I thought since we were headed into a weekend, it’d be neat to look at screwball comedies and their continued relevance, especially today. Now, before you dismiss this because I’m talking about “old” movies, or “black and white” movies, or movies with a bunch of dead people I’ve never heard of, consider this question: What was the first film to sweep the 5 major categories at the Academy Awards?

Answer: It Happened One Night, a screwball comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and directed by Frank Capra (a director that displayed a wide range and is responsible for so many classics). It Happened One Night won Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Only two other films achieved this: One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Silence of the Lambs.

Screwball comedies of the 1930s are more relevant today than most people realize. In fact, I bet many people don’t know exactly what I’m talking about when I write the words screwball comedy. This isn’t the Three Stooges and not The Marx Brothers, not really, but a few of their MGM films might come close. Their are comedic detective films as well, something like The Thin Man — so much fun, but not exactly screwball.

This type of comedy came about during the Great Depression and carried through into the early 1940s. People needed an escape, like we do today. Please put aside any so-called “modern” notions and sensibilities. Of course some of these films will have outdated ideas, situations, and so forth, but these films will surprise you. Why? So many of these films, like My Man Godfrey, starring William Powell and Carole Lombard dealt with real issues, issues of economic class and the little everyman or everywoman against the government. They tackled issues, take His Girl Friday—Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, for instance, they’re reporters who trade crackling dialogue while trying to save a man from execution. You wouldn’t think a film like that would be funny, but it’s wonderful. A dark screwball? Try Arsenic & Old Lace - again, it’s Cary Grant!

My Man Godfrey: the film opens with a group of rich people taking part in a scavenger hunt. One of the “items” they must find and bring back what they call a “forgotten man”, basically a homeless man. William Powell (The Thin Man) plays this “forgotten man” who lost everything in the stock market crash. The family that “finds” him for the scavenger hunt decides to hire him as their butler as sort of a good deed. They see him as a homeless man, but he’s more than that, and in teaches the family a lesson in how to treat people with respect.

These films transported the viewer into funny situations with some serious social commentary. You get actors like Cary Grant (not just a handsome face, but a mainstay of these comedies) and Jean Arthur or Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy (also mainstays of this sub-genre) looking silly while trying to win over their love or prove a point to someone with money and power or social standing. Another thing I love about these is the way they toyed with the Production Code—these films ran circles around the code. By today’s standards these films would seem tame (as far as sexual conduct, violence, etc.), but for that time and for having to abide by the “Code”, these films had to be more clever and subversive. I think it took more creativity to make a film back then. Even Hitchcock made a screwball comedy: Mr. & Mrs. Smith, with Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard!

These directors were versatile (directing in all sorts of genres: drama, noir, comedy, action, thriller), and they were big names: Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, and the list goes on and on.

I could go on and on, but I’ll list a bunch of films, these are all fun if you can get past the black and white and get over your hangups with their “old fashioned” ideas. These are fun and they have a message! Try a few out!