Another Fine Mess A History of American Film Comedy

by Austerlitz, Saul

• ISBN13: 9781556529511
• ISBN10: 1556529511
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-01
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Summary

From City LightstoKnocked Up, this history examines American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother, the comedy, and puts the comic titans of the present in the context of their predecessors. The 30 chapters and 100 essays follow the connections that link Mae West to Marilyn Monroe and W. C. Fields to Will Ferrell. Offering unvarnished insight into comedians and directors such as Buster Keaton, Christopher Guest, Eddie Murphy, and Ben Stiller, this eye-opening, entertaining, and enlightening tour encompasses the masterpieces, the box-office smashes, and all the little-known gems in between. Laurel and Hardy, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Sellers, Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, and the Coen Brothers are among others profiled, while a list of the top-100 American film comedies is also included. Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton. The Marx Brothers. Billy Wilder. Woody Allen. The Coen brothers. Where would the American film be without them? Yet the cinematic genre these artists represent--comedy--has perennially received short shrift from critics, film buffs, and the Academy Awards. Saul Austerlitz'sAnother Fine Messis an attempt to right that wrong. Running the gamut of film history fromCity LightstoKnocked Up,Another Fine Messretells the story of American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother--the comedy. In 30 long chapters and 100 shorter entries, each devoted primarily to a single performer or director,Another Fine Mess retraces the steps of the American comedy film, filling in the gaps and following the connections that link Mae West to Doris Day, or W. C. Fields to Will Ferrell. The first book of its kind in more than a generation,Another Fine Messis an eye-opening, entertaining, and enlightening tour of the American comedy, encompassing the masterpieces, the box-office smashes, and all the little-known gems in between.

Author Biography

Saul Austerlitz is a writer living in New York City. His work has been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Slate, the Boston Globe, and other publications. He is the author of Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
The Most Famous Man on Earth	p. 1
The Camera Man	p. 15
The Striver	p. 27
Straight Man and Little Boy	p. 39
The Marx Brothers: Brothers of Anarchy	p. 51
The Juggler	p. 63
ôIt's All Been Done Before, but Not the Way I Do Itö	p. 75
The Touch	p. 87
The Cockeyed Caravan	p. 101
The Picture of Archie Leach	p. 115
Spencer's Rib	p. 127
ôNobody's Perfect!ö	p. 139
Funny Blonde	p. 151
Battle of the Sexless	p. 163
They're Crazy About Him in France	p. 175
The Man behind the Masks	p. 189
Stardom, Revised	p. 203
Overlapping Dialogue	p. 215
The 2000-Year-Old Parodist	p. 229
Hope and Bergman	p. 241
Rebel Without a Pause	p. 255
The Return of Sully Sullivan	p. 269
The Jerk and the Genius	p. 281
Incredible Shrinking Comic	p. 293
Just the Usual Comic Inspiration-Frustration, Loss, and Death	p. 307
The Coen Brothers: Oddball America	p. 319
The Baron of the Mockumentary	p. 333
Good Jewish Boys	p. 345
ôA Pretty Nice Little Saturdayö	p. 357
Peter Pans and Frat Brothers	p. 369
Short Entries	p. 381
Abbott	p. 381
Wes Anderson	p. 382
Jennifer Aniston	p. 383
Roscoe ôFattyö Arbuckle	p. 384
Jean Arthur	p. 385
Fred Astaire	p. 386
Lauren Bacall	p. 387
Anne Bancroft	p. 388
Drew Barrymore	p. 388
Noah Baumbach	p. 389
Ralph Bellamy	p. 390
John Belushi	p. 391
Humphrey Bogart	p. 392
Bugs Bunny	p. 393
Frank Capra	p. 394
Jim Carrey	p. 395
Chevy Chase	p. 396
Cheech	p. 397
Maurice Chevalier	p. 398
Claudette Colbert	p. 399
Gary Cooper	p. 399
Bill Cosby	p. 400
Billy Crystal	p. 401
George Cukor	p. 402
Cameron Diaz	p. 403
Marlene Dietrich	p. 404
Stanley Donen	p. 405
Margaret Dumont	p. 406
Blake Edwards	p. 407
Nora Ephron	p. 407
Bobby	p. 408
Tina Fey	p. 409
Whoopi Goldberg	p. 410
Elliott Gould	p. 411
Jean Harlow	p. 412
Howard Hawks	p. 412
Ben Hecht	p. 413
Amy Heckerling	p. 414
Audrey Hepburn	p. 416
Alfred Hitchcock	p. 417
Judy Holliday	p. 418
Bob Hope	p. 419
Edward Everett Horton	p. 420
John Hughes	p. 420
Jim Jarmusch	p. 422
Chuck Jones	p. 422
Garson Kanin	p. 423
Charlie Kaufman	p. 424
Diane Keaton	p. 425
Stanley Kubrick	p. 426
Harry Langdon	p. 427
Spike Lee	p. 428
Mitchell Leisen	p. 429
Jack Lemmon	p. 430
Richard Linklater	p. 431
Carole Lombard	p. 432
Myrna Loy	p. 433
Shirley MacLaine	p. 433
Jayne Mansfield	p. 434
Dean Martin	p. 435
Elaine May	p. 436
Leo McCarey	p. 437
Joel McCrea	p. 438
Lome Michaels	p. 439
Mike Myers	p. 440
Mike Nichols	p. 441
Jack Nicholson	p. 442
Alexander Payne	p. 443
Tyler Perry	p. 444
Pixar	p. 445
Harold Ramis	p. 446
Tony Randall	p. 447
Samson Raphaelson	p. 447
Carl Reiner	p. 448
Rob Reiner	p. 449
Hal Roach	p. 450
Julia Roberts	p. 451
Will Rogers	p. 452
Paul Rudd	p. 452
David O. Russell	p. 453
Rosalind Russell	p. 454
Winona Ryder	p. 455
Morrie Ryskind	p. 456
Adam Sandler	p. 457
Mack Sennett	p. 458
Neil Simon	p. 459
Kevin Smith	p. 459
Steven Soderbergh	p. 460
Barbara Stanwyck	p. 461
James Stewart	p. 462
Whit Stillman	p. 463
Meryl Streep	p. 464
Barbra Streisand	p. 465
Quentin Tarantino	p. 466
Frank Tashlin	p. 466
The Three Stooges	p. 467
Vince Vaughn	p. 468
John Waters	p. 469
Keenen Ivory Wayans	p. 470
John Wayne	p. 471
Gene Wilder	p. 472
Robin Williams	p. 472
Renée Zellweger	p. 474
Jerry Zucker	p. 474
Top 100 American Comedies	p. 477
Bibliography	p. 481
Index	p. 485
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