Gregory La Cava was an ingenious, supremely gifted director of comedies. He was universally respected and admired, but like his peer Leo McCarey, he has never been accorded auteur status because he didn’t have the power (and probably the desire) to write his own screenplays like Preston Sturges, or to choose scripts that could beContinue reading “She Married Her Boss (1935)”
Category Archives: Claudette Colbert
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Preston Sturges was the only true comic genius of classic Hollywood comedy. He was the most artistically ambitious comic director of his time. He wanted to do everything better than anyone else around him. He wanted to be the best screenwriter, the best director, the best synthesizer of comic styles — not just of filmContinue reading “The Palm Beach Story (1942)”
Midnight (1939)
Midnight is one of a couple dozen films of the period that I have a hard time writing about. It’s in the top tier of my personal canon and one of the reasons I began this blogging project. It’s almost perfect in my eyes, synthesizing everything that was good about Hollywood comedies of the interwarContinue reading “Midnight (1939)”