11/22/2016

              From black to blue, deadpan to cringe.  From improvisation to sketch, and screwball to satire.  While it is true that comedy has forever used humor as the driving force of a film, it has also delivered this humor though such a wide range and variety of stylistic conventions that it has thus divided the genre into multiple subgenres.  Films such as His Girl Friday and The Producers exemplify the popular sub-genres of their times, Screwball and Satire respectively, and in turn reflect the larger social-political world that existed during Classical and Modernist phase. The transition from Screwball to Parody not only solidified the stylistic conventions of the comedy, but also reflected a change in the thematic conventions of comedies from the Classical to the Modernist phase. 

                Historically, the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929-1939, created what came to be the dominant comedic subgenre of the Classical phase: the Screwball. Screwballs were defined by the reversal of the typical male-female power dynamic set forth by traditional gender roles and depicted this eternal battle of the sexes in an almost slapstick fashion.  They were movies made in an era where the Hay’s Code, aset of industry guidelines that introduced American film to formal censorship, regulated the popular content of the day and women’s liberation was at its height, so portraying female characters with power over their male counterparts was both a new and difficult theme for Hollywood (Gehring 178).  As a result of major film studios’ eagerness to bypass restrictions enforced upon production studios by the Hays code, the Screwball bloomed, and as a result of popular demand for films with social commentary as well as escapist themes, the Screwball flourished. 

                 An entertaining script, laced with sharp and witty dialog; an overlapping style of execution, with lines delivered in rapid cross-fire; highly exaggerated, and thus realistically impossible, situations; a hero living by his or her wits alone, who is often balanced by a reliable, albeit equally stubborn, love interest – together these stylistic and thematic conventions create the essence of the Screwball (Milberg 6).  His Girl Fridayis a classic example of a Screwball: an entertaining game of who-knows-best between a pair of ex-lovers exacerbated by fast-paced repartee and farcical situations galore –what could get any screwier? In an attempt to include the desired, yet prohibited, risqué elements found within a typical romance film, filmmakers utilized more covert stylistic conventions to relay the raciness of a scene or situation. In the case of His Girl Friday, verbal sparring between Walter Burns (Cary Grant) and Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) serves as the stand-in for physical sexual tension between the protagonists and is exemplified whenthe ex-partners – in business and marriage – meet and squabble in Walter’s office for the first time since their divorce.  Farcical situations arise when Hildy jumps on Sheriff Hartwell (Gene Lockhart) in order to get her story and when Walter and Hildy attempt to attempt to sneak out accused murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen) who is hiding in a desk - both non-conventional things for a realwoman to be doing during the late 1930s, which ultimately makes for hilariously “unrealistic” situations that are further satirized with the use of slapstick conventions (i.e. Slipping on a banana peel, accidentally walking into one unseen objects or banging heads together). 

                 Unfortunately, with the 1960s came the sexual revolution, birth control, the Vietnam War and the replacement of the Hays Code with the Ratings System of 1968, under which, with the proper rating, practically nothing was off-limits – and with that, the Screwball subgenre died.  Although the 1960s brought about the death of the Screwball, many of its stylistic conventions found their way into popular comedies of the 1960s, particularly those that fell within the dominant comedic subgenre of the Modernist phase: the Parody. (Milberg 156).   The modernist period, which lasted from 1963-1976, witnessed an explosion of genre. This worked one of two ways: films either referred back to old conventions of a classic genre or experimented with classical and post-classical genre conventions (Casper & Edwards 330).  The explosion of genre during this phase was rooted in the social frustrations of the time - frustration with the depleting economic status and rapidly changing business model of the Film Industry was only perpetuated by frustrations with the larger social movements of the decade, and together these collective frustrations called for wave of nostalgia for the “Golden Age” of American cinema. (King 94). Therefore it is justifiable to assume that elements of past popular subgenres of comedy, such as the Screwball, are evident in Parodies – and upon closer analysis, this assumption can be proven correct. 

                  In a Parody, the abuses and/or shortcomings of the subject of a film are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent to reveal its inherent ridiculousness, and exemplified through clever, fast-paced dialogue and farcical romp.  Although films like The Producers exhibit both the thematic and stylistic conventions needed to be considered a Parody, critics tend to brand the film as a Satire.  Within the world of comedy, there exists a line between Satire and Parody, but it is a very fine line indeed.  A satire exists to criticize vice, folly and abuse, especially of individual or groups in positions of [political] power, through humorous verbal attacks and with the purpose to inspire change (King 93), while a parody exists only to make fun of a subject in hopes to reveal its fundamental ridiculousness by adopting the mannerisms, style or appearance of said subject. Parodies are generally less venomous than satires as they only criticize fictional works, and can even be seen as a sign of affection for the subject that which it is imitating (Gehring & Olson 4).  That being said, it seems that many film critics seeThe Producersas a product of the satiric comedy, perhaps as the film does not seem to imitate a piece of fictional work, but seems to criticize corruption in show business.  However, before parodies of other film genres became a dominant subgenre of the Modernist comedy, early parodies based themselves in reality as they would impersonate serious situations and genuine people (Gehring & Olson 132).  Accordingly, upon closer investigation of The Producers, it is evident that there are in fact multiple sources imitations of subjects that rooted in reality throughout the film.   Two of the most important being, obviously, the parody of Hitler and the Nazi Regime and, less obviously, the parody of someone that director Mel Brooks had worked under years before, the latter of which describes during an interview with Vanity Fair Magazine:

I did. I worked for that guy. He was a producer; he put on shows. I can’t tell you his name because he has grandchildren, and I don’t want them to know he screwed a lot of little old ladies. But that character was based on a real person. There’s a line in the movie that comes from real life. It’s absolutely true; I heard this guy say it. In the movie, Zero Mostel says to a little old woman, “Make out the check to Cash.” And she says, “Cash? That’s a funny name for a play.” And he says, “Well, so is TheIceman Cometh.” That comes from real life. (Sacks)

Ultimately, the transition from the Screwball to the Parody reflected a change in the publics’ need for films based in escapist plot with elements of social commentary to films based in social criticism with elements of escapism.  This change in popular demand is, in turn, not only a reflection of the ever-changing culture in which these films were produced, but also, and more importantly, the result of a change in Classical texts to the Modernist texts. Accordingly, the changes from the Classical to the Modernist phase include the shift from pleasure to confrontation, identification to distance and transitivity to non-transitivity (Casper & Edwards 330). 

                  In terms of pleasure and confrontation, the Classical phase immersed audiences in the characters and their situations, which in effect rendered them (the audience) passive and thus provided them with a sense of comfort. By introducing the audience to Heldy’s resilient feelings for career in journalism and Walter’s resilient feelings for her, conflict is created conflict; however, Heldy’s ultimate choice to stick with her career and Walter indicates a comforting conflict-resolution.  In contrast, the Modernist phase purposefully created tension that would not be resolved in order to force the audience to not only actively engage in the story, but also to confuse the audience in an effort to make them think of the world differently. The plot-twist in the last leg of The Producers, in which Leo and Max’s expected flop turns into a major hit, results in unresolved tension in the form of an unconventionally happy ending in which Leo and Max are sent to the state penitentiary, but are able to continue with their schemes and much their own delight.  In terms of identification and distance, the Classical phase allowed the audience to identify with the characters, which created sympathy for the characters.  The repetitive use iconic actors of the Screwball subgenre, such as Cary Grant who played the role of Walter Burns allowed audiences to feel comfort in and therefore sympathize with the protagonists of the film.  Contrastingly, the Modernist phase forced the audience to keep at a distance from the character by utilizing ambivalent and archetypal characters.  The use of new actors, such as Gene Wilder, who played ambivalent characters, as exemplified in the portrayals of and dynamic between Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock, made it harder for audiences to sympathize with the protagonists of the film.  And finally, in terms of transitivity and non-transitivity, the films made during the Classical phase had a beginning, middle and end, where in which the end answers the beginning and everything was followed-through. In contrast, films made during the Modernist phase had plot intransitivity, in which there was no ending or follow through and there existed some type of fragmentation, or breaking of space and time.  This difference is exemplified in the fact that the plot time in His Girl Friday narrowed in on about half a day, which allowed the entire story to unfold without any major fragmentation of time, while the plot time in The Producers narrowed in a couple of weeks, which gave opportunity for major fragmentation of space and time. 

                 The ability to feel comfort in conflict-resolution, identify and sympathize with the protagonists and follow a story with a linear structure where characteristic of the Classic comedy.  Consequently, these characteristics are what gave the Screwball the ability to provide what was demanded of from the culture that it was produced in.   Similarly, the inability to feel comfort in unresolved tension or to sympathize with and relate to the protagonists, and the imposition to follow a story with an episodic structure where characteristics of the Modernist comedy.  Just as the characteristics of the Classic comedy lent its success to the Screwball, the characteristics of Modernist comedy allowed subgenres like the Parody to flourish as they created conditions in which such subgenres could fulfill the popular demands of the American majority, which was a reflection on the culture of the time.  The difference between the Classical and Modernist phase lies in idea of relevance and that what is relevant to people changes over time.  And so, the as culture changes, relevance changes and thus the demands of the people, which simultaneously perpetuates a change in the thematic conventions of the comedy and a shift to a new popular subgenre that is befitting of such demands. 

               The ultimate purpose of the Screwball and Parody subgenres is to provide a safe platform on which to explore serious issues such as gender relations and political and economical corruption under a comedic, and inherently non-threatening, framework.  The films His Girl Friday and The Producers offered a cultural escape from the realities of their respective time periods while still commenting on and criticizing the happenings of those periods. Although common stylistic conventions have embedded themselves throughout the history of comedy and within various comedic sub-genres, the aforementioned factors perpetuated a change in the thematic conventions of comedy from 1930s to the 1960s. 

References

Casper, Drew, & Edwards, Richard L. Introduction to Film Reader.4thed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2007. 

Gehring, Wes D.  “Screwball Comedy: An Overview.”  Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 13, no. 4, 1986, http://media.proquest.com.libproxy1.usc.edu /media/ch/pao/doc/c432-1986-013-04000004/doc.pdf?cit%3Aauth=Gehring% 2C+Wes+D&cit%3Atitle=Screwball+Comedy%3A+A.  Accessed 14 November 2016. 

Gehring, Wes D. & Olsen, Scott Robert.  Parody as Film Genre: “Never Give a Saga an Even Break”. Greenwood Press, 1999.  https://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url= http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uscisd/Doc?id=10020823 An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click to view

King, Geoff. FilmComedy. Wallflower Press, 2002. 

Milberg, Doris. The Art of the Screwball Comedy: Madcap Entertainment from the 1930s to Today. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2013.

Sacks, Mike.  “The Founding Farter.” Vanity Fair, 8 Feb. 2013. http://www.vanityfair. com/hollywood/2013/02/mel-brooks-immortality-producer