Collections/December 2022

Screwball Comedy Classics

Featuring an introduction by comedian and actor Patton Oswalt First comes love, then comes anarchy—at least that’s how it works in the wild, upside-down world of classic screwball. Like a romcom on speed, the screwball comedy supercharges the genre with fizzy battle-of-the-sexes mayhem; fast-talking, diamond-cut dialogue; and a perfectly calibrated combination of escapist elegance and slapstick chaos. The result is golden-age Hollywood at its most exuberantly inventive and playfully subversive, flipping social, class, and gender norms on their head with gleeful, lunatic abandon. This holiday haul of favorites by masters of the genre such as Frank Capra ( It Happened One Night ), Howard Hawks ( His Girl Friday ), and Preston Sturges ( The Lady Eve ) as well as ripe-for-discovery gems ( Theodora Goes Wild , Love Is News ) runs riot with the sparkling wit, virtuoso performances, and sense of unstoppable fun that make screwball such a blast.

25 films — 4 on the Channel, 21 unavailable