Fast-Talking Dames (Hardcover)

~ Professor Maria DiBattista (Author)
Key Phrases: intercostal clavicle, halfway normal life, talking dame, Grande Dames, Comic History of Dames, Cary Grant (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A smart new take on film criticism . . . . A worthy addition to film studies collections." -- Jayne Plymale, Library Journal

"Brief quotation can do only partial justice to the loving acuity with which DiBattista considers this band of admirable women." -- Robert Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

"Fast-Talking Dames celebrates those actors [of an earlier era] and the scintillating lines they got to wrap their tongues around." -- Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World

"Just as nothing is sacred in screwball, not much escapes this analysis of the genre and its incomparably sharp-tongued heroines." -- Lisa Levy, Entertainment Weekly

"Movie aficionados already familiar with these exquisite pleasures will clamor happily when Fast-Talking Dames hits bookstores." -- Darcy Cosper, Variety

"This is a smart book about very smart women." -- Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly

"[A] terrific and valuable book." -- Sabine Reichel , Los Angeles Times

"[DiBattista] does not allow [her explanations] to diminish in any way the sheer joys that watching these movies bring." -- Theresa Sanders, National Catholic Reporter

[DiBattista's] is a reverent reading of the screwball and romantic comedies of the 1930s and '40s…Aficionados…will clamor happily." -- Darcy Cosper, Variety

[DiBattista's] points are well made, her film portraits evocative and her arguments both interesting and illuminating. -- Sharon Schlegel, Trenton Times

Product Description

"There is nothing like a dame," proclaims the song from South Pacific. Certainly there is nothing like the fast-talking dame of screen comedies in the 1930s and '40s. In this engaging book, film scholar and movie buff Maria DiBattista celebrates the fast-talking dame as an American original. Coming of age during the Depression, the dame—a woman of lively wit and brash speech—epitomized a new style of self-reliant, articulate womanhood. Dames were quick on the uptake and hardly ever downbeat. They seemed to know what to say and when to say it. In their fast and breezy talk seemed to lie the secret of happiness, but also the key to reality. DiBattista offers vivid portraits of the grandest dames of the era, including Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, and others, and discusses the great films that showcased their compelling way with words—and with men.

With their snappy repartee and vivid colloquialisms, these fast-talkers were verbal muses at a time when Americans were reinventing both language and the political institutions of democratic culture. As they taught their laconic male counterparts (most notably those appealing but tongue-tied American icons, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart) the power and pleasures of speech, they also reimagined the relationship between the sexes.

In such films as Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth, and The Lady Eve, the fast-talking dame captivated moviegoers of her time. For audiences today, DiBattista observes, the sassy heroine still has much to say.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1st ed edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300088159
• ISBN-13: 978-0300088151
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,584,714 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #86 in

  Books > History > Military > World War II > Women

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Fast-Talking Women of Comedy, August 8, 2001

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Maria DiBattista, in Fast-Talking Dames, looks at the women (Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, Myrna Loy, Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, and, even, Great Garbo) who helped create a new woman, a dame as it were, in screen comedy in the late thirties until the mid-forties. This woman relied on her voice for her wit and her power and the author does a very good job of looking at the effect and originality of this voice in the beginning of the book. The text can veer into over-analyzing at times, particulary in the chapters devoted to just one movie, but that is part of the charm of a film studies book. It will make one look a little longer and lot more carefully at these comic screen gems in the future. Anyone interested in screwball comedy will enjoy this book whether they agree with all the conclusions or not. The text may get a little bogged with a heavy scholar's hand but the material being studied always helps the lighten the load. An interesting addition to film studies books.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 26, 2001

By	Jillian M. Beifuss (Middleburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Maria Di Battista's look at the lively and complex women of '30s comedy is ultimately disappointing. While chapters on individual films are often interesting, the book contains too much repetition (the first few chapters seem to consist of di Battista pointing out--over and over--that these dames did indeed talk fast), and Di Battista's argument suffers from her failure to provide much of a historical context. Worth a look if you have a strong interest in the field; if you're just beginning to read about it, try Elizabeth Kendall's *The Runaway Bride* (which provides a context for actresses, movies, and genre), James Harvey's *Romantic Comedy from Lubitsch to Sturges* (not as analytical as it might be, but positively majestic in scope), and Stanley Cavell's *Pursuits of Happiness* (aimed at academic readers).

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgia with fine women actors, June 25, 2003

By	Mr. Wynn (State of Confusion) - See all my reviews

This book discusses the role of women in film, particularly those women from the earlier years of film that were fast-talking and smart. This is a great record of how film tried to sneak intelligent women into their movies, even though society at the time dictated that women should be docile and silent.

A great analysis of women and their roles in United States history.