Collections/June 2023

Screwball Comedy Classics

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. Bringing together favorites by masters of the genre such as Howard Hawks ( Bringing Up Baby ) and George Cukor ( Adam’s Rib ), ripe-for-discovery gems ( Fifth Avenue Girl , The Mad Miss Manton ), and a brilliant 1970s update to the formula ( What’s Up, Doc? ), this selection runs riot with the sparkling wit, virtuoso performances, and sense of unstoppable fun that make screwball such a blast.

10 films — 2 on the Channel, 8 unavailable