Research Catalog

Title

Forties film funnymen : the decade's great comedians at work in the shadow of war / Wes D. Gehring ; foreword by Anthony Slide.

Author

Gehring, Wes D.

Publication

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

vii, 226 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"The twelve comedy films examined are distinguished by an equal number of defining comic performances. Each film focuses on the central theme of "clown comedy": Resilience, the encouragement or hope that one can survive the most daunting of life's dilemmas. Each film can be regarded as a microcosm of the antiheroic world of its central clown (or clowns)"--Provided by publisher.

Subject

• Comedy films > United States > History and criticism
• Motion pictures > United States > History > 20th century

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Charlie Chaplin: The great dictator (1940) -- W. C. Fields: The bank dick (1940) -- Abbott & Costello: Buck privates (1941) -- Jack Benny: To be or not to be (1942) -- Eddie Bracken: The miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) -- Bob Hope & Bing Crosby: The road to utopia (1946) -- Danny Kaye: The kid from Brooklyn (1946) -- The Marx Brothers: A night in Casablanca (1946) -- Harold Lloyd: The sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) (a.k.a. Mad Wednesday) -- Bob Hope: My favorite brunette (1947) -- Charlie Chaplin: Monsieur Verdoux (1947) -- Red Skelton: A southern Yankee (1948) -- Epilogue.

ISBN

• 9780786442577 (softcover : alk. paper)
• 0786442573 (softcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2010016074

OCLC

496959896

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library