By the numbers...

In preparation of the upcoming screwball comedy tourney, I thought I would share some stats about some of the stars and directors competing.

Cary has the most films in competition by far...

Most films by an actor competing in tourney: Cary Grant (8) - Bringing Up Baby, Topper, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Awful Truth, My Favorite Wife, His Girl Friday and Holiday.

Stick with me Coop and I'll teach you everything about

screwball comedies....

Most films by an actress: Claudette Colbert (5) - It Happened One Night, The Gilded Lily, Midnight, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, and The Palm Beach Story.

Mr. Lubitsch with his customary cigar....

Most films by a director: Ernst Lubitsch (4) - Ninotchka, Trouble in Paradise, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, and To Be Or Not To Be.

Kate and Cary..what a pair

Most films by a pair: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn (3) - Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, and Holiday.

Side note:

I could have easily expanded this tourney to 64 films but I knew I would not have sufficient time what with the holidays and work. So a lot of notable films did not make the cut: such as Nothing Sacred, Vivacious Lady, No Time For Comedy and Design For Living among others. Maybe for my next tourney, I will make it much more bigger to include a lot more films. Anyway, the fun begins in two more days.

The Favorite Screwball Comedy Tourney Top 4 Seeds

I am still working on the details of Screwball Cinema's favorite screwball comedy tourney, whittling down the list of films to 32 that will be competing. But I have figured out the top four films of each respective bracket and wanted to share that with everyone now. I will have four brackets with 8 films in each one and I named the brackets after a famous writer/director of screwball comedies. They are Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, Frank Capra and Howard Hawks. Here are the four films that will be the top four seeds in the tourney:

BRINGING UP BABY (1938) - You can't think screwball comedies and not think of Baby. It's just not possible.

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) - The biggest Oscar winning screwball film of all time..nabbing 5 Oscars. So it brings some prestige to this event.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) - One of the earliest of the screwball comedies and it deserves it's top ranking.

MY MAN GODREY (1936) - Kind of a template for all those society type screwball films that was all the rage during this time period.

The one thing I noticed that the films are separated by two years. Which I thought was kind of cool. I will post the total list of films by the end of the week and kick off the tourney on Sunday, December 2nd. It will be a fun way to spend the holidays with the best screwball comedies of all time.

The Favorite Screwball Comedy Tourney begins next month

Odds are good that perennial screwball star Cary Grant

will have a few films competing....

I have been back and forth about whether to do a tourney to decide the favorite screwball comedy here on Screwball Cinema. I finally decided to do one and what better time than during this holiday season. I am still working on the particulars, as it looks like it will involved the top 32 screwball comedies of all time. I have done some research to select those 32 based on recognition, popularity, awards won, etc. I will focus on the peak period of screwball comedies, which ran from the mid 30's to the early 40's. So this tourney will be very specific. So if the film is not regarded as a true screwball comedy, say for instance, Some Like It Hot or  Pillow Talk, they won't be in the mix. Maybe next year I can hold a tourney focusing on all classic comedies. But for now this is it. I will hold the tourney here and it's sister blog, All Good Things. Two brackets here and two brackets over there. I will be posting the list of films that made the cut within a few days. This sure be so much fun.

Who wants a screwball comedy tournament?

Perennial favorite Bringing Up Baby is sure to be one of the top seeds...

So everyone knows my love of tournaments. My favorite classic movie actress tourney just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Well I've been thinking of doing one for screwball comedies, which is my favorite genre. So I'm writing this post to see if the reaction warrants one. I have no problem doing one and since I have been slack here on this blog, I figure a tourney would fire things up. If I decide to do one, it probably won't be until the fall when things start to slow down. Unlike the actress tourney, this one will take place solely on here. And will either encompass 32 or 64 films. Need to do research to see how many films we're looking at. I do know that since screwball comedies were at their most prolific during the 30's and petered out in the mid-40's, I won't follow the format of four decades. Most likely I will still have four brackets just not relegated to a time period. So I will start mulling over the films and all, but any feedback will be most appreciated. Thanks everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to everyone from me and some friends here at Screwball Cinema..

Cary and Priscilla

Cary, Kate and Baby

Nick, Nora and Asta

Carole and John

Claudette and Clark

Irene

Jean

Cary and Roz

Carole and Robert

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S DAY!

Classic Screwball Couples

Just some photos of some classic couples in screwball comedies. Enjoy.

Kate and Cary

Jimmy and Jean

William and Myrna..and Skippy

Clark and Claudette

Carole and Robert

Cary and Rosalind

Gary and Jean

Barbara and Henry

Carole and William



and of course my favorite pair..Cary and Irene

Screwball Quote of The Day: BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

David Huxley: "When a man is wrestling with a leopard in the middle of a pond, he is in no position to run."
BRINGING UP BABY

Screwball Quote Of The Day: THE AWFUL TRUTH

Jerry Warriner: I'm going out to get some popcorn and pink lemonade. I've just seen a three-ring circus.

THE AWFUL TRUTH

Screwball Quote Of The Day: ARSENIC & OLD LACE (1944)

Mortimer Brewster: Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.
-ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)

Congratulations to HIS GIRL FRIDAY for winning 4 MONTIES...

I know it's my own personal awards show, but I had to give His Girl Friday some more praise. I just wrote a post on my main blog All Good Things where my favorite film of all time took home four Monties. AWESOME! all good things

Let's go get our Monties my dear.....

Screwball Monday: Arsenic & Old Lace

What better way to start off Monday by watching Arsenic and Old Lace.

The definition of a dark comedy. When you mix humor with murderers and corpses, then throw in Cary Grant with two old bitties (his aunts) who happen to like killing single old men- then count me in. A truly different type comedy that has to be seen. Cary is of course in perfect form. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair as his aunts are quite funny. And lets not forget the long lost brother Raymond Massey who just escaped from prison and decides to come home. Plus Priscilla Lane is fetching as Cary's girlfriend-soon to be wife. Oh and Peter Lorre as Massey's sidekick. I couldn't forget about him, now could I Irene?


Just a little sip...please?

One of my all time favorite movies.

Congratulations to Irene Dunne!

Irene Dunne won Favorite Classic Movie Actress on my main blog All Good Things a few days ago and here is a film clip from one of her best screwball comedies, The Awful Truth. Irene is hilarious, pretending to be Cary's ditzy sister.

Irene and Cary team up for the first time in The Awful Truth

One of the earliest screwball comedies and one of the best is the 1937 classic, The Awful Truth, which paired Irene Dunne and Cary Grant for the very first time. It's no secret that I have always thought Cary and Irene made the best on screen couple. And Cary has worked with some of the top actresses in the world but he was never better than when paired with Dunnie. The plot of this film has Jerry and Lucy Warriner preparing to divorce and trying their best to ruin each other's chances of remarriage. As one of the early screwball comedies, Truth doesn't hold anything back. The dialogue is crisp and biting. Cary and Irene have wonderful chemistry in their first film together and Irene is positively firing on all cylinders. She is funny from the word go. I believe the great Katherine Hepburn had to have seen this film prior to making Bringing Up Baby and based her performance on what Irene did. She had too. Dunnie was just that good in Truth. The film moves at a brisk pace given the fact it's running time is 92 minutes and not one single second is wasted. In addition to Dunne and Grant, there is terrific support from Cecil Cunningham as Aunt Patsy and Ralph Bellamy in his typical role of the stand up guy. Also Asta the dog from The Thin Man series is a hoot as Mr. Smith. Expert direction from Leo McCarey, who won an Oscar for Best Director for his work here and he deserved it. So if you have never watched The Awful Truth, find it online or rent it or better yet buy it, because you will want to watch this film over and over again.

Jerry: I'm going out to get some popcorn and pink lemonade. I've just seen a three-ring circus.

Topper (1937) is a good screwball farce...

A fun-loving and handsome couple (Cary Grant, Constance Bennett) are killed when they smash their sporty roadster into a tree while returning from a bender. As ghosts in limbo, they decide that one good deed will send them to heaven, so they choose to enliven the life of their dull friend Topper (Roland Young) by showing him how to live as they did -- fast and loose. One of the best screwball comedies of the 1930's with the entire cast clicking on all cylinders. In addition to Grant, Bennett, and Young, look for the great Billie Burke as Mrs. Topper. She's a hoot as usual. Followed by two more entertaining sequels, Topper Takes A Trip (1938) and Topper Returns (1941).

Monkey Business (1952) is a hoot...

A wonderful comedy that re-teams director Howard Hawks and star Cary Grant. The duo have worked magic before in other screwball classics like His Girl Friday (my all time favorite movie) and I Was A Male War Bride. In this one, Grant is absent minded chemist Barney Fulton who discovers a fountain of youth potion that he has been testing on chimps. Well he accidentally takes it himself and reverts to being a teen-ager. Which includes spending time with his gorgeous secretary Miss Lois Laurel (played by Marilyn Monroe). Well Mrs. Fulton (a sharp and funny Ginger Rogers) takes an even bigger dose and reverts even further to a 9 year old and all kinds of chaos ensues. Monkey Business is a hilarious comedy that lets the stars just have all the fun they want. A must see.

Lois Laurel: [at her secretrial desk, responding to Barnaby's remark that she is at work early] Mr. Oxley's been complaining about my punctuation, so I'm careful to get here before nine.

Arsenic & Old Lace clip - Reunion between Mortimer and Jonathan

 Here's a funny little clip from Arsenic and Old Lace

My Top 10 Favorite Screwball Films of Cary Grant

http://poohtiger-allgoodthings.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-top-25-favorite-cary-grant-films_19.htmlI recently did a top 25 of my favorite Cary Grant films which covered all genres: action, thriller, comedies, etc. So for here I decided to condense it to a top 10 list of my favorite screwball comedies starring Cary. Enjoy.

10.) TOPPER (1937) Manic screwball farce with Grant and Constance Bennett as fun loving couple George and Marion Kerby who after dying in a car crash, return as ghosts. They take it upon themselves to lighten up the life of their stuffy banker Cosmo Topper (played by Roland Young). Entertaining fantasy/comedy, that was followed by two sequels but without the services of Cary.

9.) I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE (1949) Terrific comedy by Howard Hawks and co-starring Ann Sheridan. Cary plays Captain Henri Rochard, a French officer assigned to work with Lieut. Catherine Gates (Sheridan). Through a wacky series of misadventures, they fall in love and marry. When the war ends, Capt. Rochard tries to return to America with the other female war brides. Of course things are not that easy and Henri must resort to dressing in drag to get home. A very funny movie.

8.) MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (1948) And now begins the screwball run of Cary films as my top 8 films are all comedies starting with this one. He and Myrna Loy play a married couple who are fed up with the city and move out to the country and buy this ramshackle of a house. The situations they have to deal with while trying to fix the place up are hysterical.

7.) THE BACHELOR & THE BOBBY-SOXER (1947) Another team up with Myrna Loy and it's even better than Mr. Blandings. Cary is perfect as a playboy who runs afoul of Judge Turner (Loy) and must date her younger sister (Shirley Temple) or face jail. It's a complicated story but it's funny as can be. Grant is in top form for this one.

6.) THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) The first pairing of Cary and Irene is an absolute delight. They play a married couple who are getting a divorce and comic mishaps occur along the way. Classic screwball comedy at it's best.

5.) THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) How's this for star power: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart. Cary plays CK Dexter haven, the ex-husband to Kate's Tracy Lord. Well Tracy is planning on re-marrying much to the dismay of CK and a reporter (Stewart). A sophisticated comedy with three legends giving great performances.

4.) ARSENIC & OLD LACE (1944) Wicked black comedy with Cary as writer Mortimer Brewster who returns home to visit his two kind aunts and realize they are murdering elderly men who come a calling. Mortimer also has to deal with a visiting brother who has just escaped from prison (Raymond Massey) and his sidekick (Peter Lorre). And wonderfully directed by Frank Capra.

3.) MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) This movie is hilarious. And I give all the credit to Irene Dunne in this one. She plays Ellen, a woman who was shipwrecked on a deserted island and declared dead. Well Nick, her husband (Grant) decides to move on with his life and re-marries. Lo and behold when Ellen returns home. Cary is good as usual but Irene is simply amazing. She makes the movie.

2.) BRINGING UP BABY (1938) The classic film with Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Skippy the dog (Asta from the Thin Man movies), a pet leopard named Baby, an escaped dangerous leopard, and an inept town sheriff all combine for a riot of a movie. And you won't be able to get that song out of your head, "I can't give you anything but love, Baby!"

1.) HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) No need to go into detail here. Not only is this my favorite Cary Grant movie, but it's my favorite movie, period. Grant as newspaper editor Walter Burns is terrific and Rosalind Russell is just as good as Hildy Johnson, his ace reporter and ex-wife. This has to be the fastest talking movie ever made. The wisecracks fly by every few seconds and you rarely have time to catch your breath. I watch it a few times every year.


There you have it my ten favorite Cary Grant screwball films. Note that on my original list that 8 of the top ten films were all screwball comedies. If you're curious about that list just click on the link to check it out.
http://poohtiger-allgoodthings.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-top-25-favorite-cary-grant-films_19.html