Recorded at the Historic Camelot Theater, Palm Springs, CA on March 5, 2023
TRANSCRIPT
(LAUREN WOLFER:) How do you define “Screwball”?
What does the term mean?
(ALIECE PICKETT:) The term derives from the baseball term “screwball pitch”.
A screwball pitch has an erratic trajectory, to confuse the batter.
The term worked into slang as in, “you’re screwy”, or “you’ve got a screw loose”.
Then it worked its way toward the genre of film in 1936, when a reviewer commented on a character (“My Man Godfrey” 1936), and her “screwy” behavior.
The name stuck.
Now it’s the name of the genre.
>> LW: What are the hallmarks of the genre?
To me, I know it when I see it. What are the main tropes associated with this genre?
>> AP: Screwball Comedy is a satire and spoofs courtship, marriage, traditional institutions, and the wealthy.
The action centers around a couple.
They are usually mismatched and from different social classes.
There is sexually charged antagonism between the two, in lieu of a sexual relationship, which was prohibited by censorship rules.
The woman is on equal footing with the man.
She gives as good as she gets.
The dialogue is fast and witty, and it’s not sentimental.
>> LW: I think “sexually charged antagonism” would make a cool band name.
That’s a movie I want to see.
What led to the rise of the movies of this genre?
>> AP: There were the factors of social, economic and political events in the United States in the 1920s and ’30s that led to this genre of film.
It was one of the most interesting periods in U.S.
history, the best of times and the worst of times.
The good news, it was the machine age. Innovations in technology, planes, trains, and automobiles. People were on the move.
Art Deco was spreading across the country as a stylized design in architecture, interior design, cars, fabrics, upholsteries. Women were experiencing freedoms they had never had.
It starts with the fact they were allowed to vote, and permitted to drive vehicles.
Their clothes became relaxed, instead of a binding corset which inhibits breathing, and a straight skirt that inhibits the ability to walk in a normal stride.
New clothing was looser, more comfortable.
You didn’t need assistance to get dressed.
Then women transitioned into wearing pants.
Social mores with women were also relaxing.
They were drinking, smoking, dancing. And sexual mores were relaxing for women.
In the film industry, the advent of sound transformed movies.
The United States was a manufacturing and exporting powerhouse.
We were the envy of the world at this time.
However, with these factors was a confluence of bad “worst of times”.
It started with the stock market crash of 1929.
From there, banks closed.
Manufacturers with credit freezes had to close, throwing millions into unemployment.
People are homeless.
Tent cities across the country. It was terrible. And you had three dust bowls in the 1930s that exacerbated the Depression. All those people, not only their crops were ruined, they had to relocate. They came to California, because we are a Mecca of agriculture. But there were not enough jobs. We could not absorb all those people. So that exacerbated the Depression because it drove wages lower and people suffered more.
>> LW: You see the Great Depression as background in this film, from the woman that faints on the bus, and at the end the train car goes by with hobos waving.
At the first auto camp, that tracking shot when “Ellen ‘Ellie’ Andrews” walks through to get to the showers. It’s the setting of the movie. The spoiled heiress who doesn’t want to eat her steak that it starts with.
>> AP: What deplorable conduct.
People are starving and she’s throwing a tray with the steak over.
That was criminal.
>> LW: How were these movies received at the time?
This is still a beloved genre.
How did it land with audiences at the time?
>> AP: 1930s audiences flocked to Screwball Comedies because the escapist themes gave them a respite from the suffering and deprivation of their lives.
These farcical situations and laughs. Look at all the laughs we got today.
To have a little joy, a little laughter.
Audiences of the 1930s, like today’s audiences, were fascinated with the wealthy.
Screwball Comedy satirizes the rich.
They got to see how the rich live, but also watch them get knocked down a peg or two.
And that felt good.
>> LW: That’s my favorite genre.
Succession, triangle of sadness, that’s evergreen.
How do you differentiate it from Romantic Comedy?
What are the main differences?
>> AP: They are different, and often confused.
Romantic Comedy is a traditional love story.
Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again.
The characters are earnest, sincere. The plots involve melodrama and sentiment, with no employment of irony.
I think the confusion comes in because Screwball Comedy and Romantic Comedy share similar elements.
Both genres involve relational conflicts. Both have witty dialogue, and a happy ending.
That’s what’s led to confusion with audiences, and film scholars.
>> LW: Talk to me about the quintessential Screwball Comedy heroine.
How do you describe her?
How was she received?
This is why I love the genre. It’s focused on these intense women, in pants, talking loudly.
>> AP: The Screwball heroine was groundbreaking.
She drove the plot of the story. That was unheard of.
Always the women were on the sidelines.
They were the prize to be won after the man went and had his sword fights and killed the gladiator.
She was passive.
Her side of the story was, “I’m thrilled you’ve selected me”. Screwball Comedy is different.
The woman drives the plot.
The Screwball heroine is self-determined.
She rebels against convention.
She overturns normal courtship rules.
She takes the romantic love story and flips it on its head.
>> LW: What about the men of the genre?
Is there an overarching theme?
>> AP: We saw it with today’s film.
The man in a Screwball is an “anti”-hero.
He exhibits different qualities.
He doesn’t dominate the woman.
Unusual in film.
He has anti-heroic attributes.
They’re different through the spectrum of the movies.
Today’s film, for instance, “Peter Warne” is making breakfast.
“Peter” is having the clothes pressed.
“Peter” is taking care of the beds, setting them up.
“Peter” is the sex object.
Who does the striptease in this film?
It’s not “Ellie”.
It’s “Peter”, the man.
That was different.
>> LW: How do you think Clark Gable felt about that?
>> AP: I don’t know.
The film was well received, a box office hit, and a critical hit.
He won an Academy Award.
I think it’s one of his best roles, along with “Gone With the Wind” (1939).
He’s not playing a hero.
He’s playing someone who’s vulnerable, who’s accessible.
Look at his character.
He’s fired from his job. He’s unemployed. He has no status. He’s broke. He’s got a big mouth. He makes a fool of himself.
Those qualities, as portrayed by Clark Gable, make him relatable and likable. You’re rooting for him.
It’s unfortunate Clark Gable chose not to explore that.
He felt comfortable in traditional territory.
>> LW: He’s terrific in it.
And the chemistry between them is amazing.
Let’s talk about Frank Capra.
>> AP: He’s one of the titans in the Screwball genre in Hollywood’s Golden Age. He won multiple Academy Awards.
He made many Screwball Comedies in his career. It was a genre he felt comfortable with.
What makes Frank Capra unique in his Screwball Comedies is he brought out motifs that other directors did not.
He celebrated the “common” man.
He worked in the concept that people are basically good. And the concept of synergy. Two people united into one are stronger, and do more, than when they are single.
His films are distinctive because of these motifs, “Capra-esque”, denoting films with these motifs.
>> LW: Robert Riskin was his writer.
>> AP: Robert Riskin was his longtime writing partner.
They made nine movies together.
They had a fantastic working relationship.
As I researched Frank Capra and Robert Riskin, I concluded these motifs coined Capra-esque, are more aligned with Robert Riskin’s sensibilities.
>> LW: They say filmmaking is a collaborative effort.
I was blown away watching the cinematography.
When Claudette Colbert is in the hay and there’s a dust rising, I got goosebumps.
The rain on the windows in the motel.
>> AP: Joseph Walker, cinematographer, made 145 films. He was prolific.
And he invented 20 camera-related patents.
He had a difficult assignment in this film because most of the scenes are filmed at night.
Nighttime cinematography is difficult to achieve. Didn’t he handle this assignment with aplomb?
It is moody and atmospheric. As you mentioned, the rain, the shadows.
Their figures on the beds, and they’re talking. It is evocative and romantic.
When they’re walking along the lake, the cinematography is breathtaking.
I think it captures Americana, his cinematography.
I look at this film and see an Edward Hopper painting.
He did an incredible job with it.
Even if you aren’t into Screwball Comedy, to see the visuals of this film and let it wash over you, is worthwhile.
>> LW: Anything else about the film you’d like to share?
>> AP: The Screwball heroine, Claudette Colbert, was unusual.
She has unique characteristics from other Screwball heroines.
She was a gifted comedienne.
She was elegant, sophisticated.
She is perfect in this role.
What she is not is a physical comedienne.
Every other Screwball heroine is physical.
Her characters are more observers.🎥
Film Society of Screwball Comedy®
Edited by Aliece Pickett
Copyright 2025