Category: <span>Screwball Comedy</span>

Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert Star in Frank Capra’s Screwball Comedy Classic

Regarded as the first screwball comedy, It Happened One Night almost didn’t happen. Once it did, the magic was apparent.

The format of It Happened One Night, the first screwball and romantic comedy, is still seen in romantic comedies today: boy and girl meet, fall in love, fight, break up, yet find true happiness in the end.

In an uncharacteristic comedic turn, the Master of Suspense brings us romantic fluff for our cinematic sweet tooth with Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) became synonymous with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and their highly-publicized affair that steamed up the pages of tabloids. The film itself sounded like it was plucked from Hitchcock’s filmography, following a pair of married assassins who were unwittingly hired to kill each other, but the director’s own Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) couldn’t be farther from this unrelated tale. Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard are simply a bickering young couple who discover they are not really married, hardly a logical choice for a Hitchcock vehicle. Unfortunately, Hitchcock was forbidden to exercise as much freedom in this early collaboration with RKO studios. Despite these limitations, the sparkling chemistry of the stars and the shining bits of dialogue throughout the film help Mr. and Mrs. Smith transcend the predictability of the plot.

Classic Comedy Starring Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn

Film in the United States in the 1930s was an interesting period that produced some of the best films ever made. Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz both premiered before the decade ended in 1939, a year which many film historians deem to be the best year in all of film history.

In the early 1930s, we had the pre-code films which still sizzle today with content that the Hays Code would eventually force out of the film industry for a few decades. All in all, the 1930s were such an interesting time for films — and we’ve decided to discuss the best ones.

We all know the classics (like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz), so this list will focus on films that maybe don’t get the critical acclaim in the 21st century that those films do. While we will still talk about the films that are truly great, regardless of if they may be “overrated”, we thought we’d start with some films that many average film watchers aren’t aware of.

Enter the 1938 film Bringing Up Baby, starring the incomparable Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. This film, coined as one of the first screwball romantic comedies, has an insane plot with memorable characters that get better with each new viewing.

Robert Montgomery Stars in Landmark Comedy About Second Chances

This 1941 classic is among the most romantic films of Hollywood’s Golden Era, a fantasy perhaps hokey by today’s standards, yet charming, heartwarming, and funny as hell.

The film pretty much pioneered the guardian angel sub-genre, and outside of It’s a Wonderful Life, may be the best of the lot. As prizefighter Joe Pendleton, Oscar-nominated Robert Montgomery (real-life father of Elizabeth Montgomery, “Samantha” of TV’s Bewitched) affects a dese-dems-and-dose, blue collar voice at odds with both his usual urbane screen image and real-life reputation as a wealthy, conservative Republican.