Talk:Screwball comedy film

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In addition to the Coen brothers' comedy, _The Hudsucker Proxy_, I'd add their film, _Intolerable Cruelty_, to the list of recent screwball comedies. I think this easily satisfies the criteria as set forth in the accompanying page.

• I went ahead and tried to clean up the article, adding more examples, especially to the list of modern screwball comedies, correcting a few typos, and addressing the comments as to the "elusive" nature of the genre.

Because at least half of the examples of the screwball comedy listed below -- including such definitive examples as His Girl Friday and The Lady Eve -- are from the early 1940s, I'm extending the "end" date for the major period of Screwball Comedy from 1939 to 1942. The 1939 "end" date doesn't really make sense, coming about three years too soon. 68.1.175.241 28 June 2005 05:10 (UTC)

This page is terrible. Screwball comedies are not one of the most elusive of film genres; they are as easily identifiable as film noir or such. Needs serious rewrite. Mandel 15:23, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Just because you disagree with it does not make the whole page terrible. While some would say there is a very clear definiton of a screwball, there are many different and conflicting opinions of what that definition, or definitions, are. --Ryuukuro 00:07, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

It is terrible. It has been in the same sorry state for more than a year. The structure is haphazard, the examples runs similarly so. It's too short for an important film genre. I reckon most people give up doing anything for it after seeing how difficult it is to do a rewrite. And you contradict yourself. If there aren't a list of defined criteria (most clearly battle of sexes and romance), then why are so many still listed here? There is in fact no argument about what the screwball is. What are the your so-called "conflicts" in definitions? Mandel 16:07, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Obvious question not addressed in the article

Why are they called "screwball comedies" anyway? I assume it's something to do with the baseball term, but that's very little known outside baseball-playing nations. Loganberry (Talk) 03:53, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Any answers? I'll probably take it to the RefDesk if not. Loganberry (Talk) 02:45, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it's related to the old slang term "screwball", meaning crazy or twisted. 惑乱 分からん 23:10, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Screwball (n.) meant an "eccentric person," 1933, U.S. slang, earlier as a type of erratic baseball pitch (1928), from a still earlier name for a type of bowl in cricket (1866), from screw (n.) + ball. Screwball comedy is attested from 1938. Pronghorn (talk) 03:39, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Writers

If someone has information regarding the script writers, I think that would be an important addition to this page. I had heard that the studios hired many playwrites from New York which accounted for the tight, witty dialogue of many of these movies. Discussion of this would add to this page.

And in some cases the screenplay writers may be infinitely more important to the making of the films than their directors

[edit] Spaceballs?

Spaceballs is not screwball comedy. That's a joke. I do think Arthur with Dudley Moore is screwball comedy. It's unique in that the guy must chose between rich and poor women, when usually it's the woman who choses in these films. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevin324la (talk • contribs) 17:31, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Script writers adapted some screwball comedies from "screwball" theater, opera or "screwball" novels, short stories, even magazine articles in addition to writing original screenplays. Samson Raphaelson and Billy Wilder wrote for Lubitsch, for example. Raphaelson and Wilder, like Lubitsch, wrote out of the Jewish ethos - and their humor reflected that. Wilder and Lubitsch were both Central Europeans, while Raphaelson came from New York. Their dour sense of humor developed from their and their families' dour experience of the human condition.

A note: Screwball comedies go back beyond even ancient Greek theater, continue through the Middle Ages in Italy, France, England and so on in the West. They were not uncommon in Asia. Pierre Beaumarchais's "screwball" comedy, "Le Barbier de Séville" was adapted by Lorenzo da Ponte to provide the libretto for the opera of the same name, for instance. Da Ponte wrote the libretto to another "screwball comedy" opera called "Cosi fan Tutti." Lubitsch was a member of the Max Reinhardt school in Berlin before he started in movies. He was acting in "screwball comedy" there long before he took up film. In practive screwball was merely the ancient genre of the aristocractic or ruling class farce updated and transposed into motion pictures. Redicule of the powerful has always proven entertaining, especially in periods of transition from a failing elite to a new emerging one that will replace them. Pronghorn (talk) 04:20, 12 June 2008 (UTC)