The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Kendall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1990

In the 1934 classic It Happened One Night, heiress Claudette Colbert races away from the altar and a conventional marriage and throws herself into a wisecracking rough-and-tumble affair with Clark Gable. The new brand of movies following in the wake of Capra's kooky masterpiece-and the women starring in them-are the focus of Kendall's The Runaway Bride, a look at the films that mirrored the climate of the Great Depression while at the same time helping Americans get through it. Kendall details the collaborations between the romantic comedy directors and the female stars, showing how such films as Alice Adams (with Katherine Hepburn), Swing Time (where Ginger Rogers enjoys "A Fine Romance" with Fred Astaire), The Awful Truth (with Irene Dunne), and The Lady Eve (wherein Barbara Stanwyck's shapely leg repeatedly trips naïve millionaire Henry Fonda) came to be, and what they said about the 1930s. Written with erudition and enthusiasm, The Runaway Bride is a trip through some of Hollywood's most memorable moments, and a key to the national issues of an era as revealed in its films.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Depression-era romantic film comedies starring Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers and Barbara Stanwyck are enthrallingly appraised here by social historian Kendall ( Where She Danced ). The formula for these movies--lightly making a virtue of personality traits usually thought of as feminine, a moral subtlety, an unashamed belief in the validity of emotions--was originated not at the big Hollywood studios, but by directors on the margins of the indsutry: Frank Capra, Gregory La Cava, Leo McCarey, George Stevens and Preston Sturges. Their genuine interest in women, and in romance imagined from a woman's point of view, resulted in It Happened One Night , Mr. Deeds Goes to Town , My Man Godfrey , Stage Door , The Lady Eve and other film classics perceptively described and analyzed in this enjoyable book. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Kendall's 1990 volume examines the screwball comedies that flourished during the 1930s as a means of countering the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Many of those films featured women either married or betrothed who revolt against the men in their lives, with their stories at the core of such hits as It Happened One Night, The Awful Truth, and other Hollywood gold. The text is supported by numerous monochrome portraits of the stars and some behind-the-scenes shots.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 285 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (September 26, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394511875
• ISBN-13: 978-0394511870
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,053,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When women were smart, sexy and funny, June 26, 2009

By 

J. Churchland (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s (Hardcover)

Elizabeth Kendall's book analyzes a very specific and short-lived period of classic hollywood movies, coinciding in large part with the great depression. Many of the great movies of this era are notable for the strong, nuanced and mature representation of women that they portray, as distinct from films that came both before and after. Kendall explains this as a product of both the individuals (directors and actors) involved in forming these movies, and the effect the prevailing social conditions had on audience taste. Among the films that Kendall discusses in detail are 'Ladies of Leisure', 'It happened one night', 'Alice Adams', 'Swing Time', 'Mr Deeds goes to Town', 'My Man Godfrey', 'Stage Door', 'The Awful Truth', 'Love Affair', 'Penny Serenade', 'The Lady Eve' and 'The Palm Beach Story'. This is an interesting and thought provoking read about a wonderful period of movies, and it gave me some great ideas of movies I have not seen to seek out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great study on one of the greatest periods for movies, May 8, 2002

By 

Scott Ross (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s (Paperback)

Along with Marjorie Rosen's "Popcorn Venus" and Brendan French's "On the Verge of Revolt," this is one of three superb feminist film books published in the '70s and '80s. Witty, engaging, and intelligent without lapsing into jargon-studded academic verbiage or theoretical pretention.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on the subject, January 27, 2003

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s (Paperback)

Ever since the Battelle Film Club's showing of Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story, I've been on a screwball kick. Screenplays, biographies, non-fiction, what-have-you about that lunatic genre of film greatly interest me. This book by Kendall isn't solely about screwball, but rather an overview of the larger film genre that it falls under, the romantic comedy. Sturges is only the last chapter here. The majority of director coverage goes to Frank Capra and Leo McCarey, and the book goes even more into the lives of the major actresses of the period, Barbara Stanwyck, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and Claudette Colbert, who the author asserts were co-creaters of the classic romantic comedy films. The argument goes like this: due to the depression and the unusual success of particular directors (men, and I use the term correctly in this case, who were able to fulfill the cathartic needs of the public going through this rough period), these directors were given extremely free reign. They used it to explore collaborations with their favorite subjects, these independent women. Movies before and after delegated women more to the supporting roles (with notable exceptions, but only as exceptions), but in these romantic comedies of the 30s the women were the lead and often the most sympathetic and fleshed-out characters.</p>

While the descriptions of the making of the movies was quite interesting, it is the concise biographies of the people involved--directors, actors, actresses, and writers--that help you understand this moment in cinema history. An excellent book on its subject.