Kris Shoemaker wrote:Screwball Comedy - Okay, I can see how some of Charlie Chase Comedies can be called Screwball. But are we mainly talking talkies when it comes to screwball? Like the Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis and such?
Clearly they can blend and bleed into each other despite any given comedy being more of one genre than another.
Screwball comedy is strictly a sound form, the period in which the term was created, and it does not involve eccentric comics like Marx Brothers or Jerry Lewis. Screwball comedy is a form of romantic comedy in which mis-mated lovers overcome obstacles to ultimately come together. It differs from standard romantic comedy in subtle, not easily defined ways. Often the comedy is set against real (or at least realistic) social issues. None of the Charley Chase films would qualify as screwball comedies. It is generally understood that the genre begins ca. 1934 with films like The Cat's Paw (Lloyd plays a much more realistically grounded character here), The Thin Man, and most importantly It Happened One Night. Typically the "screwball" antics of one of the partners is designed to force the couple to be together until both can come to their senses in time for the final on-screen clinch (as in Bringing up Baby) or continuing argument (as in Libeled Lady). Usually, though not always, one of the couple is rich and spoiled and the other is of modest means and democratic (with a small "d"). Think Claudette Colbert (rich heiress) and Clark Gable (out of work reporter) in It Happened One Night, or Katharine Hepburn (rich girl) and Cary Grant (struggling scientist) in Bringing Up Baby. The couples in these films are evenly matched in terms of strength of character and wit, however. Although often the couples come together for the first time within the narrative, it is equally common for the couple to have been married and split up before the story begins (The Awful Truth, My Favorite Husband). What distinguishes "screwball" from other romantic comedies is that there s generally a physical comedy component along with the banter in screwball films.
to further define "screwball" by representative titles not mentioned above:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
My Man Godfrey
The Awful Truth
Theodora Goes Wild
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Palm Beach Story
The Lady Eve
Practically Yours
Suddenly It's Spring