Romantic vs. Screwball Comedy: Charting the Difference (Studies in Film Genres) [Hardcover]

Wes D. Gehring (Author), Steve Bell (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Studies in Film Genres | Publication Date: October 16, 2002

Famous co-stars such as Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, have made screwball and romantic comedies a big seller at the box office. These seemingly timeless genres are as popular today as ever!

This book takes a closer look at the precise meanings of the terms screwball and romantic. Film fans and scholars alike tend to lump film with laughter and love under a screwball/romantic umbrella and use the terms screwball and romantic interchangeably. In reality, there is a distinction; the screwball variety places its emphasis on "funny," while the more traditional romantic comedy accents "love."

Covering over 60 titles each of romantic and screwball comedy dating from the 1930s to the present, this research tool not only demonstrates how screwball and romantic comedy are two distinct genres, but also highlights pivotal social and artistic changes which impacted both genres. Includes 24 black and white movie stills, countless quotations from selected films, an annotated bibliography, and a two-part filmography.

Not only an informative resource for film students and scholars, but also an interesting read for film buffs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Introducing the 1930s Depression origins of the sister genres of comic courtship-madcap screwball and the reality-based romantic comedy-Gehring shows how the two grew up into unique and contrasting types....Undergraduate and general collections. (Choice )

Exceptional! (Today's Books )

About the Author

Wes D. Gehring is Professor of Film at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, and an Associate Media Editor of USA Today Magazine. He is the author of 16 critically acclaimed books including individual volumes on the comedy genres of populism, comedy, personality comedian, dark comedy, and screwball comedy. His other books include biographies of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, and the Marx Brothers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press; annotated edition edition (October 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810844249
• ISBN-13: 978-0810844247
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #790,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars poor critical analysis, May 16, 2010

By 

R. Robinson "knife's edge" (N.C. by way of TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Romantic vs. Screwball Comedy: Charting the Difference (Studies in Film Genres) (Hardcover)

Highly repetitious and redundant, this would be better off as 15-30 page survey and review. If you're a aspiring writer pass on this, the authors poor organization of the material is not helpful in realizing a formula for the genre. The first chapter or two is useful but after that you will begin to feel as if the writer is writing for writing's sake (because he loves the genre) and not to impart knowledge. Interesting enough, I dont think the author ever negative criticizes any of the movies/scripts he reviews (i.e "fanyboy" mentality). He got an extra star for some interesting anecdotes.