The birth of the screwball comedy can be attributed to
many factors. America was dealing with the devastating
effects of The Great Depression, and Americans were in
no mood for any additional depression that might come
with a particularly sad film. Although there are films
that could be argued to be screwball comedies that
date back before 1934, that specific year can be
called the year of the true "birth" of the genre. In
1934, three of the most important and defining
screwball comedies were released; It Happened One
Night, Twentieth Century, and The Gay
Divorcee. Each of the films was unique, but all of
the films had some common themes and conventions,
which the screwball genre would eventually be based
on. Screwball comedies were notorious for the
juxtaposition of sexes and classes, fast, smart and
witty dialogue, and being cast with famous and
talented stars.
From the 30s to the 50s, censorship was abundant in
the film industry. The Hays Code, required
screenwriters and filmmakers to adhere to certain
rules when making a movie, or pay the consequences.
What came from these boundaries were creative ways of
breaking the rules, highly suggestive dialogue,
actions, and mise en scène.
The screwball comedy genre did not last
an exceptionally long time, as when World War II
started up, comedy films were made much less
frequently, the nation's tastes switching to more
patriotic war films, and other forms of drama. The
genre did leave its marks on film comedy in general,
though, and although very few good screwball comedies
were made after the early 40s, you can certainly see
the influences it had in today's romantic comedy genre.
The director Preston Sturges made many wonderful
screwball comedies, but his style tends towards a
romantic comedy that is more modern.
Sturges was the man responsible for bridging the
screwball comedy film with the more modern romantic comedy
film.
Actors and especially actresses were typecast into these screwball roles, and unfortunately, some of them weren't able to escape the typecasts once the genre died out.
Notable screwball actors:
Notable screwball actresses:
Notable screwball directors:
(Note that most of these directors are not purely screwball, and moved on to other things)
Notable screwball films: