A tour de force through the landscape of American comedy in the 1950s.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Rejecting the notion that the 1950s was a bleak, comformist decade in the U.S., this engaging, sophisticated study argues that the era's film comedies reflect the period's underappreciated artistic and social rebelliousness. Sikov focuses on four directors-Howard Hawks (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot), Alfred Hitchcock (The Trouble With Harry) and Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?)-whose comedies undercut drab normality, attack moral hypocrisy, satirize the powerful, and expose sexual repression and frustration. Sikov (Screwball: Hollywood's Madcap Romantic Comedies) also examines filmic references to homosexuality in the context of the period's antigay obsessions, exploring, for example, the "homophilic" bond between screen buddies Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Film scholar Sikov closely analyzes a choice group of the funniest and most complex films by Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and Frank Tashlin, including Some Like It Hot, Monkey Business, and Artists and Models. He is interested in how these films cleverly present, question, and satirize the intricate web of societal values and repressions that characterized America in the Fifties. In particular, Sikov analyzes-with vehement intensity-such issues as the double-edged representations of women's roles, homosexual innuendo, intimate relationships, and family structure. He studies dialog, roles, situations, contrasts, and film technique, occasionally debating positions taken by other scholars. A unique study for large film collections.
Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Laugh a Minute,
By Walter L. Harrison (Hartford, CT) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Laughing Hysterically (Paperback)
This is a "must-read" for anyone trying to understand the origins of American humor in film. Written for a scholarly audience, the book is easily accessible for the everyday film buff.
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