Screwball Comedy / Photo Credit: Amazon
A LOOK AT SCREWBALL COMEDY FILMS.
(In the Entertainment industry.)
A look at Screwball Comedy Films.
Screwball comedy
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy
genre that became popular during the Great Depression, originating in the early
1930s and thriving until the early 1940s. It is widely known for satirizing the
traditional love story. Many secondary characteristics of this genre are
similar to film noir, but it distinguishes itself for being characterized by a female
that dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose
masculinity is challenged. The two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes,
which was a new theme for Hollywood and audiences at the time. What sets the
screwball comedy apart from the generic romantic comedy is that "screwball
comedy puts its emphasis on a funny spoofing of love, while the more
traditional romantic ultimately accents love." 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. Screwball comedies often depict
social classes in conflict, as in It Happened One Night (1934) and My Man Godfrey
(1936). Some comic plays are also described as screwball comedies.
Screwball comedy has proved to be one of the most popular
and enduring film genres. It Happened One Night (1934), is often credited as
the first true screwball, though Bombshell starring Jean Harlow preceded it by
a 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 contemporary films. Still more, 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 as a result of the major film
studios' desire to avoid censorship by the increasingly enforced Hays Code. In
order to incorporate prohibited risqué elements into their plots, filmmakers
resorted to handling these elements covertly. Verbal sparring between the sexes
served as a stand-in for physical, sexual tension. Though some film scholars,
such as William K. Everson argue "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.
References
& Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, WikiBooks, Pinterest, IMDB, Linked
In, Indie Wire, Film Making Stuff, Hiive, History Channel, Film Daily, New York
Film Academy, The Balance, Careers Hub, The Numbers, Film Maker, Film Site, TV
Guide Magazine, Blurb, Media Match, Quora, Creative Skill Set, Chron, Investopedia,
Variety, No Film School, WGA, BBC, Daily Variety, The Film Agency, Best Sample
Resume, How Stuff Works, Studio Binder, Career Trend, Producer's Code of
Credits, Truity, Production Hub, Producers Guild of America, Film Connection, Variety,
Wolf Crow, Get In Media, Production Beast, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, UCAS, Frankenbite,
Realty 101, Careers Hub, Screen Play Scripts, Elements of Cinema, Script
Doctor, ASCAP, Film Independent, Any Possibility, CTLsites, NYFA, Future Learn,
VOM Productions, Mad Studios, Rewire, DP School, Film Reference, DGA, IATSE, ASC,
MPAA, HFPA, MPSE, CDG, AFI, Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes, Indie Film
Hustle, The Numbers, Netflix, Vimeo, Instagram, Pinterest, Metacritic, Hulu, Reddit,
NATO, Mental Floss, Slate, Locations Hub, Film Industry Statistics, Guinness World
Records, The Audiopedia, Imagination for People,
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Screwball Comedy / Photo Credit: Amazon
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