The Screwball Story – Details, episodes & analysis

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On this episode I discuss the sleuth comedy, There's Always a Woman (Alexander Hall, 1938) co-starring Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell.

Resources:

James Bawden and Ron Miller, Conversations With Classic Film Stars: Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Age (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2016).

Bernard F. Dick, The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2009).

Kathrine Glitre, Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the Union, 1934-1965 (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006).

Matthew Kennedy, Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes (Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi, 2014).

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In the season one finale, I discuss the "Queen" of screwball comedy, Carole Lombard, with This Was Hollywood author, Carla Valderrama.

You can follow Carla on Instagram and Tiktok @thiswashollywood

To purchase Carla's book, please follow the links on her website: https://thiswashollywood.com/

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On this episode I discuss Hands Across the Table (Mitchell Leisen, 1935) starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and Ralph Bellamy.

Works Cited:

David Chierichetti, Mitchell Leisen: Hollywood Director (Los Angeles: Photoventures Press, 1995).

John A. Gallagher, "Ralph Bellamy Interview" (1983). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkKvMGHDM1A

Charles Tranberg, Fred MacMurray: A Biography (Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2007).

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On this episode I discuss The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Preston Sturges, 1944) starring Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, William Demarest, and Diana Lynn.

Works Cited:

Matthew Bernstein, "'The Edge of Unacceptability': Preston Sturges and the PCA," in ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges, ed. Jeff Jaeckle (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2015), pp. 83-106.

Diane Jacobs, Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1992).

Brian Kellow, Ethel Merman: A Life (New York: Penguin Books, 2008).

Otto Friedrich, City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (New York: Harper Perennial, 2014).

Michael Slowik, "On Deadline and Reviewed in Pieces: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and the Production Code Administration," Film History, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter 2017), pp. 32-58.

Preston Sturges, Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges: His Life in his Words (New York: Touchstone, 1991).

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On this episode I chat with film programmer Chris Cassingham about the comedy genius, Ernst Lubitsch.

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On this episode I discuss the quintessential Depression-era screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936), starring Carole Lombard, William Powell, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Mischa Auer, and Eugene Pallette.

Works Cited:

Christopher Beach, Class, Language, and American Film Comedy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

Roger Bryant, William Powell: The Life and Films (New York: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2006).

Bernard F. Dick, City of Dreams: the Making and Remaking of Universal Pictures (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2021).

Lea Jacobs, Film Rhythm and Sound: Technology, Music, and Performance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014).

Olympia Kiriakou, Becoming Carole Lombard: Stardom, Comedy, and Legacy (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).

Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010).

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On this episode I discuss Theodora Goes Wild (Richard Boleslawski, 1936) starring Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas.

Works Cited:

James Bawden and Ron Miller, Conversations with Classic Film Stars: Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Era (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2017).

Emily Carman, Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016).

Benjamin Dreyer, "Irene Goes Wild," Criterion, December 12, 2022. Available at: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8013-irene-goes-wild.

Hollywood and the Great Depression: American Film, Politics, and Society in the 1930s, eds. Iwan Morgan and Philip John Davies (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2016).

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On this episode I discuss Libeled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936) starring Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, William Powell, and Spencer Tracy.

Works Cited:

Vincent Canby, "How a 1936 Screwball Comedy Illuminates Movie History," The New York Times (February 1, 1981), section 2, pg. 15.

The Dick Cavett Show, "Myrna Loy," (1980), season 12, episode 36.

Kathrina Glitre, Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the Union, 1934-1965 (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2013).

Grégoire Halbout, Hollywood Screwball Comedy, 1934-1945: Sex, Love, and Democratic Ideals (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023).

Emily Leider, Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).

Myrna Loy and James Kotsilibas-Davis, Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming (New York: Donald I Fine, 1988).

David Stenn, Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow (New York: Doubleday, 1993).

James Curtis, Spencer Tracy: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 2011).

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