Screwball Cinema: katharine hepburn

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Friday, November 30, 2012

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.

Monday, November 26, 2012

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.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

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!