Posted on 05/18/2024 3:29:46 PM PDT by Twotone
Even if you love the genre, it's hard to say whether the world of the screwball comedy is a kind of paradise or simply a circle of hell. It is, to be sure, its own world – a parallel universe where stereotypes exist to be mocked, inhibitions are quickly overcome, and the usual laws of action and reaction take a circuitous, often improbable route.
The fact is that screwball started in the wake of the Production Code, when there were things that could no longer be shown, so they were talked about instead, by the kinds of people who knew what they were talking about (newspaper reporters, dissipated heirs and heiresses, louche society hangers-on, bums with a colourful past).
But they happened in a world where anything was possible (a leopard is kept as a pet; a rich careless couple return from the dead to haunt their banker; an unhappy millionaire invites a jobless young woman to live in his mansion) and the only question is how well the heroine – usually the most vital character in the story – and the hero can roll with the ensuing chaos.
Nothing Sacred (1937) begins – as most screwballs do – in Manhattan where the Morning Star, a major newspaper, is holding a banquet to celebrate the pink-turbaned "Sultan of Maw-Zoo-Pan" as he is introduced by the paper's editor, Oliver Stone (Walter Connolly). The Sultan (Troy Brown) is about to bestow a vast new palace of culture on the city – "Twenty-seven halls of learning! Twenty-seven arenas of art!" – when his wife (Hattie McDaniel) interrupts his solemn benediction, dragging with her their four children and two policemen.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Does any actress have a better track record than Carole Lombard ? All the movies I have seen with her are classic.
Oh the one where she is near death and goes to nuc is hilarious. Very few films that goood these days have
Sometimes reading Steyn is entertainment aplenty.
I read that Clark Gable never got over her death.
We recently visited Hearst’s castle on the Central California coast - Hearst had a special bedroom built just for Gable and Lombard after they’d gotten married - was open to the sky with a spectacular, domed latticework ceiling. He had to have it covered over because of rain, etc. - Still, it was beautiful...and sad.
No, I don’t think he ever got over her death.
Wow. Cool story !
Shows how they got around the Hays Code with some of their jokes. a fun movie! Now movies are simply unfit to watch.
“And Here we have Miss Amsterdam(and I better stop there.)”
Hitchcock was good friends with her, and made a movie especially for her.
There’s still remains of the plane at the crash site where she perished.
But I think she was one of the founders of United Artists. She must have had a head on her shoulders.
Mary Pickford was the cofounder of United Artists.
Thanks for the correction.
She was very patriotic. Died after a war bonds drive. Clark Gable never got over her death. I think she was the #1 Hollywood beauty ever. Jean Simmons being #2. Marilyn Monroe #3.
The cause of the crash was probably because the the copilot was used to landing at Boulder City airport. This time they had to land at Las Vegas to refuel and unfortunately he put in the coordinates as if they they were taking off from Boulder City. This put them on a direct course to Mt.Potosi where they crashed just short of the top of the mountain. I learned about all this after trying to find the crash site of Bonanza Airlines Flight 114 on November 15, 1964 during a rare snowstorm killing all 29 on board. This was important to me because I saw the wreckage of Bonanza 114 on Walter Cronkite CBS news the next day when I was 7 years old. Bonanza Airlines F-27 planes flew right over our house on half mile final approach to Blythe Airport.
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