Icons of Screwball Comedy, Volume 1 (2-DVD)

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Format:  DVD  (2 Discs)
item number:  WJ77
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DVD Details

  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Rated: Not Rated
  • Closed captioning available
  • Run Time: 5 hours, 36 minutes
  • Video: Black & White
  • Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
  • Released: August 4, 2009
  • Originally Released: 1935
  • Label: Sony Pictures

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring , , , , , , &
Performer: , , , , , , &
Directed by , &

Entertainment Reviews:

[Including] 1936's once-censored THEODORA GOES WILD, with Irene Dunne as a proto-Carrie Bradshaw single-girl author....Breezy, boozy fun. -- Grade: B+
Entertainment Weekly
Aug 14, 2009

Product Description:

This collection presents four vintage screwball comedies from the golden age of cinema. In IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK (1935), an unmarried couple (Herbert Marshall and Jean Arthur) poses as husband and wife to get housekeeping jobs with a rich gangster (Leo Carillo). In TOO MANY HUSBANDS (1940), a long-missing man (Fred MacMurray) returns home to find his wife (Jean Arthur) married to his best friend (Melvyn Douglas). In MY SISTER EILEEN (1942), two small-town sisters (Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair) move to Manhattan in search of fame and fortune. And in SHE WOULDN’T SAY YES (1945), a no-nonsense psychiatrist (Rosalind Russell) finds herself falling for a charming cartoonist (Lee Bowman).

Product Description:

The Screwball Comedy was virtually invented at Columbia Studios, during the height of the depression. Following the huge success of Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934). Columbia would make more of these madcap romantic comedies than any other studio. Typical "Screwballs" features marital mix-ups and plenty of opportunities to poke fun at the wealthy, while allowing audiences to dwell in the luxury of the upper-class. These films also offered some of the best roles for actresses in this period, such as working-girls in a man's world (Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday), or socially liberal gals battling restrictive upper-crust society (Katharine Hepburn in Holiday). A breezy approach to male and female roles was a hallmark of the Screwball Comedy. For this collection, the studio digs deep into its vaults for four classics of the genre.
Jean Arthur stars as a down-on-her-luck cook who charms a millionaire (Herbert Marshall) into playing along as her husband so they can get work in IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK, then as a girl who finds herself legally-wedded to two men (Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas) in TOO MANY HUSBANDS. Another screen legend, Rosalind Russell, shines as the "other" sister who's pretty, young sister (Janet Blair) brings a host of eccentrics through their Greenwich Village apartment in the original film version of MY SISTER EILEEN. Russell then battles her patient's (Lee Bowman) impulses while suppressing her own as a button-down psychiatrist in SHE WOULDN'T SAY YES.

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Five Stars for If You Could Only Cook! Movie Lover: from BEEVILLE, TX US -- September, 4, 2013

The main movie I wanted with this collection is If You Could Only Cook! I must say, I was completely delighted by the movie. It is what every Herbert Marshall movie should be -- tender, charming, funny, and sophisticated.


Product Info

  • Sales Rank: 128,830
  • UPC: 043396293892
  • Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
  • International Shipping: 2 items

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