a strong-willed, unpredictable female.
		Screwball comedy offers women less conflicted and more pleasurable spectator positions than those described by Mulvey and De Lauretis, while presenting active female characters who are neither punished, saddened, nor masculinized by their success.
		Though her desire for the anti-hero generally becomes evident early on, the anti-hero's awareness of the screwball heroine as the object of his desire is often blocked to almost the end of the film.
	www.temple.edu /gradmag/spr00/abele.htm (4280 words)

	Balboafeet.com - A Day In the Life of a Jitterbug (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Screwball comedies are anarchic love stories populated by perfectly coiffed heroines that turn somersaults in evening gowns and heroes that are mostly well-meaning, but prone to tripping.
		The stylishly absurd screwball comedy remains a genre that, alongside film noir (which could actually be considered its kissin' cousin), is most evocative both of its era and of the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema itself.
		Another very distinctive characteristic of the screwball comedy, the fabulous combination of sharp, witty dialogue and broad physical humor was also related to its particular historical moment.
	www.balboafeet.com /articles/screwballcomedies.php (762 words)

	Screwball History (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		1934 can be seen as the beginning of the screwball comedy era, with the release of four excellent examples of the various types of screwball comedy.
		The fourth important screwball comedy of 1934 was The Gay Divorcee, a sort of musical screwball.
		The screwball family was no longer relevant as men and women went off to war and women worked in munitions plants and factories.
	freespace.virgin.net /d.moore1/Donna2/Screwball_History.htm (1519 words)

	filmjourney.org : Bringing Up Baby, To Be or Not to Be (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Viewers new to American comedies of the '30s are often surprised by the period's sophistication and wit, two words not usually reserved for Hollywood comedies nowadays.
		Screwball comedy, in particular, was a genre that offered an opportunity for Depression troubled audiences to enjoy stories promoting a complete reshuffling of the social order, where classes and sexes intermingled with equal agency, random events ensured happy endings, and chaos reigned supreme.
		Often considered the "screwiest" of the screwball comedies, director Hawks later suggested he wished he had included at least one sane character in the film, but its off-balance consistency is somehow both hilarious and enchanting.
	filmjourney.weblogger.com /2005/03/13 (849 words)

	DVD Verdict: Screwball Comedies to Look For
		One is certainly the equality of the sexes—in screwball comedies, the women are normally at least as intelligent and resourceful as the men, or they're as crazy as the men, whichever the plot requires.
		The screwball comedy seemed to grow out of the depression years of the early 1930s and the film-going audience's desire for escape, but equally as responsible for its rise if not more so, was the introduction of the Production Code in 1934.
		Screwball comedies continued to be a popular response to the economic hardships that persisted more or less until the end of the Second World War.
	www.dvdverdict.com /columns/classics/screwball.php (1043 words)

	Images - The Glory of Cary Grant
		In screwball comedies, the female character controls the action (often occupying a superior social/financial position to the anti-hero) but preserves her femininity through her "screwball" affect--and a major part of controlling the action is the screwball's controlling of her desired anti-hero.
		As besieged as the anti-hero is by the screwball heroine, he always manages to hold his own, overcoming some obstacles on his own, revealing himself to be her worthy partner.
		Though her desire for the anti-hero generally becomes evident early on, the anti-heroe's awareness of the screwball heroine as the object of his desire is often blocked until almost the end of the film.
	www.imagesjournal.com /issue05/features/carygrant4.htm (716 words)

	Salon Arts & Entertainment \| Is this as good as it gets? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Because romantic comedies have become so dismal, so laden with lame humor and couples that barely spark and so transparent as flimsy therapy substitutes designed to make women feel good about themselves (the assumption being that we all feel bad to begin with), that it's often surprising that anyone, man or woman, finds them acceptable.
		In their glory days, in the 1930s, romantic comedies were made for, and enjoyed by, men and women alike.
		Romantic comedies mutated over the years, but even as late as the '80s, it wasn't so hard to find pictures like "Tootsie" and "Moonstruck" that kept the essence of the genre alive.
	www.salon.com /ent/feature/1999/06/09/romantic (797 words)

	Professor's book examines romantic vs. screwball comedies
		Comedy films were first popularized during the Great Depression when the nation needed to forget the horrific times, Gehring said.
		Screwball comedies create an "almost anything goes" atmosphere while the romantic comedy resembles a board game with the characters using strategy to find love.
		In the dating ritual, a screwball comedy might have a zany heroine who finds herself in a triangle with a sought-after male and his life-smothering fiancé.
	www.bsu.edu /news/article/0,1370,-1019-8468,00.html (410 words)

	home (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		In order to fulfill the requirements of this project, Anna examines the particularities of gender roles as they are portrayed in screwball comedies while Cameron similarly scrutinizes their prevalence in romantic sitcoms.
		The genre of screwball comedy, popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, presented many independent women who defied previous characterizations of women in film.
		The heroines of screwball comedy often commandeered the narrative trajectory of their films, sometimes to the detriment of their male counterparts.
	www.uweb.ucsb.edu /~cjduggan (269 words)

	Untitled
		Screwball comedy is a genre which was at the height of its popularity in the 1930`s and 1940`s.
		Unlike slapstick, screwball is known mostly for its verbosity — most of the humour is not in sight gags or other forms of physical comedy, but in the words the actors say.
		A typical screwball comedy may contain a number of common attributes: "wacky and oddball behaviour", or "role manipulation, either between the sexes or between the classes".
	www.suite101.com /print_article.cfm/6710/42709 (1533 words)

	MDMyMan Godfrey (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Screwball comedies often focused on class differences and they thrived during the Depression era when audiences enjoyed seeing rich folk put in their place.
		If the screwball style benefited from film censorship, it did as well from the influx of Broadway playwrights to Hollywood at the beginning of the sound era, as they brought their witty verbal style from stage to screen.
		In the novel, the character of Godfrey was bland, the comedy was tentative and the social commentary muted.
	www.moviediva.com /MD_root/reviewpages/MDMyManGodfrey.htm (1474 words)

	USA Today (Magazine): Love and Laughter: A Cinematic Valentine's Day ... @ HighBeam Research (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Since the screwball heroine tends to wear out the male with her wackiness, her zaniness quotient--and that of the plot--usually escalates in the second half of the film.
		This heroine-directed accelerated zaniness has held true in modern screwball comedies as well, whether Tomlin's soul haunting Martin's body in "All of Me," or Hawn's huckster heroine eventually winning Martin over in "Housesitters." In both cases, as is the norm in screwball comedy, the free-spirited heroine rescues the male from a life of boring rigidity.
		In contrast to the aggressively forward screwball heroine, the traditional romantic comedy heroine is more apt to be the one dragging her feet with regard to matters of the heart.
	www.highbeam.com /library/doc0.asp?DOCID=1G1:58576592&refid=holomed_1 (2865 words)

	New Page 1
		Comedy movies’ purpose is to make viewers laugh, so people often don’t try to learn about different subgenres of this film genre.
		Ultimately, slapstick evolved and was reborn in the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
		Screwball comedies are romantic stories that mainly focus on the battle of sexes.
	web.li.gatech.edu /~rdrury/600/write/sp2_03/comedy/styles.html (423 words)

	CULT 1680-Assgn 2 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		Screwball comedies were the last refuge of the satire, self-mockery and sexual candor of early 1930s filmmaking, but their iconoclasm was used, overtly at least, to support the status quo.
		The screwball comedies by and large celebrated the sanctity of marriage, class distinction and the domination of women by men.
		More often than not, the characters in screwball comedies were wealthy, and their wacky behavior showed audiences how funny and lovable and harmless the rich could be.
	faculty.cinstate.cc.oh.us /eckerps/1680asn2.html (1406 words)

	AudioRevolution.com DVD Review of The Philadelphia Story
		It's often described as a screwball comedy, but though it reunites Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn from BRINGING UP BABY, one of the best of all screwball comedies, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is another kind of movie.
		It's more sophisticated, more romantic, wittier and also more serious than screwball comedies; it's what screwball comedies want to be when they grow up: a great comedy of manners full of interesting people with interesting desires and motivations.
		Screwball comedies often involved madcap heiresses, so the rich usually came in for a great deal of kidding, but THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is one of the very few Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s to actually criticize the rich for attitudes they too often hold.
	www.audiorevolution.com /dvd/revs/philadelphiastory.shtml (1272 words)

	ChapmanFILM - Wired - Screwball Comedy Film Screenings (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		The first of director Howard Hawks' many Screwball Comedies stars Carole Lombard and John Barrymore, in the perverse tale of an egomaniacal Broadway producer who tries to woo back his footloose star on a cross-country train ride.
		Fredric March and Veronica Lake star in Rene Clair's comedy of a witch burned in Salem who returns to haunt the descendants of a Puritan who condemned her to death.
		Neil Simon's script is clearly related to the 1930's screwball farces, and it involves Goldie Hawn as a good-hearted attorney and her former husband, Chevy Chase, who mixes up her life and hinders her new marriage to District Attorney wannabe, Charles Grodin.
	www.chapman.edu /ftv/wired/scrn-sp2.htm (1013 words)

	GreenCine \| Screwball Comedy
		As such, the development of the madcap lovers of screwball comedy can be seen as compensation, asserting some form of rebellion against the harsh strictures that insisted even married couples be seen sleeping in separate beds.
		Many screwball heroines are not crazy heiresses but women who must work for a living - thus such proletarian stars as Ginger Rogers, often a working class counterpoint to elegant Fred Astaire in their celebrated musicals, many of which could qualify as screwball comedies with dance numbers.
		Intimately familiar with screwball comedies' gentle wars between the sexes, Sturges heightened the stakes with two classics that proved a death knell to the cycle.
	www.greencine.com /static/primers/screwball.jsp (2864 words)

	Comedy Films
		Comedies usually come in two general formats: comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes, or sketches) and situation-comedies that are told within a narrative.
		This is primitive and universal comedy with broad, aggressive, physical, and visual action, including harmless or painless cruelty and violence, horseplay, and often vulgar sight gags (e.g., a custard pie in the face, collapsing houses, a fall in the ocean, a loss of trousers or skirts, runaway crashing cars, people chases, etc).
		Screwball comedies, a sub-genre of romantic comedy films, was predominant from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s.
	www.filmsite.org /comedyfilms.html (1641 words)

	Screwball Comedy
		Screwball comedy sparkled, as a worthy escape from the blandness and mundaneness of most ordinary American lives.
		It was fossilized comedy, physical and often painful, but mixed with the highest level of wit and sophistication, depending wholly on elegant and inventive writing.
		Although screwball characters move in an elegant world, where even a simple bathroom appears to be the center of their universe, they may still whack one another over the head, but while The Three Stooges use sledgehammers, screwball characters use silver chafing dishes, and the like—weapons of the upper class.
	www.moderntimes.com /screwball (852 words)

	At-A-Glance Film Reviews: Great Comedies
		Consistently, comedies are passed over by the Academy Awards and other award shows; it's easier to give Oscars to powerful dramatic films and actors who make dramatic performances.
		Screwball comedies are outrageous situational comedies played straight and featuring rapid fire dialogue and romantic tension.
		Black comedy is a genre it took me a while to understand; now that I do, I'm convinced it's the hardest type of comedy to pull off.
	www.rinkworks.com /movies/articles/comedies.shtml (2998 words)

	MOVIES: SCREWBALL COMEDIES
		And while the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s predate the modern women's movement, all of them were far more enlightened than Gibson's condescending film in portraying the sexes.
		In the heyday of the genre, men and women in screwball comedies often were evenly matched.
		Urban-rural conflict often was present in 1930s screwball comedies, along with class, gender and generational conflict.
	www-personal.umich.edu /~eharrisz/screwball.html (2003 words)

	A Life Less Ordinary
		The screwball comedy, from what I remember of my limited studies, is a film genre from the late 30's/early 40's in which an attractive man and woman fall in love while madcap hilarity reigns.
		But filmmakers still try to remake the screwball comedy; after all, a film genre is not like a scientific theory.
		Interestingly enough, critics respond to new screwballs as if someone is discarding the laws of relativity, or perhaps advising them of treating a medical condition with leeches.
	www.lazybastard.com /lifelesor.htm (808 words)

	South Coast Repertory Play Insights - 'Much Ado About Nothing'
		The word "screwball" has taken on several connotations throughout the centuries, beginning as a sports term for a wild, erratic pitch delivered in an exact way, and later used to refer to lunacy.
		The screwball comedies were a sort of existential American version of the French l'amour fou: a challenge, in the name of love, to the very precepts on which a sane and civilized society is based.
		The screwball comedies that flourished in the decade between the onset of the Depression and the end of World War II have left a mark on our memories far greater than could have been expected from their impact at that time.
	www.scr.org /season/00-01season/snl00-01/snlms4.html (3732 words)

	DVD Talk > Reviews > My Man Godfrey > Printer Friendly
		The juxtaposition of the rich to the poor, zany irrationality to logic along with a constant battle between dithering woman and confused men, rapid fire dialogue and a dash of haute monde slapstick comedy.
		Screwball comedies rose out of the Depression in the 1930's as a way of depicting the idle rich through wacky tales in which they must learn to readjust their morals.
		To today's TV audience screwball comedies have lost a bit of their meaning but if you don't have a problem with fl & white film (and why should you?) or good clean comedy fun then they are still highly enjoyable.
	www.dvdtalk.com /reviews/print.php?ID=2407 (956 words)

	Screwball Comedies Recommendations, Where to Buy, Advice, Top-Rated Gift Ideas - Surprise.com Gifts
		When silent movies yielded to talkies, one great era of screen comedy ended and another one began.
		Based on the novel by Eric Hatch, this screwball comedy is a genre favorite.
		Set at a low-end summer camp and aimed squarely at a teen audience, Meatballs is a light screwball comedy that turned its low-budget Canadian roots in...
	www.surprise.com /personality/humor/screwball_comedies.cfm (266 words)

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