This unusual film study begins with a survey of American print humorists from eras leading up to and overlapping the advent of film--including some who worked both on the page and on the screen, like Will Rogers, Groucho Marx and W.C. Fields. Six comic film genres are indentified as outgrowths of a national tradition of cracker barrel philosophers and country store raconteurs--personality comedy, populism, parody, screwball comedy, romantic comedy and dark comedy. Tracing a rambling lineage from Ben Franklin to Mark Twain to Bob Hope to Steve Martin, the author presents a genealogy of glib antiheroes blowing raspberries at the world.
Recenzijas
Gehring remains supreme in film comedy scholarshipChoice Just about anything with film historian and media writer Wes D. Gehrings name on it will be of quality.Cinema Retro Wes Gehrings Core Comedic Film Genres is a tour de force. Ranging in depth over the subcategories of a mainstream genre, Gehring brings a wealth of research and detailed analysis to this outstanding and model discussion of the varied contexts and formal characteristics of film comedy. The volume includes a most welcome and original survey of the links between print and screen humor. It will appeal to general film-loving readers as well as to scholars and specialists dedicated to film comedy.Peter William Evans, emeritus professor of film studies, Queen Mary University of London
Table of Contents
Foreword by Ashley M. Donnelly
Preface and Acknowledgments
Prologue: Core Comic Film Genres and Print Humor Ties
deleteOne. An American Print Humor Survey Prior to American Film Comedy
deleteTwo. Personality Comedian
Three. Crackerbarrel Populism
Four. Parody
deleteFive. Screwball Comedy (American Farce)
delete Six. Romantic Comedy
Seven. Dark Comedy
Epilogue: Exit Laughing
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
Wes D. Gehring is a distinguished professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, for which he also writes the column Reel World. He is the author of 40 film books, including biographies of James Dean, Carole Lombard, Steve McQueen, Robert Wise, Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin.
