It may be an obvious realisation now, but for the longest time, I did not understand that there are as many different types of comedy film as there are ways to tell a joke. I assumed that I did not like films that were comedy alone mainly because my adolescence coincided with one of the laziest times for the genre: The Hangover movies being the worst offender of pointing a camera at actors and relying on their so-called charisma. Each Apatow effort or mainstream stoner comedy felt increasingly lifeless that I looked for my comedy elsewhere – I lazily thought that cinematic comedy was not for me, until I discovered screwball comedy. Screwball comedy remains my favourite side of the genre, and I want to share with you today my beginner’s guide to learning and loving the language of the screwball. Let’s get into it!
Spider-Man 2
While I have written about Spider-Man 2 at length, it claims its place here because it showed me what screwball comedy could be before I even had a name for it. Specifically, the scene in which Peter Parker is covering Mary-Jane’s party where her engagement is announced. This entire sequence is about rhythm: small touches that keep confirming to Peter that he does not belong there. From J. Jonah Jameson (a screwball character for the ages) constantly heckling Peter, to his continued failure to get a complimentary glass of champagne, it wouldn’t be until I watched His Girl Friday four years later that I would recognise why I love this scene so much, and the setting in a familiar genre and characters really helped the tropes click for me.
Bringing Up Baby
Cary Grant might not have the most range, but he certainly knows how to distinguish himself from role to role better than many of his contemporaries. In His Girl Friday, he is a force of nature so compelling he could probably sell me a timeshare, but he goes in the complete opposite direction for another of his collaborations with Howard Hawks – Bringing Up Baby. He is a palaeontologist (yes, you read that correctly) trying to find the last bone he needs to recreate the skeleton of a brontosaurs, a shy man about to be married to the so-called right kind of girl. Enter walking hurricane Katherine Hepburn, who may be the quintessential chaotic character of the whole sub-genre. Hawks claimed that the film was flawed because there was not a sane character to be had in the whole story. Well, one man’s flaw is another’s gold star, and Bringing Up Baby’s outright lunacy is one of the genre’s most endlessly entertaining conceits.
Unfaithfully Yours
I could have put any Preston Sturges film in this article – he is to screwball comedy what Hitchcock is to thrillers – but I had to pick Unfaithfully Yours just because it is his most absurd. Jealously was one of Sturges’ favourite wells to mine and here. he languishes in the mind of a famous composer, played with poise dissolving into madness by Rex Harrison, as he thinks up three increasingly paranoid scenarios of how he is going to react to the possibility of his wife cheating on him. Seeing Harrison come apart so completely feels more akin to a Noah Baumbach film (who would do his own version of this type of story in Mr Jealousy) than a supposedly silly comedy, and the madcap energy makes for a near-perfect slice of offbeat screwballery.
Anything by Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder, where to begin? That man could make escaping prison feel like a screwball comedy – and he does just that with the incredibly cynical Stalag 17. Then, there is the film of his that I’m sure most of you have seen: the undisputed classic of this and any genre, Some Like it Hot. Watch it again and bask in Monroe, Curtis, and Lemon (who instantly became one of my favourite actors) who are all at the top of their game. Then there is Sabrina, a film that cemented Audrey Hepburn as the ingenue of the fifties, while also stretching Humphrey Bogarts comedy timing to breaking point. Some say nobody’s perfect – the same cannot be said for the screwball comedies of Billy Wilder.
What were your introductions to the screwball comedy genre, and what are your all-time favourites? Let us know in the comments below!
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By Kevin Boyle
Header Image: Britannica
No But Listen 