29-491: The Midshipmaid is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Jessie Matthews , Frederick Kerr , Basil Sydney and Nigel Bruce . The film is based on the 1931 play of the same title by Ian Hay and Stephen King-Hall . it was released in the U.S. as Midshipmaid Gob . John Mills makes his film debut in a supporting role. It was shot at the Lime Grove Studios , with sets designed by
58-417: A few moments all four simply stop. The scene cuts to the couples walking to the elevator, riding it down, and walking out of the casino hand-in-hand with their original partners. A crowd of men and women of various cultures and races congregate in the casino parking lot, wherein the four main characters exchange long stares with each other and with strangers, reminiscent of the non-verbal communication shown in
87-452: A film's atmosphere, character, and story, and therefore, the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, his taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of film that contains at least a dozen different sub-types. A number of hybrid genres have emerged, such as action comedy and romantic comedy . The first comedy film was L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), directed and produced by film pioneer Louis Lumière . Less than
116-605: A house record. After this film's release, it led to other movies dealing with wife swapping, infidelity, and other types of experimentation with interpersonal relationships inside American society. Mazursky would write and shoot a few more stories set in California, including Alex in Wonderland and Down and Out in Beverly Hills . Vincent Canby of The New York Times panned the film as "unpleasant because it acts superior to
145-478: A mainstream audience. The success of the American television show Saturday Night Live drove decades of cinema with racier content allowed on television drawing on the program's stars and characters, with bigger successes including Wayne's World , Mean Girls , Ghostbusters and Animal House . Parody and joke-based films continue to find audiences. While comedic films are among the most popular with audiences at
174-509: A minute long, it shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most notable comedy actors of the silent film era (1895–1927) were Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton , though they were able to make the transition into “ talkies ” after the 1920s. Film-makers in the 1960s skillfully employed the use of comedy film to make social statements by building their narratives around sensitive cultural, political or social issues. Such films include Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love
203-427: A recent business trip to Miami . An outraged Alice demands that this new ethos be taken to its obvious conclusion: a mate-sharing foursome . Ted is reluctant, explaining that he loves Carol "like a sister", but eventually acknowledges that he finds her attractive. After discussing it, all four remove their clothes and climb into bed together. Swapping partners, Bob and Alice kiss fervently, as do Ted and Carol, but after
232-465: A second encounter with the young woman, instead returning home a day early. When he arrives, he discovers Carol having an affair with her tennis instructor. Although initially outraged, Bob quickly realizes that the encounter was purely physical, like his own affair. He settles down and even chats and drinks with the man. When the two couples travel together to Las Vegas , Bob and Carol reveal Carol's affair to Ted and Alice. Ted then admits to an affair on
261-400: A separate genre, but rather, provides a better understanding of the film. Bob %26 Carol %26 Ted %26 Alice Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is a 1969 American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky , written by Mazursky and Larry Tucker , who also produced the film, and starring Natalie Wood , Robert Culp , Elliott Gould , and Dyan Cannon . The original music score
290-605: A short called Last Year at Malibu and his study of acting alongside observing camerawork from the aforementioned Toklas film and studying editing at the University of Southern California at night as credentials. Frankovich accepted him as director, while Tucker would produce and Frankovich served as executive producer. For the psychotherapist scene, Mazursky cast his own therapist Donald F. Muhich that he had been seeing to act opposite Dyan Cannon . Muhich would appear in three further films with Mazursky as director. The original ending in
319-498: A young production assistant on a film shoot in San Francisco . When he returns home, he admits his liaison to Carol, describing the event as a purely physical act, not an emotional one. To Bob's surprise, Carol is completely accepting of his extramarital behavior. Later, Carol gleefully reveals the affair to Ted and Alice as they are leaving a dinner party. Disturbed by Bob's infidelity and Carol's candor, Alice becomes physically ill on
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#1732872925474348-586: The art director Alfred Junge . In this comedy with musical interludes, pompous economy expert Sir Percy Newbiggin (Fred Kerr) visits the Naval Fleet in Malta to see what cuts can be made in their expenditure. The officers all fall over themselves to woo his beautiful daughter Celia (Jessie Matthews), who accompanies him: she becomes engaged to the son of the First Sea Lord and her father decides to leave economics to
377-440: The 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue . Comedy, compared with other film genres , places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. In The Screenwriters Taxonomy (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon
406-584: The Bomb , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and The Graduate . In America, the sexual revolution drove an appetite for comedies that celebrated and parodied changing social morals, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Fanny Hill . In Britain, a camp sensibility lay behind the successful Carry On films , while in America subversive independent film-maker John Waters made camp films for college audiences with his drag queen friends that eventually found
435-451: The Navy. This article related to a British comedy film of the 1930s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor . These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending , with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of
464-672: The World Needs Now Is Love " and Sarah Vaughan performing " I know that my Redeemer liveth " from Part III of Handel 's Messiah . The soundtrack album was released on the Bell label in 1969. The Vinyl Factory said "in 1969 (a busy year for the man), Jones produced this sparkling score, with its lavish string arrangements and jazzy interludes. ... What sounds like a lot of work went into an unconventional soundtrack for an unconventional movie about sexual experimentation". All compositions by Quincy Jones, except where noted The film
493-708: The box office, there is an 'historical bias against a close and serious consideration of comedy' when it comes to critical reception and conferring of awards, such as at the Academy Awards . Film writer Cailian Savage observes "Comedies have won Oscars, although they’ve usually been comedy-dramas, involved very depressing scenes, or appealed to stone-hearted drama lovers in some other way, such as Shakespeare in Love ." According to Williams' taxonomy , all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) sub-genres. This combination does not create
522-435: The drive home. She and Ted have a difficult time coping with the news in bed that night. However, as time passes, they grow to accept that Bob and Carol really are fine with the affair. Later, Ted admits to Bob that he was tempted to have an affair once, but did not go through with it; Bob tells Ted he should, rationalizing: "You've got the guilt anyway. Don't waste it." During another visit to San Francisco, Bob decides to skip
551-619: The early scene at the retreat. Director Paul Mazursky was inspired by an article he read in Time magazine about Fritz Perls , a "gestalt therapist" that was described as being in a hot tub with naked people at a place called the Esalen Institute (located in the Slates Hot Springs in Big Sur, California ), a place formed in 1962 dealing with New Age therapy. Mazursky went there with his wife as
580-416: The ending being a cop-out in 1970, he stated that "The easiest thing in the world would have been to show those four making it together in that bed. But it became obvious to us that these four people in these circumstances couldn't possibly have done it.” The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones and featured Jackie DeShannon performing Burt Bacharach and Hal David 's " What
609-658: The film critic Pauline Kael praised both the film and director Mazursky, calling it "a slick, whorey movie, and the liveliest American comedy so far this year. Mazursky, directing his first picture, has developed a style from satiric improvisational revue theatre—he and Tucker [co-writer] were part of the Second City troupe—and from TV situation comedy, and, with skill and wit, has made this mixture work—though it looks conventional, it isn't ." John Simon , noted for his vituperative and acidic reviewing style, called Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice 'deplorable'. The film holds
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#1732872925474638-447: The first draft involved the four characters crying in each other's arms after an aborted orgy, complete with pulling themselves together on their way to a Tony Bennett show. Instead, Mazursky went with an ending that sees the characters walk with each other back outside while " What the World Needs Now Is Love " plays in the background, which he called his "Fellini ending", as it resembled the ending to 8½ (1963). Addressing complaints of
667-470: The oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre . Some of the earliest silent films were slapstick comedies , which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during
696-465: The only two people in the group who knew each other. This, alongside further collaboration in Palm Springs with writing partner Larry Tucker, resulted in a final script. Mazursky, having been denied the chance to direct I Love You, Alice B. Toklas , a script he wrote with Tucker, insisted on directing. Producer Mike Frankovich expressed interest. Mazursky insisted on directing, citing his direction of
725-563: The peculiar nature of the moral crisis for Americans in this age group, and understands that the way to consider it is in a comedy." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "a scintillating social comedy and a movie which could turn out to have more to say about you than any flick you'll see this year." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half-stars out of four and called it "the best comedy of
754-459: The people in it, which is no mean feat because Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are conceived as cheerful but humorless boobs, no more equipped to deal with their sexual liberation than Lucy and Desi and Ozzie and Harriet ." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times , however, gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "The genius of 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice' is that it understands
783-452: The year," with acting that was "eminently tender and believable." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post declared it "the sharpest American comedy in several years ... It may be the same old marital war, but the battle lines and the weapons are modern, and this makes all the difference in the world between a comedy that feels 'new' and one that feels second-hand." Writing in The New Yorker
812-629: Was composed by Quincy Jones . The cinematography for the film was by Charles Lang . The film received four Academy Award nominations, including ones for Gould and Cannon. Patricia Welles wrote the paperback novel from Mazursky and Tucker's screenplay. After a weekend of emotional honesty at an Esalen -style retreat, Los Angeles sophisticates Bob and Carol Sanders return home determined to embrace complete openness. They share their enthusiasm and excitement over their new-found philosophy with their more conservative friends Ted and Alice Henderson, who remain doubtful. Soon after, filmmaker Bob has an affair with
841-657: Was the first American film to open the New York Film Festival , opening on September 16, 1969. It opened October 8, 1969 at Cinema I in New York City before the Columbus Day holiday weekend. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice became the signature film of Paul Mazursky and was a critical and commercial success. Mazursky himself called it the film of which he is proudest. It was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1969 . It grossed $ 50,000 in its first week, setting
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