Misplaced Pages

#528471

32-488: Slightly Dangerous is a 1943 American romantic comedy film starring Lana Turner and Robert Young . The screenplay concerns a bored young woman in a dead-end job who runs away to New York City and ends up impersonating the long-lost daughter of a millionaire. The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Charles Lederer and George Oppenheimer from a story by Aileen Hamilton. According to Turner Classic Movies film historian Robert Osborne , one sequence early in

64-486: A comedy of manners (usually a scandal) is secondary to the social commentary thematically presented through the witty dialogue of the characters, e.g. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), by Oscar Wilde , which satirises the sexual hypocrisies of Victorian morality . The comedy-of-manners genre originated in the New Comedy period (325–260 BC) of Classical Greece (510–323 BC), and is known from fragments of works by

96-506: A genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a greatly sophisticated, artificial society. The satire of fashion, manners, and outlook on life of the social classes, is realised with stock characters , such as the braggart soldier of Ancient Greek comedy , and the fop and the rake of English Restoration comedy . The clever plot of

128-465: A new look and an freak accident gets her in the paper as a amnesia victim, just because she does not want to be Peggy Evans any more. The paper thinks she may be an heiress so she searches for a few clues from back issues of the paper and finds that Carol Burden was never found. Cornelius Burden, however, has sent dozens of frauds to jail already and she must trick him and Baba to keep out of jail. Next, she must stop her old manager, Bob Stuart, from spilling

160-799: A sense of awkwardness between the two potential partners by depicting an initial clash of personalities or beliefs, an embarrassing situation, or by introducing a comical misunderstanding or mistaken identity situation. Sometimes, the term is used without a hyphen (a "meet cute"), or as a verb ("to meet cute"). Roger Ebert describes the "concept of a Meet Cute" as "when boy meets girl in a cute way." As an example, he cites "The Meet Cute in Lost and Found [which] has Jackson and Segal running their cars into each other in Switzerland. Once recovered, they Meet Cute again when they run into each other while on skis. Eventually, they fall in love." In many romantic comedies,

192-531: Is closer to tragicomedy ." It was not until the development of the literary tradition of romantic love in the western European medieval period, though, that "romance" came to refer to "romantic love" situations. They were previously referred to as the heroic adventures of medieval Romance . Those adventures traditionally focused on a knight's feats on behalf of a lady, so the modern themes of love were quickly woven into them, as in Chrétien de Troyes 's Lancelot,

224-514: The film ends on a happy note . Even though it is implied that they live happily ever after, it does not always state what that happy ending will be. The couple does not necessarily get married for it to be a "happily ever after". The conclusion of a romantic comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in the protagonists' lives, even if they physically separate in the end (e.g., Shakespeare in Love , Roman Holiday ). Most of

256-522: The Day , Barbara Pym 's Excellent Women , Douglas Carter Beane 's As Bees in Honey Drown , The Country Club , and The Little Dog Laughed . In Boston Marriage (1999), David Mamet chronicles a sexual relationship between two women, one of whom has her eye on yet another young woman (who never appears, but who is the target of a seduction scheme). Periodically, the two women make their serving woman

288-548: The Knight of the Cart . The contemporary romantic comedy genre was shaped by 18th-century Restoration comedy and 19th-century romantic melodrama . Restoration comedies were typically comedies of manners that relied on knowledge of the complex social rules of high society, particularly related to navigating the marriage-market, an inherent feature of the plot in many of these plays, such as William Wycherley 's The Country Wife . While

320-657: The beans about her. According to MGM records the film earned $ 1,579,000 in the US and Canada and $ 672,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $ 4,776,000. Romantic comedy The basic plot of a romantic comedy is that two characters meet , part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately, realize their love for one another and reunite. Sometimes the two leads meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe they do not like each other. This could be because one of

352-706: The butt of haughty jokes, serving to point up the satire on class. Though displaying the verbal dexterity one associates with both the playwright and the genre, the patina of wit occasionally erupts into shocking crudity. Comedies of manners have been a staple of British film and television. The Carry On films are a direct descendant of the comedy of manners style, and elements of the style can be found in The Beatles ' films A Hard Day's Night and Help! . Television series by David Croft in collaboration with Jimmy Perry ( Dad's Army ) and with Jeremy Lloyd ( Are You Being Served? ) might also be considered examples of

SECTION 10

#1732884762529

384-471: The characters already has a partner or because of social pressures. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are attracted to each other and that they would be a good love match. The characters often split or seek time apart in order to sort out their emotions or deal with external obstacles to being together, which they eventually overcome. While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them usually realizes that they love

416-584: The comedy of manners reappeared in the plays of the British dramatists Noël Coward ( Hay Fever , 1925) and Somerset Maugham . Other early twentieth-century examples of comedies of manners include George Bernard Shaw 's 1913 play Pygmalion (later adapted into the musical My Fair Lady ), E. M. Forster 's A Room with a View , and the Jeeves and Wooster stories of P. G. Wodehouse . The term comedy of menace , which British drama critic Irving Wardle based on

448-708: The decades. We can see this through the screwball comedy in response to the censorship of the Hays Code in the 1920s–1930s, the career woman comedy (such as George Stevens' Woman of the Year , starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy ) post-WWII, and the sex comedy made popular by Rock Hudson and Doris Day in the 1950s–1960s. Over the years, romantic comedies have slowly been becoming more popular to both men and women. They have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory, and to explore more complex topics. These films still follow

480-460: The fact that these films are still romantic comedies. One of the conventions of romantic comedy films is the entertainment factor in a contrived encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances, which film critics such as Roger Ebert or the Associated Press's Christy Lemire have called a " meet-cute " situation. During a "meet-cute", scriptwriters often create

512-425: The film – in which Lana Turner's character does her job at the soda fountain while blindfolded – was actually directed by an uncredited Buster Keaton . Peggy is 21 and bored. She has just been awarded a certificate for starting work on time for 1000 days. She decides that she needs a change so she leaves a note, which is taken to be suicidal, and heads for New York where she gets a make over. A new outfit,

544-453: The first comedy of manners In England , but the genre really flourished during the Restoration period. Restoration comedy , which was influenced by Ben Jonson 's comedy of humours , made fun of affected wit and acquired follies of the time. The masterpieces of the genre were the plays of William Wycherley ( The Country Wife , 1675) and William Congreve ( The Way of the World , 1700). In

576-436: The follies and misunderstandings of young lovers, in a light‐hearted and happily concluded manner which usually avoids serious satire". This reference states that the "best‐known examples are Shakespeare's comedies of the late 1590s, A Midsummer Night's Dream , Twelfth Night , and As You Like It being the most purely romantic, while Much Ado About Nothing approaches the comedy of manners and The Merchant of Venice

608-720: The gender role that society has imposed upon them, as seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall , in which the male protagonist is especially in touch with his emotions. It can also be seen in Made of Honor , in which the female bridesmaids are shown in a negative and somewhat masculine light in order to advance the likability of the male lead. Other remakes of romantic comedies involve similar elements, but they explore more adult themes such as marriage, responsibility, or even disability. Two films by Judd Apatow , This Is 40 and Knocked Up , deal with these issues. This Is 40 chronicles

640-522: The genre. Television series such as George and Mildred , Absolutely Fabulous , The Young Ones , and The League of Gentlemen also contain many elements of the genre. Though less common as a genre in American television, series such as Frasier , King of the Hill , Ugly Betty , Soap , and The Nanny are also comedies of manners. Larry David 's Curb Your Enthusiasm has also been described as

672-466: The hypocrisies and pretensions of the ancien régime that ruled France from the late 15th century to the 18th century. The comedy of manners has been employed by Roman satirists since as early as the first century BC. Horace 's Satire 1.9 is a prominent example, in which the persona is unable to express his wish for his companion to leave, but instead subtly implies so through wit. William Shakespeare 's Much Ado about Nothing might be considered

SECTION 20

#1732884762529

704-520: The late 18th century Oliver Goldsmith ( She Stoops to Conquer , 1773) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan ( The Rivals , 1775; The School for Scandal , 1777) revived the form. The tradition of elaborate, artificial plotting, and epigrammatic dialogue was carried on by the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In the 20th century,

736-557: The melodramas of the Romantic period had little to do with comedy, they were hybrids incorporating elements of domestic and sentimental tragedies, pantomime "with an emphasis on gesture, on the body, and the thrill of the chase," and other genres of expression such as songs and folk tales. In the 20th century, as Hollywood grew, the romantic comedy in America mirrored other aspects of society in its rapid changes, developing many sub-genres through

768-429: The mid-life crisis of a couple entering their 40s, and Knocked Up addresses unintended pregnancy and the ensuing assuming of responsibility. Silver Linings Playbook deals with mental illness and the courage to start a new relationship. All of these go against the stereotype of what romantic comedy has become as a genre. Yet, the genre of romantic comedy is simply a structure, and all of these elements do not negate

800-436: The other person. Then, one character makes some extravagant effort (sometimes called a grand gesture ) to find the other character and declare their love. However, this is not always the case; sometimes, there is a coincidental encounter where the two characters meet again. Alternatively, one character plans a romantic gesture to show that they still care. Then, with some comic friction, they declare their love for each other, and

832-524: The other zombies and even starts to cure them. With the zombie cure, the two main characters can now be together since they do not have a barrier between them anymore. Another strange set of circumstances is in Zack and Miri Make a Porno where the two protagonists are building a relationship while trying to make a pornographic film together. Both these films take the typical story arc and then add strange circumstances to add originality. Other romantic comedies flip

864-478: The playwright Menander , whose style of writing, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by Roman playwrights , such as Plautus and Terence , whose comedies were known to and staged during the Renaissance . In the 17th century, the comedy of manners is best realised in the plays of Molière , such as The School for Wives (1662), The Imposter (1664), and The Misanthrope (1666), which satirise

896-430: The potential couple comprises polar opposites, two people of different temperaments, situations, social statuses, or all three ( It Happened One Night ), who would not meet or talk under normal circumstances, and the meet cute's contrived situation provides the opportunity for these two people to meet. Comedy of manners In English literature, the term comedy of manners (also anti-sentimental comedy ) describes

928-469: The standard conventions of the romantic comedy genre. In films like 500 Days of Summer , the two main interests do not end up together, leaving the protagonist somewhat distraught. Other films, like Adam, have the two main interests end up separated but still content and pursuing other goals and love interests. Some romantic comedies use reversal of gender roles to add comedic effect. These films contain characters who possess qualities that diverge from

960-407: The subtitle of The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace (1958), by David Campton , is a jocular play-on-words derived from the "comedy of manners" ( menace being manners pronounced with a somewhat Judeo-English accent). Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming has been described as a mid-twentieth-century "comedy of manners". Other more recent examples include Kazuo Ishiguro 's The Remains of

992-401: The time the ending gives the audience a sense that if it is true love, it will always prevail, no matter what the two characters have to overcome. Comedies, rooted in the fertility rites and satyr plays of ancient Greece , have often incorporated sexual or social elements. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines romantic comedy as "a general term for comedies that deal mainly with

Slightly Dangerous - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-462: The typical plot of "a light and humorous movie, play, etc., whose central plot is a happy love story" but with more complexity. Some romantic comedies have adopted special circumstances for the main characters, as in Warm Bodies where the protagonist is a zombie who falls in love with a human girl after eating her boyfriend. The effect of their love towards each other is that it starts spreading to

#528471