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bounds to his demarcation of the screwball genre by appending a useful "General Filmography by Director," an inventory of 136 movies that also provides information on the studios at which they were made and their dates of release. A second list of forty movies described as "Primary Corpus" identifies the forty films that Halbout believes make up the heart of the genre.There is general agreement that screwball comedy erupted in 1934, with films like Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, Howard Hawks's Twentieth Century, and W. S. Van Dyke's The Thin Man. Each of these relied on irreverent parodies of institutions and character types. Dialogue was sharp and unsentimental. Actors and actresses, often famous for their performances in more dramatic fare, embraced roles that exuded a carefree zaniness. This formula worked, and the studios methodically set out to recapture the magic. These comedies soon became a predictable staple, recognized by critics and audiences. Hollywood was a factory town in the 1930s, with moviemaking a classic example of vertical integration from production to distribution. Halbout highlights the contributions of what he calls the "artisans" of screwball comedy, from the writers, often drawn from Broadway or the newsroom, to character actors in supporting roles. He pays special attention to directors and stars. A relatively small number of men directed these films, and a few such as Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch, and Preston Sturges are still remembered for their work in the genre. Halbout draws attention to the work of directors like Alexander Hall at Columbia and Mitchell Leisen at Paramount who also reliably churned out these comedies. Certain leading men and women like Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, or Claudette Colbert became associated with the screwball style, attracting audiences on the strength of past successes.The screwball comedy was a reaction to intensified censorship. Criticism of sex and violence in the movies by groups like the Legion of Decency and worries by distributors led to the creation of Joseph Breen's Production Code Administration, which had veto power over scripts. Filmmakers learned to treat sex with subtlety and indirection. Halbout exhaustively explores the ensuing stylistic tropes of screwball comedy, and the ways in which this encouraged a liberating dialogue about romance and marriage. This illustrates the thematic connections between great and mediocre films. The result of Halbout's insightful analysis is a stimulating appreciation of a beloved genre in American film.
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