Laughing in the Dark: Movie Comedy from Groucho to Woody - Hardcover

Sennett, Ted

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031206280X ISBN 13: 9780312062804

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1992

Synopsis

Surveys the history of cinematic comedy from the 1930s to the present, discussing the various comedic styles, romantic entanglements, and classic sketches of such masters of the genre as W.C. Fields, Mae West, and Mel Brooks

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Sennett ( Hollywood's Golden Year, 1939) moves breezily from one film to another, summarizing plots and, for the most part, avoiding movie history not directly related to screen action. His style frequently grates, as when he writes about Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday : "From first minute to last, the lines snap, crackle, and pop like so many Rice Krispies, only twice as delicious and ten times funnier."p.78 Sennett often states the stupefyingly obvious: " Dr. Strangelove is a film made by iconoclasts who have little regard for--or faith in--our military, political, or social institutions."p.222 Appropriately, most of the photographs are movie stills; a handful are in color. Although Sennett makes some interesting points, overall his movie criticism is nostalgic rather than historical and analytic.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 031206280X
• ISBN 13: 9780312062804
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 341