Apr 28, 2023
For our Paramount 1943 episode, just a couple of typical comedies, as far as John Douglas Eames is concerned: Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story, starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea, a comedy of remarriage in which the screwballs are no longer the central couple, and Mitchell Leisen's cross-class comedy with a number of twists, No Time For Love, with Colbert and Fred MacMurray. We try to figure out what these movies, coming at the end of the screwball comedy cycle, have to say about love, sex, class, wealth, and gender in America in the early 1940s. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment we discuss Merian C. Cooper's relentlessly vicious King Kong (1933) as a kind of unconsciously Verhoevian nightmare “family film”.
Time Codes:
0h 00m 45s: THE PALM BEACH STORY [dir. Preston Sturges]
0h 41m 21s: NO TIME FOR LOVE [dir. Mitchell Leisen]
1h 07m 23s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: King Kong (1933) by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack
Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story Paramount Story John Douglas Eames
Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler
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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s
* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)
* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.
* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!
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