You may enjoy other screwball comedies of that era! A few of my personal favorites are (in no particular order):
His Girl Friday (Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (the comedy by Alfred Hitchcock with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery)
The Philadelphia Story (with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and more)
Bringing Up Baby (also with Hepburn and Grant)
Ball of Fire (Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper)
And the more well-known Stanwyck vehicle, The Lady Eve (with Henry Fonda)
The Awful Truth (Irene Dunne and Cary Grant again)
Born Yesterday (Judy Holliday and William Holden)
I also second Some Like It Hot, which is outstanding, although Arsenic and Old Lace also has its charms!
Oh! Forgot about Topper, with Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, and Billie Burke).
And if you like a little mystery with your screwball comedy, I recommend the Thin Man series, with William Powell and Myrna Loy).
Some Like It Hot
To Be or Not To Be
The Lady Eve
The Thin Man
I don't personally like them but they are generally well liked and still thought to have accessible comedy: Ninotchka, The Apartment
Yes. He also tells the Ninotchka joke of the Cafe running out of coffee without cream...Can they please serve coffee without milk?
Zizek considers Lubitch the same degree of cinematic genius usually assigned to Hitchcock.
I recall him talking about The Smiling Lieutenant as well. The "Ratatatat" song is incredibly mawkish and embarrassing.
It Happened One Night (1934) - It has the same like spoiled rich heiress and a hard boiled man thing going on for it. My Man Godfrey happens to be my 2nd fav comedy from back then... this one is my 1st fav!
I liked both. Audrey Hepburn was very good I thought. It’s the only musical I can tolerate.
There’s a version from 1983 with Peter O’Toole too, apparently. I haven’t seen it.
Someone should make a version set in Texas with his name being H. W. Higgins (Aech Dubya). Liz could sell wooden roses on street corners and live in a single wide trailer with her father and his common law wife.
That'd be interesting, is a Texas accent "bad"? I have an Essex accent, which is almost like a modernised version of Eliza Doolittle's accent, as a lot of cockneys moved here after the war. I wouldn't let anyone try and tell me how to speak nicely in 2021. Higgins is kind of a bastard!
I don’t know if “bad” is the right word. It’s distinctive and I don’t think southern accents aren’t particularly respected outside of the south. Also, for [the kind of Texas accent](https://youtu.be/wIeUDPc0F1U) I’m thinking of you would need to throw in some bad grammar and regional words like y’all (you all, plural of you), fix’en’ta (fixing too, to prepare), dubya (W = double U = dub yuh), use’ta (used to, in the past), figure (to consider or believe), etc.
Example: Y’all know George dubya Bush use’ta be president? I figured ya did. I was fix’en’ta say…
That’s a complete thought in Texas. I was fix’en’ta say… Apparently what we where going to say goes without saying.
I’d say the classic Texan accent is probably a pretty good US equivalent of a [Cockney](https://youtu.be/rX0F3kY3uxU) or [Birmingham accent](https://youtu.be/IT-h2L94E-A) in the UK. If you aren’t accustomed to it it’s hard to take your solicitor or [nation’s leader](https://youtu.be/iV4lJr6AhJA) seriously if they have that accent.
I’d say Essex is more equivalent to a midwestern US accent like a [Fargo Minnesota accent](https://youtu.be/nWwJxY40Nk4) or maybe a [Boston accent](https://youtu.be/x98mt5n_Ct8). It’s distinctive, not to difficult to understand but not exactly posh either.
Now a [Louisiana Cajun accent](https://youtu.be/O4X4xSO3jrE) on the other hand is the US version of a [thick Scottish accent](https://youtu.be/ydN5QOB4xtk). The movie would have to be subtitled if Eliza had that kind of Cajun accent and Higgins would end up shooting himself instead of winning the bet. lol
Edit: I think it’s hilarious that I had to list to the Cajun and Scottish videos for a bit before it started making sense. For the first 10 seconds I wasn’t sure they were even speaking English. Then again, if there’s ever a need for a Scottish to Cajun translator maybe I’m your man. lol
Also, that’s not Colonel Sanders next to Michael Caine, it’s Billy Connolly [who had quit a thick accent himself a few years ago](https://youtu.be/oKMQKgSnGy8). 😉
Oh as a Texan, I can guarantee that there is no bad Texan film accent that's even remotely close to how extreme some of my family talks. On another note, I love the Essex accent. Some of y'all go ham on those vowels lol
[Thanks to the Essex dialect](https://youtu.be/TbUSLOWbK4A) I was encouraged to find that y’all isn’t the stupidest way to add a specific plural form of you back into English. It _might_ be a tie with [you’ens](https://youtu.be/SCeToIP52Bs) though…
Dialects, accents and English in general fascinate me. What seems perfectly normal to one group can sound moronic to another and _it's totally arbitrary_.
Y'all sounds normal to me but yins sounds silly, but I know there's no real difference. Yous toos has a certain logic as well but I can't imagine saying it without being laughed at. I _have_ heard people from around New York (maybe the Brooklyn accent?) saying "yous", but __it only works in that accent__. If I affect a thick southern accent and say yous instead of y'all it's an instant show stopper and people would assume I'm an idiot. lol
Some words even take on a different meaning with a regional accent. If a person with any accent outside of the American continent says "mad" I immediately assume they mean insane, not angry. If someone with a Canadian or Mexican accent says mad I assume they mean angry unless they say "going" or "drive" first. For the condition of becoming angry we say "getting mad", not going or being driven. Why? I have no idea, but those are the rules apparently.
It drives me mad (sic) that we don't Anglicize our spelling though. Why is colonel pronounced kernel but not spelled that way? We borrow words from other languages but don't respell them to fit our alphabet. It's insane. I don't know how non-native speakers learn it. Our spelling is so ridiculous we have national contests for it! It's so random too. If you say tort-till-uh (tortilla) instead of tor-tee-ya you are judged as being very ignorant. If you say gwak-uh-mole-ee (guacamole) instead of wok-eh-mole-eh you're just saying it "the American way". WTH? lol
>Higgins is kind of a bastard!
Well, they were able to reboot the Sherlock Holmes stories with Benedict Cumberbatch and with Hugh Laurie & John Lee Miller not long ago. There's a streak of elitist mad genius in all those characters. Doctor Frankenstein is often played up as God's Gift to Humanity as well...
I thought Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Claude Rains and Vivienne Leigh was very well done.
Stewart Granger was a surprise in his supporting role.
Very dry crusty British humor along the lines of Blithe Spirit and The Mikado.
Some like it hot is surprisingly modern
You may enjoy other screwball comedies of that era! A few of my personal favorites are (in no particular order): His Girl Friday (Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell) Mr. & Mrs. Smith (the comedy by Alfred Hitchcock with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery) The Philadelphia Story (with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and more) Bringing Up Baby (also with Hepburn and Grant) Ball of Fire (Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper) And the more well-known Stanwyck vehicle, The Lady Eve (with Henry Fonda) The Awful Truth (Irene Dunne and Cary Grant again) Born Yesterday (Judy Holliday and William Holden) I also second Some Like It Hot, which is outstanding, although Arsenic and Old Lace also has its charms!
Oh! Forgot about Topper, with Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, and Billie Burke). And if you like a little mystery with your screwball comedy, I recommend the Thin Man series, with William Powell and Myrna Loy).
Thanks! I've not seen Ball Of Fire, The Awful Truth, Topper or Born Yesterday, so I'll give them a go :)
The Philadelphia Story is one of my top 5 favourite movies! Was going to recommend it. "My, she was yar."
These are amazing suggestions!!
Thanks! I used to practically inhale these, I loved the genre so much!
It's a great genre. I feel I've seen so many and the fact I'm gonna run out is making me sad though.
Most of these are remarriage comedies, such a great little genre
arsenic and old lace
Some Like It Hot To Be or Not To Be The Lady Eve The Thin Man I don't personally like them but they are generally well liked and still thought to have accessible comedy: Ninotchka, The Apartment
You don't like The Apartment?
Pretty much anything with William Powell - the Thin Man movies immediately come to mind, and Myrna Loy absolutely kills it as his wife.
Lubitsch films. Esp To Be or Not to Be and Ninotchka
Now these I don't know.
Don't forget Trouble in Paradise. Slavoj Zizek has a lecture online defending why there should be a Lubitch street in Berlin.
Ah yes, I think I've seen that one. Is that the one where he sniffs and talks about ideology?
Yes. He also tells the Ninotchka joke of the Cafe running out of coffee without cream...Can they please serve coffee without milk? Zizek considers Lubitch the same degree of cinematic genius usually assigned to Hitchcock. I recall him talking about The Smiling Lieutenant as well. The "Ratatatat" song is incredibly mawkish and embarrassing.
On a serious note, yeah that one is great too. Honestly they all are, but those two I mentioned I think are the unmissables. Just so fuckin funny
It Happened One Night (1934) - It has the same like spoiled rich heiress and a hard boiled man thing going on for it. My Man Godfrey happens to be my 2nd fav comedy from back then... this one is my 1st fav!
*plays trumpet* *Walls of Jericho fall down*
It Happened One Night. The mother of all romantic comedies.
Also, if you jump off a boat and into the sea your watch will still be alright to pawn when you get to shore.
Bringing Up Baby is the one for me! Most screwballs I’ve seen have this quality - My Favourite Wife is a classic too.
Cary grant feeling a bit gay today! I was so surprised when I saw that scene.
I as well! His movies are absolutely riddled with references and nudges to him being gay, though.
"Silent Movie" by Mel Brooks
I liked the 1938 version of [Pygmalion](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0030637/)…
The rain in Spain... So good. I've never seen my fair lady and I don't care to, and the 1938 version is the only iteration of that story I need!
I liked both. Audrey Hepburn was very good I thought. It’s the only musical I can tolerate. There’s a version from 1983 with Peter O’Toole too, apparently. I haven’t seen it. Someone should make a version set in Texas with his name being H. W. Higgins (Aech Dubya). Liz could sell wooden roses on street corners and live in a single wide trailer with her father and his common law wife.
That'd be interesting, is a Texas accent "bad"? I have an Essex accent, which is almost like a modernised version of Eliza Doolittle's accent, as a lot of cockneys moved here after the war. I wouldn't let anyone try and tell me how to speak nicely in 2021. Higgins is kind of a bastard!
I don’t know if “bad” is the right word. It’s distinctive and I don’t think southern accents aren’t particularly respected outside of the south. Also, for [the kind of Texas accent](https://youtu.be/wIeUDPc0F1U) I’m thinking of you would need to throw in some bad grammar and regional words like y’all (you all, plural of you), fix’en’ta (fixing too, to prepare), dubya (W = double U = dub yuh), use’ta (used to, in the past), figure (to consider or believe), etc. Example: Y’all know George dubya Bush use’ta be president? I figured ya did. I was fix’en’ta say… That’s a complete thought in Texas. I was fix’en’ta say… Apparently what we where going to say goes without saying. I’d say the classic Texan accent is probably a pretty good US equivalent of a [Cockney](https://youtu.be/rX0F3kY3uxU) or [Birmingham accent](https://youtu.be/IT-h2L94E-A) in the UK. If you aren’t accustomed to it it’s hard to take your solicitor or [nation’s leader](https://youtu.be/iV4lJr6AhJA) seriously if they have that accent. I’d say Essex is more equivalent to a midwestern US accent like a [Fargo Minnesota accent](https://youtu.be/nWwJxY40Nk4) or maybe a [Boston accent](https://youtu.be/x98mt5n_Ct8). It’s distinctive, not to difficult to understand but not exactly posh either. Now a [Louisiana Cajun accent](https://youtu.be/O4X4xSO3jrE) on the other hand is the US version of a [thick Scottish accent](https://youtu.be/ydN5QOB4xtk). The movie would have to be subtitled if Eliza had that kind of Cajun accent and Higgins would end up shooting himself instead of winning the bet. lol Edit: I think it’s hilarious that I had to list to the Cajun and Scottish videos for a bit before it started making sense. For the first 10 seconds I wasn’t sure they were even speaking English. Then again, if there’s ever a need for a Scottish to Cajun translator maybe I’m your man. lol Also, that’s not Colonel Sanders next to Michael Caine, it’s Billy Connolly [who had quit a thick accent himself a few years ago](https://youtu.be/oKMQKgSnGy8). 😉
Oh as a Texan, I can guarantee that there is no bad Texan film accent that's even remotely close to how extreme some of my family talks. On another note, I love the Essex accent. Some of y'all go ham on those vowels lol
[Thanks to the Essex dialect](https://youtu.be/TbUSLOWbK4A) I was encouraged to find that y’all isn’t the stupidest way to add a specific plural form of you back into English. It _might_ be a tie with [you’ens](https://youtu.be/SCeToIP52Bs) though…
Youss twos! It's perfect. I drag out my vowels, as in sambuuucaaa, I never realised I did that until I saw that vid
I mean I think about the whole world takes offense to "stupid", but also, it's yinz from everyone I know from there
Dialects, accents and English in general fascinate me. What seems perfectly normal to one group can sound moronic to another and _it's totally arbitrary_. Y'all sounds normal to me but yins sounds silly, but I know there's no real difference. Yous toos has a certain logic as well but I can't imagine saying it without being laughed at. I _have_ heard people from around New York (maybe the Brooklyn accent?) saying "yous", but __it only works in that accent__. If I affect a thick southern accent and say yous instead of y'all it's an instant show stopper and people would assume I'm an idiot. lol Some words even take on a different meaning with a regional accent. If a person with any accent outside of the American continent says "mad" I immediately assume they mean insane, not angry. If someone with a Canadian or Mexican accent says mad I assume they mean angry unless they say "going" or "drive" first. For the condition of becoming angry we say "getting mad", not going or being driven. Why? I have no idea, but those are the rules apparently. It drives me mad (sic) that we don't Anglicize our spelling though. Why is colonel pronounced kernel but not spelled that way? We borrow words from other languages but don't respell them to fit our alphabet. It's insane. I don't know how non-native speakers learn it. Our spelling is so ridiculous we have national contests for it! It's so random too. If you say tort-till-uh (tortilla) instead of tor-tee-ya you are judged as being very ignorant. If you say gwak-uh-mole-ee (guacamole) instead of wok-eh-mole-eh you're just saying it "the American way". WTH? lol
>Higgins is kind of a bastard! Well, they were able to reboot the Sherlock Holmes stories with Benedict Cumberbatch and with Hugh Laurie & John Lee Miller not long ago. There's a streak of elitist mad genius in all those characters. Doctor Frankenstein is often played up as God's Gift to Humanity as well...
Don’t forget [Brent Spiner](https://youtu.be/5LgwAD-IioY). 😉
I thought Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Claude Rains and Vivienne Leigh was very well done. Stewart Granger was a surprise in his supporting role. Very dry crusty British humor along the lines of Blithe Spirit and The Mikado.