Cracking Wise and Falling in Love (Again): What do Katharine Hepburn’s wit, Cary Grant’s charm and Claudette Colbert’s glamour all have in common? They are in rare form in the screwball comedy. This course introduces students to the genre, also known as the “comedy of remarriage” because often, when boy meets girl and they fall in love, it is a road the two have gone down before. But these films, most popular in the 1930s, are not just snappy patter and romantic hijinks. Beneath the surface they address important class, gender and social issues, and do so with subtle aplomb under the watchful eye of the industry’s then new regulatory agency, the Production Code Authority. A highlight of the course is a 35mm screening of a screwball classic in which you, like Depression-era audiences, will see working-class nobility getting the better of the idle rich, and sassy heiresses winning over wealthy playboys and blue-collar guys alike. |
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