Writing the Comedy Blockbuster. Keith Giglio

Hawks, Frank Capra, Leo McCarey, Ernest Lubitsch, and Preston Sturges.

      The writers were Ben Hecht, Charles McArthur, Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, and Robert Riskin.

      The screwball era continued past the 1930s but it was at its absolute peak when It Happened One Night won the grand slam at the Academy Awards in 1934 by taking home Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and, of course, Best Screenplay.

      THE SCREENING ROOM

      There are a lot of screwball comedies you should watch. I suggest you start with these five:

       It Happened One Night Sullivan’s Travels His Girl Friday* The Philadelphia Story Bringing Up Baby

      *Hollywood has always loved remakes. His Girl Friday had been filmed before. It is based on the play The Front Page. The original story is about two male reporters. Hawks decided to change one of the leads to a woman, and played the whole script with rapid-fire dialogue.

      SIDE NOTE: SO YOU REALLY WANT TO DIRECT?

      Then write some funny scripts and say you want to direct them! It’s that easy, no? Chances are if executives think you’re funny on the page, you might be funny behind the camera. Plus there is a precedent that extends for almost a hundred years.

      Preston Sturges was the pioneer for the comedy writer/director. After working on five features, he sold his screenplay The Great McGinty to Paramount for $1 with the agreement that he would direct it. He not only directed the movie, but he also won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.

      Billy Wilder was the co-writer (with Charles Brackett) on the classic screwball comedies Ninotchka and Ball of Fire & Midnight. He began his illustrious directing career with the movie The Major and the Minor.

      Woody Allen emerged as a writer/director in 1969 with the “mockumentary” (see genres) Take the Money and Run. A few years later, Annie Hall became one of the rare comedies to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

      John Hughes parlayed his success in writing the screenplay for National Lampoon’s Vacation into becoming the king of 1980s teen comedies beginning in 1984 with Sixteen Candles.

      James L. Brooks went from the small screen to the big screen directing the dramatic adaptation of Terms of Endearment (1983), following it up four years later with Broadcast News (1987). Prior to that he had written the romantic comedy Starting Over.

      The Farrelly Brothers had never directed a movie before Dumb and Dumber in 1994. The legend is they were tired of not seeing their material made so they decided to direct it themselves. No one ever asked them if they had directed before.

      In 2005, Judd Apatow scored with The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

      FILM COMEDY IN THE 1940S

      In the 1940s the screwball era was slowing down and audiences became focused on World War II. While Citizen Kane came out in 1941 and would go on to be regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, the box office was dominated by the comedy stylings of vaudeville and radio stars Abbott and Costello in Buck Privates, a comedic take on life in the army. They would go on to star in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer. The horror comedy was born!

      Meanwhile, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were breaking the fourth wall with their “road” movies: Road to Morocco, Road to Utopia, and Road to Rio. Bob Hope would also star on his own in My Favorite Blonde and My Favorite Brunette. Hollywood has always loved sequels.

      The decade nears the end with the battle of the sexes comedy Adam’s Rib (1949) starring Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn.

      THE SCREENING ROOM

       I Married A Witch

       Miracle on 34th Street

       Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

       Adam’s Rib

      1950S: GO BIG

      In the 1950s television found a home in America’s living room. The TV dinner was invented. I Love Lucy ruled the day. Comedy played very well on television. Sid Caesar was just as big. How could he not be? His writing staff was crammed with future comedy screenwriters: Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. To combat the small screen, Hollywood went big. Big, as in Charlton Heston Big. Large event movies like The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, and Giant ruled the box office.

      The decade began with Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride. The Battle of the Sexes continued on the screen with movies like Pat and Mike. Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin starred in many unmemorable movies. Lewis would break up with Martin and come into his own in the 1960s.

      Billy Wilder put Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag in 1959 in Some Like it Hot. Ten years prior, Cary Grant was in drag for I Was A Male War Bride. Grant would continue to be box office gold, appearing in Monkey Business, House Boat, and Operation Petticoat. Rock Hudson would be deemed the next Cary Grant. His comic timing was wonderfully displayed in the Academy Award-winning Pillow Talk. Hmm, a Pillow Talk update with Twitter?

      Remember how I said that comedy is topical — how it’s very in the now? Pillow Talk is a movie about party lines. That is, when you used a phone someone else in your building might be using the same telephone line. They might even listen in on your phone call.

      THE SCREENING ROOM

       Father of the Bride

       Some Like It Hot

       Pillow Talk

      THE SWINGING 1960S

      It was called the “Swinging Sixties” for a reason. As the world went through tumultuous, defining cultural shifts, so did the movies. A generation battled in living rooms across America; the same was happening on the big screen. Studios pumped out Doris Day comedies (Lover Come Back, That Touch of Mink, The Glass Bottom Boat) and large ensemble old-fashioned comedies like It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Great Race. They were old-fashioned. They didn’t really deal with any topical issues. In an era of civil rights, free love, and disenfranchised youth, some comedies became edgier. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a comedy about a young white woman who brings her black boyfriend home to dinner to meet her very white dad. The seminal comedy of the 1960s might be The Graduate (1967) in which young Ben has an affair with Mrs. Robinson and then woos her daughter.

      Jerry Lewis enjoyed box office success as a triple threat writer/star/director with movies like Cinderfella, The Errand Boy, and The Nutty Professor. Underappreciated, Jerry Lewis also invented the video assist so directors could see what was being filmed as it was filmed and he taught filmmaking at University of Southern California film school where, allegedly, George Lucas was one of his students. Maybe this explains Jar-Jar Binks.

      One year later, the ratings system created the R-Rating and thus introduced the world to the R-Rated Comedy. Comedy censorship that had been governed by the Hays Code since 1930 was stripped away.

      THE SCREENING ROOM

       That Touch of Mink

       The Graduate

      1970S: PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

      On television, Saturday Night Live premiered, and tomorrow’s comedy movie stars were born: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain, and Gilda Radner. The pattern of comedy stars emerging from SNL continues to this day, with Tina Fey and Kristin Wiig leading the current generation.

      Another comedy star to emerge from television was Goldie Hawn. Hawn made the jump from Laugh In