THE AWFUL TRUTH: A screwball comedy reimagined as a comedy of remarriage. |
“Leo McCarey, Screwball and Beyond” | Harvard Film Archive | June 8-16 “SILENT COMEDY SHORTS” | June 8 at 3 pm
THE AWFUL TRUTH | June 8 at 7 pm
THE MILKY WAY | June 8 at 9 pm
GOING MY WAY | June 9 at 7 pm
RALLY ’ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS! | June 9 at 9:30 pm
LOVE AFFAIR | June 13 at 7 pm
INDISCREET | June 13 at 9 pm
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER | June 14 at 7 pm
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW | June 14 at 9:15 pm
THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S | June 15 at 3 pm
RUGGLES OF RED GAP | June 15 at 7 pm
MY SON JOHN | June 15 at 9 pm
DUCK SOUP | June 16 at 7 pm
ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON | June 16 at 8:30 pm |
Among the signal directors of 1930s comedies — one thinks of Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, and George Cukor — Leo McCarey’s name has been largely forgotten. Yet he was responsible for three of the greatest comedies of the Depression era: Duck Soup (the most sublime of the Marx Brothers movies), Ruggles of Red Gap, and The Awful Truth. He was an odd duck, though, as fond of melodrama as he was of romantic comedy and farce. The retrospective hosted by the Harvard Film Archive beginning this Sunday, “Leo McCarey, Screwball and Beyond,” is long overdue.McCarey was brought up in the Hal Roach school of silent comedy, which means that by the time he made his first talkie, INDISCREET (which the HFA will screen a rare print of), he’d learned how to work quickly and economically, he’d perfected a kind of visual shorthand, and he’d developed a light, sure touch with actors. The series begins with a program of his comic shorts — three late silents starring Laurel and Hardy (including one of their most famous two-reelers, “Big Business”) and one with Charley Chase called “Dog Shy.” “Dog Shy,” the earliest of the quartet, was released in 1926, and it was the 40th short McCarey directed, so he was a veteran long before 1929, when he began to make features. His physical work with Chase and with Stan and Ollie bears fruit in sequences like the astonishingly poetic (and uproarious) human-mirror bit in DUCK SOUP, where Groucho encounters Chico and Harpo dressed up to look like him, or the classic scenes in THE AWFUL TRUTH involving Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, and an expressive wire-haired terrier known as Mr. Smith — played by the same canny canine performer who kept showing up as Asta in the Thin Man pictures. (In “Dog Shy,” Chase is continually being bested by a frisky dog; their charming interchanges are a warm-up for the Mr. Smith episodes.)
Related:
Game faces, Mineral cinema, Tinkling symbols, More 
- Game faces
There’s something awe-inspiring about watching an ensemble in which everyone is performing at the top of his or her game.
- Mineral cinema
Luc Moullet is one of the pioneers of cinema.
- Tinkling symbols
That Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has become a worldwide phenomenon attests to the worldwide yearning for a better truth than the one we have.
- Doing the nasty
Ryan Landry swears that if there’s a more lavish musical extravaganza in town than his Cleopatra the Musical (at Machine through May 27), he’ll eat his negligee.
- The taste of sanctimony
Both the Maine Animal Coalition’s recent Vegetarian Food Festival and Mike White’s new film Year of the Dog explore the idea that the confinement and killing of animals is the great moral shame of our time.
- Crossword: ''And the last shall be first''
Or pretty close, anyway.
- Crossword: 'Rounders'
7 Down: Studio whose early stars included Fred Astaire and Katharine Hepburn.
- Sooner or later?
While interviewing Paul Greengrass, I was determined not to ask the question that has dogged United 93 like a tag line: “Is it too soon?” It didn’t matter; within five minutes he would ask it himself.
- Flashbacks: May 19, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Chris Brook and Ian Sands.
- Snakes on a Plane
I don’t know who had more fun at this Frankenfilm’s first showing: a fellow critic (who was frequently stomping his feet), the audience (who were frequently on their feet), or myself (my feet planted firmly in my mouth for ever doubting this film would fly). Watch the trailer for Snakes on a Plane (QuickTime)
- Little Miss Sunshine
Like little kids spouting dirty words in certain comedies, this film from first-time directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris undermines the subversive with the self-conscious. Watch the trailer for Little Miss Sunshine (QuickTime)
- Less
Topics:
Features
, Entertainment, Movies, Movie Reviews, More
, Entertainment, Movies, Movie Reviews, The Marx Brothers, Frank Capra, Movie Comedies, Charles Laughton, George Cukor, Bing Crosby, Deborah Kerr, Less
