Screwball Comedy Film - Notable Examples of The Genre From Its Classic Period

Notable Examples of The Genre From Its Classic Period

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  • The Front Page (1931), d. Lewis Milestone
  • Trouble in Paradise (1932), d. Ernst Lubitsch
  • If I Had a Million (1932), d. Ernst Lubitsch
  • It Happened One Night (1934), d. Frank Capra
  • Twentieth Century (1934), d. Howard Hawks
  • Hands Across the Table (1935), d. Mitchell Leisen
  • She Married Her Boss (1935), d. Gregory La Cava
  • Love on the Run (1936), d. W.S. Van Dyke
  • Libeled Lady (1936), d. Jack Conway
  • Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), d. Frank Capra
  • My Man Godfrey (1936), d. Gregory LaCava
  • The Awful Truth (1937), d. Leo McCarey
  • Easy Living (1937), d. Mitchell Leisen
  • Nothing Sacred (1937), d. William A. Wellman
  • I Met Him in Paris (1937), d. Wesley Ruggles
  • Tovarich (1937), d. Anatole Litvak
  • Breakfast for Two (1937), d. Alfred Santell
  • Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), d. Ernst Lubitsch
  • Bringing Up Baby (1938), d. Howard Hawks
  • Holiday (1938), d. George Cukor
  • Merrily We Live (1938), d. Norman Z. McLeod
  • You Can't Take It with You (1938), d. Frank Capra
  • Vivacious Lady (1938), d. George Stevens
  • The Mad Miss Manton (1938), d. Leigh Jason
  • Bachelor Mother (1939), d. Garson Kanin
  • It's a Wonderful World (1939), d. W. S. Van Dyke
  • Ninotchka (1939), d. Ernst Lubitsch
  • Midnight (1939), d. Mitchell Leisen
  • His Girl Friday (1940), d. Howard Hawks (remake of The Front Page, 1931)
  • Too Many Husbands (1940), d. Wesley Ruggles
  • My Favorite Wife (1940), d. Garson Kanin
  • Christmas in July (1940), d. Preston Sturges
  • The Philadelphia Story (1940), d. George Cukor
  • That Uncertain Feeling (1941), d. Ernst Lubitsch
  • The Lady Eve (1941), d. Preston Sturges
  • Ball of Fire (1941), d. Howard Hawks
  • Rings on Her Fingers (1942), d. Rouben Mamoulian
  • Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), d. Alfred Hitchcock
  • The Palm Beach Story (1942), d. Preston Sturges
  • To Be or Not to Be (1942), d. Ernst Lubitsch
  • The More the Merrier (1943), d. George Stevens
  • The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), d. Preston Sturges
  • Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), d. Frank Capra
  • I Was a Male War Bride (1949), d. Howard Hawks


Other films from this period in other genres incorporate elements of the screwball comedy. For example, Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 thriller The 39 Steps features the gimmick of a young couple who find themselves handcuffed together and who eventually, almost in spite of themselves, fall in love with one another, and Woody Van Dyke's 1934 detective comedy The Thin Man portrays a witty, urbane couple who trade barbs as they solve mysteries together. Many of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930s also feature screwball comedy plots, notably The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935), the Eddie Cantor musicals Whoopee! (1930) and Roman Scandals (1933), and slapstick road movies such as Six of a Kind (1934). Some of the Joe E Brown comedies also could be said to fall into this catagory, particularly Broadminded (1931) and perhaps Earthworm Tractors (1936).

Actors and actresses frequently featured in or associated with screwball comedy include:

  • Jean Arthur
  • Ralph Bellamy
  • Claudette Colbert
  • Gary Cooper
  • Melvyn Douglas
  • Irene Dunne
  • Clark Gable
  • Cary Grant
  • Jean Harlow
  • Katharine Hepburn
  • Carole Lombard
  • Myrna Loy
  • William Powell
  • Rosalind Russell
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • James Stewart

Some notable directors of screwball comedies include:

  • Frank Capra
  • George Cukor
  • Howard Hawks
  • Garson Kanin
  • Gregory La Cava
  • Mitchell Leisen
  • Preston Sturges
  • Billy Wilder
  • Ernst Lubitsch
  • W. S. Van Dyke

Read more about this topic:  Screwball Comedy Film

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