Pat and Mike has an unusually modern premise for a 1950s romantic comedy, examining the psychological barriers that prevent people from achieving their goals. (Adam’s Rib, better known than Pat and Mike, covers more conventional turf: it’s a classic battle-of-the-sexes comedy.) Pat and Mike is every bit as good-spirited and timeless as Woman of the [...]

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As the war continued, screen content was increasingly informed by it. Sturges, forgoing the glamorous trappings of the rich and would-be rich, brought his screwball sensibility to small-town America and made two farces that dealt directly with the homefront. The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) is about a young woman (Betty Hutton) who goes to [...]

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One of the least regarded of these peripheral comic winners is Universal’s It Started with Eve, a box-office hit given little respect. Best known for Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), Universal was rescued from its financial woes of the mid 1930s when producer Joe Pasternak, director Henry Koster, and plucky teen soprano Deanna Durbin collaborated [...]

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Lady for a Day is based on Damon Runyon’s short story Madame La Gimp. Capra and Runyon are an ideal match, with their knack for balancing sentiment with humor and in their affection for underdogs. Runyon’s surefire tale is prime fodder for Capra, and the meeting of material and director produces a disarming work full [...]

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One kind of 1930s comedy didn’t last very long or become a source of ongoing imitation. I’ll call it the comedy of merry insanity, which is different from the screwball comedies that dominated the second half of the decade and the first half of the 1940s. However nutty, screwball comedies revolve around reasonably recognizable issues [...]

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