When I first began researching the Hollywood comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, Dance, Girl, Dance had an unusually high status among feminist film scholars. The battle of the sexes was inherently interesting for feminist critics, and there was a natural desire to find films that would present powerful, self-fashioning women and challenge the patriarchalContinue reading “Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)”
Category Archives: Lucille Ball
Best Foot Forward (1943)
Lucille Ball was ill-served by her studios — first RKO and then MGM –, by history, and probably by her own misplaced ambition to be a topline star. Apparently no one detected, or desired to detect, the slapstick dexterity and hysterical demeanor that would make her the greatest American television comedienne of the post-World WarContinue reading “Best Foot Forward (1943)”
DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)
DuBarry Was a Lady was adapted from a successful Broadway musical by Cole Porter. Like most of Porter’s Broadway productions, it was a racy affair. (Apparently, there was a Madame DuBarry rage at the time. Marie Antoinette’s court rival has receded into the historical background since then.) Like most Hollywood adaptations of Porter’s shows, theContinue reading “DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)”
Stage Door (1937)
Stage Door is one of the most revered movies in the high canon of classic Hollywood comedies, deservedly. Probably the most utopian, non-heterosexist story produced by Hollywood by that time. Read as queer, it works. Read as women’s friendship and solidarity, it works, too. As critique of the whole infrastructure of romantic comedy, also works.Continue reading “Stage Door (1937)”
That’s Right, You’re Wrong (1939)
It was hard to get a solid hold of That’s Right You’re Wrong. I mean that literally — I had to get it from the U of Washington’s project of digitizing classic films directly from 16mm onto 3-DVD sets. It’s the first of many Kay Kyser films I didn’t know a thing about. I didContinue reading “That’s Right, You’re Wrong (1939)”