Screwball Comedy CIMS 201 / Sec. 402

Wednesdays 2-5pm, 201 Fisher-Bennett Hall University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2017

Professor Noah Isenberg Telephone: 917.689.6453 (personal) Office location 209A Fisher-Bennett Hall Email: Noah.Isenberg@newschool.edu Office hours: Wed. 5-6pm + by appt.

I. Course Description This course examines the rise of the classic Hollywood screwball comedy, 1934-1942, and its enduring impact. Occasionally thought of as “a sex comedy without sex,” screwball often blends slapstick, farce, and lunacy with sophisticated, rapid-fire dialogue, wit, and innuendo. Starting with such early entries as It Happened One Night (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and The Awful Truth (1937), we cover such classics as His Girl Friday (1940) and The Lady Eve (1941). Finally, we make our way to the screwball revival in films like What’s Up, Doc? (1972), When Harry Met Sally (1989), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Screenings are accompanied by primary and secondary texts that focus on the wide-ranging meanings that the genre has held over time in literature, film history, and theory.

2

II. Required Reading Duane Byrge & Robert Miller, The Screwball Comedy Films (McFarland, 2001) Stanley Cavell, Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard, 1981) William K. Everson, Hollywood Bedlam: Classic Screwball Comedies (Citadel, 1994), excerpts Farran Smith Nehme, Missing Reels (Overlook, 2015) Elizabeth Kendall, The Runaway Bride (Cooper Square, 2002), excerpts Ed Sikov, Screwball! Hollywood’s Madcap Romantic Comedies (Crown, 1989), excerpts All books are available at the Penn Book Center, all excerpts distributed as PDF files III. Required Viewing It Happened One Night (dir. Frank Capra, 1934) My Man Godfrey (dir. George La Cava, 1936) The Awful Truth (dir. Leo McCarey, 1937) Bringing Up Baby (dir. Howard Hawks, 1938) His Girl Friday (dir. Howard Hawks, 1940) The Philadelphia Story (dir. George Cukor, 1940) Ball of Fire (dir. Howard Hawks, 1941) The Lady Eve (dir. Preston Sturges, 1941) The Major and the Minor (dir. Billy Wilder, 1942) Some Like It Hot (dir. Billy Wilder, 1959) What’s Up, Doc? (dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1972) When Harry Met Sally (dir. Rob Reiner, 1989) Silver Linings Playbook (dir. David O. Russell, 2012) Maggie’s Plan (dir. Rebecca Miller, 2015) IV. Course Requirements There will be two sequence analyses (2 pages each, due 2/15 + 3/29), one short essay (4-5 pages, due 2/29), and one long essay (8-10 pages, due 5/3). Grading: 30% attendance, participation, Canvas postings; 20% sequence analyses; 20% mid-term essay; 30% final essay. V. Weekly Assignments

Week One: What is Screwball Comedy? January 18: Course overview, survey of the literature, introduction to key concepts, plus an in-

class screening It Happened One Night (dir. Frank Capra, 1934)

3

Reading: William K. Everson, “A Definition and a Survey” from Hollywood Bedlam, as PDF; Byrge/Miller pp. 1-4 & 45-47; A Short History of Screwball Comedy: http://cinecollage.net/screwball-comedy.html Stanley Cavell, Chapter 2: “Knowledge as Transgression,” pp. 73-109; Elizabeth Kendall, “Capra and Colbert” as PDF; Farran Smith Nehme, “It Happened One Night: All Aboard!” https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3369-it-happened-one-night-all-aboard

Week Two: The Foundations: Trouble in Paradise

January 25: My Man Godfrey (dir. George La Cava, 1936) Reading: Cavell, Introduction: “Words for a Conversation,” pp. 1-42; Kendall, “La Cava and Lombard” as PDF; Byrge/Miller pp. 58-60; Diane Jacobs, “My Man Godfrey” https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/123-my-man-godfrey

Week Three: Role Play, Cheating, Fooling Around

February 1: The Awful Truth (dir. Leo McCarey, 1937) Reading: Cavell, Chapter 7: “The Same and Different,” pp. 231-263; Kendall, “McCarey and Dunne” as PDF; Byrge/Miller pp. 70-71; Ed Sikov, “Brace Yourself: Adultery, Bigamy, and Simple Playing Around” from Screwball! as PDF

Week Four: Madcap Antics and Unhinged Lunacy

February 8: Bringing Up Baby (dir. Howard Hawks, 1938) Reading: Cavell, Chapter 3: “Leopards in Connecticut,” pp. 111-132; Byrge/Miller pp. 5-20 & 76-78; Sikov, “Anything But Love” from Screwball! as PDF

Week Five: Screwball Divas February 15: His Girl Friday (dir. Howard Hawks, 1940) Reading: Stanley Cavell, Chapter 5: “Counterfeiting Happiness,” pp. 161-188; Sikov, “Caught in the Press” from Screwball! as PDF; Byrge/Miller pp. 96-98; Farran Smith Nehme, “His Girl Friday: The Perfect Remarriage” https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4380-his-girl-friday-the-perfect-remarriage ✎ Sequence analysis due

4

Week Six: Close to Home February 22: The Philadelphia Story (dir. George Cukor, 1940) Reading: Stanley Cavell Chapter 4: “The Importance of Importance,” pp. 133-160; Byrge/Miller pp. 103-104

Week Seven: Accents and Screwball March 1: Ball of Fire (dir. Howard Hawks, 1941) Reading: William K. Everson on Ball of Fire as PDF; Ed Sikov, “Ball of Fire” as PDF; Byrge/Miller pp. 122-123 & 21-44 ✎ Mid-term essay due March 8: ******No class (spring break)*****

Week Eight: Stars, Crime, Class March 15: The Lady Eve (dir. Preston Sturges, 1941) Reading: Cavell, Chapter 1: “Cons and Pros,” 45-70; Byrge/Miller pp. 107-109; Everson on The Lady Eve as PDF

Week Nine: Contemporary Screwball

March 22: Maggie’s Plan (dir. Rebecca Miller, 2015) Reading: Julia Felsenthal, “Rebecca Miller on Making a Screwball Rom-Com” http://www.vogue.com/13438644/maggies-plan-rebecca-miller-interview/ Charles McGrath “Rebecca Miller is Brainy, and Very, Very Funny” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/movies/rebecca-miller-maggies-plan-greta-gerwig.html?_r=0

Week Ten: Taking on Taboos and the Code March 29: The Major and the Minor (dir. Billy Wilder, 1942) Reading: Gerd Gemünden, “An Accented Cinema” as PDF; Byrge/Miller pp. 26-127; Sikov, “Mr. Director” from On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder as PDF

5

✎ Sequence analysis due

Week Eleven: Pushing the Envelope

April 5: Some Like It Hot (dir. Billy Wilder, 1959) Reading: Gemünden, “All Dressed Up and Running Wild” as PDF; Ed Sikov, “Some Like It Hot” as PDF ; Noah Isenberg, “Tales of Buffalo Billy” https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/tales-of-buffalo-billy-noel-simsolos-masters-of-cinema-billy-wilder

Week Twelve: Reworking the Classics April 12: What’s Up, Doc? (dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1972) Reading: Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-n-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, excerpts; Interview with Bogdanovich, as PDF

Week Thirteen: Battle of the Sexes in the Age of Yuppies April 19: When Harry Met Sally (dir. Rob Reiner, 1989) Reading: Tamar Jeffers MacDonald, When Harry Met Sally (BFI, 2015) excerpts; Farran Smith Nehme, Missing Reels, 3-192

Week Fourteen: Bipolar Screwball April 26: Silver Linings Playbook (dir. David O. Russell, 2012) Reading: “The Real Reason David O. Russell Made Silver Linings Playbook” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/oscars/9888578/Oscars-2013-The-real-reason-David-O-Russell-made-Silver-Linings-Playbook.html Reading: Smith Nehme 195-341 http://www.filminquiry.com/screwball-comedy-place-in-modern-cinema/ ✎ Final essay due May 3 PLEASE NOTE: Syllabus is subject to change