Kristine Brunovska Karnick - Classical Hollywood Comedy

AFI Film Readers
a series edited by
Edward Branigan and Charles Wolfe

Psychoanalysis and Cinema
E. Ann Kaplan, editor

Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body
Jane Gaines and Charlotte Herzog, editors

Sound TheorylSound Practice
Rick Altman, editor

Film Theory Goes to the Movies
Jim Collins, Hilary Radner, and Ava Preacher Collins, editors

Theorizing Documentary
Michael Renov, editor

Black American Cinema
Manthia Diawara, editor

Disney Discourse
Eric Smoodin, editor

The American Film Institute
P.O. Box 27999
2021 North Western Avenue
1-0s Angeles, California 90027

Published in 1995 by

Routledge
270 Madison Ave,
New York NY 10016

Published in Great Britain by

Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 201 1

Copyright 1995 American Film Institute

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Photo Credits: Pages 35, 48, 145, 240, 241, and 345 courtesy of Photofest; both photographs on page 204 courtesy of the BFI Stills, Posters and Designs; page 212 courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; pages 296 and 297 courtesy of the Museum of Modem Art/ Film Stills Archive; page 306 courtesy of the George Eastman House.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Classical Hollywood comedy / edited by Kristine Brunovska Karnick and Henry Jenkins.
p. cm.(AFI film readers)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Comedy filmsUnited StatesHistory and criticism.
I. Karnick, Kristine Brunovska,. II. Jenkins, Henry,.
III. Series.
PN1995.9.C55C561994
791.43617dc2094-3859

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data also available.

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

The two editors contributed equally to this books development. The order of the listing of their names on the books cover was determined arbitrarily by the flip of a coin. The sequencing of the names in the introductory essays privileges the primary author responsible for its contents but, in each case, ideas and often sections of the texts were contributed by the coeditor.

The editors wish to acknowledge the tremendous support they have received from the contributors, each of whom has struggled to meet deadlines and to be responsive in their revision of manuscripts, and each of whom has made here a substantial contribution to our understanding of film comedy. We also appreciate their cooperation with some last minute cuts for length. We would also like to express thanks for the support we have received from the American Film Institute and Routledge, especially the wise and tireless editing of Edward Branigan and Charles Wolfe. We appeciate the faith they showed in asking us to edit this volume, and hope that they will continue to be satisfied with the results.

In addition, Henry Jenkins wishes to thank Eve Diana, Peter Donaldson, John Hildebidle, Briony Keith, Wynn Kelly, Alvin Kibel, Marty Marks, Chris Pomiecko, Lynn Spigel, David Thorburn and Edward Baron Turk for their advice and assistance in preparing this manuscript and Jane Shattuc for her sharp editorial suggestions and close readings of many sections of this manuscript. I want to especially thank Cynthia Benson Jenkins for being there each and every time I needed her and for putting up with the fact that I often was not there when she needed me. This book grew from many discussions Kristine Karnick and I had in graduate school, so it is fitting that we have been able to bring it into print together as part of our ongoing conversation about comedy and life. I want to dedicate this book to Lucile Puckett Jenkins, whose passionate laughter was the musical backdrop for my childhood, who shared with me my discovery of the movies, and whose support has been a constant of my adult years.

Kristine Karnick would like to thank Virginia Wright Wexman, Russell Merritt, David Bordwell, Dorothy Webb, Dennis Bingham, K. C. DAlessandro, Alan Reynolds and, of course, Sam Karnick (the best editor in the business) for their invaluable help during various stages in the preparation this manuscript, Katrina Coxe, whose thoughtfulness allowed me to get lots of work done in a very few days, Stuart Schleuse and Melody Johnson for their technical assistance, and Sam, Aleksandr, and Lukas Karnick for their unfaltering patience and understanding. I would especially like to thank Henry Jenkins for his wonderful insights, critical eye, and editorial judgement, which has made a world of difference in my work and in my life. I want to dedicate this book to my mother, Raita Brunovskis and my grandmother Vilhelmine Eglite whose love, guidance and fortitude are responsible for whatever good I do.

Henry Jenkins and Kristine Brunovska Karnick

James Agees autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family , opens with a trip to the movies. In the summer of 1915, a Knoxville boy and his father go to the Majestic in search of a William S. Hart Western and, more importantly, of Charlie Chaplin, that horrid little man as the boys mother calls him. Agees description of the boys delight in the Chaplin film captures a moment too precious to last. Soon Rufuss father will die, and Agee depends upon this powerful image of bonding through laughter to color our experience of what Rufus has lost. The plot of A Death in the Family mirrors Agees critical account of the silent slapstick cinema as comedys greatest era, and of its traumatic decline. Just as Rufuss enjoyment of Chaplins unnamed comedy ends with the fathers death, the noise and chatter of the talkies destroys the critics pleasures in an age of slapstick and pantomime, another moment too precious to last.