Editing Screwball comedy (section)

==Characteristics==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2009}}
[[File:Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night.jpg|thumb|A still from a trailer for ''[[It Happened One Night]]'']]
Films that are definitive of the genre usually feature farcical situations, a combination of slapstick and fast-paced repartee, and show the struggle between economic classes. They also generally feature a self-confident and often [[Hawksian woman|stubborn central female protagonist]] and a plot involving courtship, marriage, or [[Comedy of remarriage|remarriage]]. These traits can be seen in both ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934) and ''[[My Man Godfrey]]'' (1936). The film critic [[Andrew Sarris]] has defined the screwball comedy as "a [[sex comedy]] without the sex."<ref>[http://www.newsradioart.com/Pages/2.Introduction.html Citation] Sarris, Andrew. You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: The American Talking Film, History & Memory, 1927&ndash;1949, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998</ref>

Like farce, screwball comedies often involve masquerades and disguises in which a character or characters resort to secrecy. Sometimes screwball comedies feature male characters [[cross-dressing]], further contributing to elements of masquerade (''[[Bringing Up Baby]]'' (1938), ''[[Love Crazy (1941 film)|Love Crazy]]'' (1941), ''[[I Was a Male War Bride]]'' (1949), and ''[[Some Like It Hot]]'' (1959)). At first, the couple seems mismatched and even hostile to each other, but eventually overcome their differences amusingly or entertainingly, leading to romance. Often, this mismatch comes about when the man is of a lower social class than the woman (''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934), ''[[Bringing Up Baby]]'' and ''[[Holiday (1938 film)|Holiday]]'', both 1938). The woman often plans the final romantic union from the outset, and the man is seemingly oblivious to this. In ''Bringing Up Baby,'' the woman tells a third party: "He's the man I'm going to marry. He doesn't know it, but I am."

[[File:The-Lady-Eve.jpg|thumb|In ''[[The Lady Eve]]'', Jean (center, played by [[Barbara Stanwyck]]) passes herself off as an upper-class woman.]]
These pictures also offered a cultural escape valve: a safe battleground to explore serious issues such as class under a comedic and non-threatening framework.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120805215834/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG03/comedy/historicalcontext.html] The Screwball and Its Audience - University of Virginia</ref> Class issues are a strong component of screwball comedies: the upper class is represented as idle, pampered, and having difficulty coping with the real world. By contrast, when lower-class people attempt to pass themselves off as upper class or otherwise insinuate themselves into high society, they can do so with relative ease (''[[The Lady Eve]]'', 1941; ''[[My Man Godfrey]]'', 1936). Some critics believe that the portrayal of the upper class in ''It Happened One Night'' was brought about by the [[Great Depression]], and the financially struggling moviegoing public's desire to see the upper class taught a lesson in humanity.<ref name="Genre for the People">{{cite book |last1=Pronovost |first1=Virginie |title="Screwball": A Genre for the People : Representing Social Classes in Depression Screwball Comedy (1934-1938): Representing Social Classes in Depression Screwball Comedy (1934-1938) |date=2020 |publisher=Stockholm University |url=https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?language=en&pid=diva2%3A1437132 |access-date=27 February 2024 |format=PDF}}</ref>

Another common element of the screwball comedy is fast-talking, witty [[repartee]], such as in ''[[You Can't Take It with You (film)|You Can't Take It with You]]'' (1938) and ''[[His Girl Friday]]'' (1940). This stylistic device did not originate in the genre: it is also found in many of the old [[Hollywood cycles]], including [[gangster film]]s and traditional romantic comedies.

Screwball comedies also tend to contain ridiculous, farcical situations, such as in ''Bringing Up Baby'', where a couple must take care of a pet leopard during much of the film. Slapstick elements are also frequently present, such as the numerous pratfalls [[Henry Fonda]] takes in ''The Lady Eve'' (1941).<ref name="BFI"/>

One subgenre of screwball is known as the [[comedy of remarriage]], in which characters divorce and then remarry one another (''[[The Awful Truth]]'' (1937), ''[[His Girl Friday]]'' (1940), ''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]]'' (1940)).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cavell |first1=Stanley |title=Pursuits of happiness: the Hollywood comedy of remarriage |date=2003 |publisher=Harvard Univ. Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0-674-73906-2 |edition=10. print}}</ref> Some scholars point to this frequent device as evidence of the shift in the American moral code, as it showed freer attitudes toward divorce (though the divorce always turns out to have been a mistake: "You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part.' Why divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.")

Another subgenre of screwball comedy is the woman chasing a man who is oblivious to or uninterested in her. Examples include [[Barbara Stanwyck]] chasing [[Henry Fonda]] (''[[The Lady Eve]]'', 1941); [[Sonja Henie]] chasing [[John Payne (actor)|John Payne]] (''[[Sun Valley Serenade]]'', 1941, and ''[[Iceland (film)|Iceland]]'', 1942); [[Marion Davies]] chasing [[Antonio Moreno]] (''[[The Cardboard Lover]]'', 1928); Marion Davies chasing [[Bing Crosby]] (''[[Going Hollywood]]'', 1933); and [[Carole Lombard]] chasing [[William Powell]] (''[[My Man Godfrey]]'', 1936).

The philosopher [[Stanley Cavell]] has noted that many classic screwball comedies turn on an interlude in the state of [[Connecticut]] (''Bringing Up Baby'', ''The Lady Eve'', ''[[The Awful Truth]]'').<ref>Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981</ref> In ''[[Christmas in Connecticut]]'' (1945), the action moves to Connecticut and remains there for the duration of the film. [[New York City]] is also featured in a lot of screwball comedies, which critics have noted may be because of the economic diversity of the city and the ability to contrast different social classes during the Great Depression.<ref name="Genre for the People"/> The screwball comedies ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934) and ''[[The Palm Beach Story]]'' (1942) also feature characters traveling to and from [[Florida]] by train. Trains, another staple of screwball comedies and romantic comedies from the era,  are also featured prominently in ''[[Design for Living (film)|Design for Living]]'' (1934), ''[[Twentieth Century (film)|Twentieth Century]]'' (1934) and ''[[Vivacious Lady]]'' (1938).