Scewball comedies
(Screw-ball [skrue’bol] Noun, Slang, meaning unbalanced, erratic, irrational, unconventional), became a popular slang word in the 1930s. It was applied to films where everything was a juxtaposition: educated and uneducated, rich and poor, intelligent and stupid, honest and dishonest, and most of all male and female. When two people fell in love, they did not simply surrender to their feelings, they battled it out. They lied to one another, often assuming indifferent personas toward each other. They often employed hideous tricks on each other, until finally after running out of inventions, fall into each others arms. It was fossilized comedy, physical and often painful, but mixed with the highest level of wit and sophistication, depending wholly on elegant and inventive writing. Even the supporting cast was always of first-rate. Character actors playing eccentric types as well as a stable of familiar faces in leading roles (Cary Grant, William Powell, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn) [x].
Happy Birthday, Harlean Harlow Carpenter | March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937
Jean Harlow fooling around in a garden and later, with her acting coach, 1931
Happy Birthday Elizabeth Taylor!(27 February 1932 - 23 March 2011)
Here’s a girl on the big screen - bigger than life - idolized in thousands upon thousands of dark theatres all over the world by men and women,some who want to emulate her, some who lover her, a fantasy, a dream. But she is also so vulnerable that she could easily be hurt. Vulnerability is a counterpart of humility, and Elizabeth really was a humble person. That’s one of the things that made her such a great star One could ask, well, who could hurt Elizabeth Taylor? She has wealth, she’s affluent, she has men, she’s a power, a turret, a fortress. But she wasn’t, and the audience knew it. It came out of the screen, this vulnerability, and the audience reached out her and wanted to protect her. That was Elizabeth.
Richard Brooks
Happy Birthday to Clara Lou Sheridan aka ANN SHERIDAN!!!
(February 21st, 1915 - January 21st, 1967)
“Without ever quite acheiving the mythic status of a super-star, she was always a pleasure to watch, and, as with all true stars, was never quite like anyone else.”
- London Times, 1967 upon Ann’s death.
Happy Birthday James Dean!(8 February 1931 - 30 September 1955)
I couldn’t remember ever having seen a young man with such power, so many facets of expression, so much sheer invention as this actor.
Hedda Hopper
To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication. Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have. Being a good actor isn’t easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I’m done.
Happy Birthday, James Byron Dean! (Feb. 8, 1931 - Sept. 30, 1955)
