In search of screwball
Arsenic and Old Lace
Paying tribute to the wackiest laughs in early Hollywood history.
Frank Capra's 1934 classic It Happened One Night launched a glorious tradition on the silver screen - the screwball comedy. This beloved genre has a reliable formula: quick-witted dames and casually confident men trading clever repartee as the world around them grows increasingly ridiculous.
The genre took its name from a baseball pitch by major league player Carl Hubbell, whose 'screw ball' had a peculiar wobble and dropped suddenly out of the air. In the 1930s, 'screwball' came to refer to anything unpredictable or unexpected, thus it was the perfect epithet for the new style of erratic and farcical films that started to appear during the Great Depression.
The screwball archetypes are a product of this era, too. With many of the disenfranchised poor going to the pictures to escape their troubles, screwball heroes were often penniless but clever, doing battle with the silly and pompous rich, who would inevitably lose.
As a predecessor of the contemporary romantic comedy, the plot of the screwball comedy usually revolves around a man and a woman who don't get along being thrown together against their will. They will fall in love and live happily ever after, of course, but first they must overcome all manner of obstacles, misunderstandings and misdirection. And generally speaking, the more unlikely the circumstances, the funnier the film.
Through October and November, ACMI is showcasing three screwball comedy classics, providing an excellent primer for the uninitiated and a big screen experience for long-time fans.
The season begins with Topper (1937), a ghostly comedy starring Cary Grant that spawned two sequels and a TV series, screening from a restored print provided by the UCLA Film Archive.
Cary Grant returns in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Frank Capra's wild picture about a pair of mad aunts with gently murderous ways.
The final film in our screwball series is the ever-popular Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), featuring a sassy Jane Russell and a perfectly ditsy Marilyn Monroe in one of her signature roles. This musical gem by Howard Hawks screens from a remarkable new digitally restored print - don't miss it!
For session times click here.
Published Monday, 18 October 2010
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