For this midterm, I decided to write about two screwball comedy films: The Awful Truth and My Man Godfrey.
The Awful Truth is about a couple that was married and then got divorced because they thought the other was being unfaithful. This movie is about the couple (Jerry and Lucy Warrnier) trying to move on but end up loving each other and getting back together. My Man Godfrey is about a man that was once a butler and then quit his job, lived in the dumps and then became a butler again, while falling in love with his boss’s daughter.These movies are considered a screwball comedies because the characters talk at a fast pace, there is a battle-of-sexes love story, the female protagonist is strong-willed free-spirited and independent, and the situations get increasingly ridiculous throughout the movie. The characters talk fast pace.
In the beginning of the movie of The Awful Truth, you hear Jerry talking to his friends about how he told his wife he went to Florida and he did not have a tan; while he was talking to his friend, he was talking fast.Even though the audience could not hear every word Jerry was saying, they can sense what the character is feeling by his tone of voice. For the Jerry talking about Florida, the audience knows he feels stressful because he talks fast and his tone is obscure. Another time Leo McCarey (the director of The Awful Truth) has the characters talk fast is a little after that scene, the husband “came back from Florida” and comes home with his friends expecting to see his wife. However, when he arrives home his wife is gone.
When his wife does come home, she is not alone, she comes with Armando. After a few seconds with Jerry’s friends being uncomfortable, they left; but Armando stayed even when Jerry made it obvious that he was unwelcomed. Well when Lucy was explaining what took her so long to arrive home and how she ran into Armando, both Lucy and Armando were talking fast almost sounding like something was going on between them. In My Man Godfrey, although the characters do not talk as fast, they still talk relatively fast.In one scene, Godfrey (the butler) is talking to his previous boss while his current boss is listening, and Godfrey is trying to change the topic, although the audience could not hear every word, they get a sense that Godfrey is uncomfortable about the conversation. Another reason The Awful Truth is a screwball comedy is because there is a battle-of-sexes love story.
One great example of this is when Jerry and Lucy are in the divorce court and they are both calling for their dog, Mr. Smith. They are trying to beat the other by the dog wanting to go with them.Another great example is Lucy acting like she does not have feelings for Jerry anymore and has moved on. Across the hall from Lucy is a man named Dan; when Dan first met Lucy he was crazy for her, but Lucy was not into him.
However, when Jerry goes to Lucy’s apartment to play with Mr. Smith, all of a sudden Lucy thinks Dan is an amazing gentleman. She pretends to think this because she wants Jerry to think that she does not care about him anymore, when the audience really knows how she truly feels.In My Man Godfrey, Irene (the boss’s daughter, the one that Godfrey falls in love with) is trying to convince Godfrey that he loves her, so she keeps bothering him and he keeps telling her to leave him alone in a way that would not get him fired. In The Awful Truth, the protagonist (Lucy) is a strong-willed, free-spirited, independent female.
She shows this when she is talking to Dan’s mother and the mother said that she heard another girl talking about Lucy and she said “if I weren’t a lady, I would have slapped her in the face. ” Lucy says in response “well why didn’t you? This shows that Lucy would have slapped the other girl even though she knows it is not a lady-like manner. It shows that she does not care about what other people think; she is independent.In My Man Godfrey, the protagonist (Irene) is also a strong-willed, free-spirited, independent female.
Irene at one point says that she is getting married and the guy does not even know about the engagement; then after that engagement does not work she goes off on vacation and tries to relax; she is then independent and free-spirited. In both films, the situations get increasingly ridiculous.In the beginning of the movie of The Awful Truth, Lucy and Jerry are fighting in court about a dog. After that is settled, and Lucy “moves on” with Dan, Jerry tries to ruin the relationship by doing crazy things and saying things that only a person who loves her would say.
When Jerry overheard Dan’s mother talking to Lucy about the other girl talking bad about Lucy, Dan steps in and tells the mother about how Lucy is a great wife and a great person; but while he does this, he is crossing his fingers behind his back and he makes sure that Lucy sees it.Also, when Dan was reading the poem to Lucy, a poem about how much she means to him, Jerry is behind the door Lucy is holding. Dan decides to take a pencil and tickle Lucy to make Dan think that she is laughing at the poem. By Jerry doing and saying all of this, it makes Lucy think that he does not want her to marry Dan and that he still has feelings for her, which the audience knows that he really does have feelings for her and he does not want her to marry Dan. These actions/sayings make her confused and frustrated about her emotions about Jerry and Dan.And then it gets crazier when Jerry finds another girl, Barbara.
Lucy gets super jealous and tries to ruin Barbara’s and Jerry’s relationship. In one scene, Lucy pretends to be Jerry’s sister and acts like a drunk by saying that she already had a few drinks before she arrived to the party. She also makes Jerry’s family sound bad by saying that their “dad” went to Princeton for 20 years; at one point she forgets where she left her purse and she tells everyone not to leave, thereby implying that she believes one of the guests stole it.The situations keep getting increasingly ridiculous throughout the entire movie. In My Man Godfrey, just about the same thing happens.
In the beginning, Godfrey lives in a dump and gets invited to an upper-class party because he lives in the dump and Irene can win some game. Then Irene hires him and Godfrey finds out that the family is crazy; the family believes in “little people” and having a stranger run around as if he is a monkey trying to cheer Irene. This film gets more and more bizarre and yet more comedic throughout.The Awful Truth and My Man Godfrey are both excellent movies and both are great examples of screwball comedy. They both have examples of the characters talking fast-pace, a battle-of-the-sexes love story, a free-spirited, strong-willed, independent female protagonists, and both have increasingly ridiculous situations. Although most of these characteristics are easily seen in The Awful Truth, when searching in My Man Godfrey they are found.
Both movies were nominated for Oscars and Academy Awards, and both have won National Film Registry. I would recommend both movies to anyone who would want to watch some comedy.
