Subversion In Laughter:The Study Of American Screwball Comedy

Born in the early 1930 s,during the bleakest years of the Depression,the screwball comedy became a very popular variation of the romantic comedy film.Although the leading characters were usually reconciled to the basic values of polite society by the story's end,most screwball comedies,up until that final reel,were irreverent toward the rich,big business,small town life,government,and assorted other sacred cows,not the least of which was the institution of marriage.Among the unorthodox notions that these movies advocated were the ones that marriage could be fun,that women and men were created equal,and that being bright and articulate was not necessarily a handicap for a woman.While there is no authoritative list of the defining characteristics of the screwball comedy genre,films considered to be definitive of the genre usually feature farcical situations,a combination of slapstick with fast-paced repartee,and a plot involving courtship and marriage or remarriage.The film critic Andrew Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex".The screwball comedy has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring film genres.Screwball comedies combine the lunacy and ridiculousness of farce with the comic violence and hare-brained action of slapstick comedy,and the sophisticated and witty dialogue of the romantic comedy.All these elements are generally delivered at break-neck speed.The earliest screwball comedy was Lewis Milestone's The Front Page but it first gained prominence in 1934 with It Happened One Night,and,although many film scholars would agree that its classic period ended sometime in the early 1940 s,elements of the genre have persisted,or have been paid homage to,in contemporary film.