Editorial Reviews:
In 1934 four movies?It Happened One Night, Twentieth Century, The Thin Man, and The Gay Divorcee?ushered in the golden age of the Hollywood romantic ("screwball") comedy. Slangy, playful, and "powerfully, glamorously in love with love," the films that followed were unique in their combination of swank and slapstick. Here are the directors?Lubitsch (Trouble in Paradise), Capra (It Happened One Night), Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday), McCarey (The Awful Truth), La Cava (My Man Godfrey, Stage Door), Sturges (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle at Morgan's Creek)?and their stars?Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, William Powell, Myrna Loy, among others?all described and analyzed in one comprehensive and delightful volume.
What could top the charm, the outlandishness, the wit, the loveliness of classic Hollywood romantic comedy? The triumph of James Harvey's book is its ability to convey the delights of the genre when it was at its best, during the 1930s and '40s. Though he devotes chapters to major filmmakers such as Frank Capra and Howard Hawks, and stars like Cary Grant, Claudette Colbert, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers, Harvey's focus is on two of the finest directors of the period: Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges. Harvey describes the joys of watching their movies as he offers many intriguing insights into their cinematic styles and comic techniques. One of the best things about this book is its author's willingness to discuss obscure, hard-to-find films. Of course, he covers popular entertainments such as Lubitsch's Ninotchka, Capra's It Happened One Night, and Sturges's The Lady Eve, but he also devotes equal time to little-known, fascinating works like Sturges's The Great Moment and Lubitsch's Angel. This is an invaluable companion for anyone interested in learning more about two of Hollywood's most wonderful auteurs or about romantic comedy in general. --Raphael Shargel
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 1 to 5 of 11 total reviews (Page 1 of 3):
 Harvey's sharp wit meets comedies' humor
A natural wit and storyteller himself, Harvey can mine the field for twists and turns that you might miss without his helpful guide. This is the best film criticism book ever. If you never saw the films, you could easily imagine them by reading this book. I wish he had time to write more books on film. Nobody writes with such a masterful voice, perfectly suited to this subject. A brainy, articulate romp through Hollywood's golden age ...
... Harvey's book brims with the kind of keen, enthusiastic observations that lovers of the screwball genre will embrace with glee. He casts a thoroughly knowing and intelligent eye on the films, the actors, the directors and the millieu that define what, for many film buffs, was Hollywood's real golden age.
For my money, this is THE de facto handbook to that great twenty years' worth of cinematic Americana. I have loved these old movies for a long time, but Harvey deconstructs why it is that these movies worked well and continue to entertain and draw admirers some seventy and eighty years on. Harvey's engaging prose is steeped not only in an obvious love of these movies, but is remarkably fine in and of itself; this man can write, really write, adroitly sidestepping a swathe of cliches in favor of original thinking and insights that will get and keep you reading, hoping the chapter -- and the book -- will never end.
Reading this book is nearly as much fun as watching the films he writes about with such affection and insight. Rare is the book of film study that affords a measure of tangible pleasure anywhere near that of watching the films themselves. The best of film criticism gets readers to re-thinking films seen perhaps dozens of times; Harvey's Romantic Comedy accomplishes not only that, but provides an irresistible impetus to revisit the entire canon of films post haste. And not a moment too soon.
Justly lauded, and terrific stuff. A five star-plus recommendation for this terrific tome!!! One of the best books on film art
Not only is this a comprehensive survey of the genre of romantic comedy (and its profound sub-genre, screwball comedy), but Harvey's digressions offer many wise comments on pre-1950 films in general. I came away convinced that comedy is more profound than tragedy. A good editor won't spoil "Hamlet" by cutting some of its dialogue, but it would be infinitely harder to cut dialogue from any of the great comedies written and directed by Preston Sturges. As a bonus, Harvey provides a glowing appreciation of the comic artistry of Irene Dunne, along with a wonderful interview with her.  A book for the lover of the screwball comedy
Sturges, Lubitsch, Hawks, all the directors of the golden age of the comedy are here. The book we are looking for. It was easy to find books about the film noir or the western but it wasn't so easy to find the same about comedy. This is the book.  A Curate's Egg
This book is interesting in spite of the theories it contains rather than because of them. Maybe those who have given this book a good rating are just happy that the author spends a lot of time talking about so many wonderful films. But, whilst much of the analysis of the films is interesting, a lot of it is rather hamfisted. In many cases the author seems to be praising the actor for doing what the writer or the director told him to do. In fact I would say that in this book the role of the scriptwriter is completely misunderstood. This severely weakens Harvey's attempts at textual analysis In addition, Harvey's literary judgements are rather curious to say the least. For example, he completely underates the genius of Noel Coward and claims that the movies of the 30s as an American artifact whilst ignoring the obvious influence of the British comedy of manners in forming the backbone of Hollywood comedy. The silly left wing social theories expressed in this book are laughable, as is the author's hankering for 'subversion' in comedy films, at the expense of just plain laughter. This book is far too long and repetitious. The services of a good editor would have been worthwhile. More Customer Reviews:
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(11 reviews)
