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Title: The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s by Elizabeth Kendall ISBN: 0-8154-1199-5 Publisher: Cooper Square Publishers Pub. Date: April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent book on the subject
Comment: Ever since the Battelle Film Club's showing of Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story, I've been on a screwball kick. Screenplays, biographies, non-fiction, what-have-you about that lunatic genre of film greatly interest me. This book by Kendall isn't solely about screwball, but rather an overview of the larger film genre that it falls under, the romantic comedy. Sturges is only the last chapter here. The majority of director coverage goes to Frank Capra and Leo McCarey, and the book goes even more into the lives of the major actresses of the period, Barbara Stanwyck, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Claudette Colbert, who the author asserts were co-creaters of the classic romantic comedy films. The argument goes like this: due to the depression and the unusual success of particular directors (men, and I use the term correctly in this case, who were able to fulfill the cathartic needs of the public going through this rough period), these directors were given extremely free reign. They used it to explore collaborations with their favorite subjects, these independent women. Movies before and after delegated women more to the supporting roles (with notable exceptions, but only as exceptions), but in these romantic comedies of the 30s the women were the lead and often the most sympathetic and fleshed-out characters.
While the descriptions of the making of the movies was quite interesting, it is the concise biographies of the people involved--directors, actors, actresses, and writers--that help you understand this moment in cinema history. An excellent book on its subject.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great study on one of the greatest periods for movies
Comment: Along with Marjorie Rosen's "Popcorn Venus" and Brendan French's "On the Verge of Revolt," this is one of three superb feminist film books published in the '70s and '80s. Witty, engaging, and intelligent without lapsing into jargon-studded academic verbiage or theoretical pretention.
Rating: 5
Summary: very engaging
Comment: This is an extremely well-thought out book that should be just as interesting to a film scholar as to the casual reader. Kendall's exploration of the feminist potential in thirties romantic comedy is very assured. Biographical criticism is coming back with a vengeance (in Literary circles anyway) and the author's focus on the relationship between the directors and their female stars makes this book an ideal companion to the more textually-oriented Stanley Cavell's "Pursuits of Happiness". She chooses great movies to discuss. I particularly like her focus on the Capra-Stanwyck relationship--and I envy her for having seen "Forbidden" & "Ladies of Leisure", which I can't find anywhere!
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Title: Romantic Comedy in Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges by James Harvey ISBN: 0306808323 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Fast-Talking Dames by Maria Dibattista ISBN: 0300099037 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Romantic Vs. Screwball Comedy: Charting the Difference (Studies in Film Genres) by Wes D. Gehring ISBN: 0810844249 Publisher: Scarecrow Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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Title: Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage by Stanley Cavell ISBN: 067473906X Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1984 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939 (Wisconsin Studies in Film) by Ruth Vasey ISBN: 0299151948 Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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