Forties film funnymen
Subtitle: the decade's great comedians at work in the shadow of war
By: Wes D. Gehring ; foreword by Anthony Slide
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Jefferson, N.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
ISBN-13: 9780786442577
Description: "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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Charlie Chaplin: The great dictator (1940); title: W. C. Fields: The bank dick (1940); title: Abbott & Costello: Buck privates (1941); title: Jack Benny: To be or not to be (1942); title: Eddie Bracken: The miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944); title: Bob Hope & Bing Crosby: The road to utopia (1946); title: Danny Kaye: The kid from Brooklyn (1946); title: The Marx Brothers: A night in Casablanca (1946); title: Harold Lloyd: The sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) (a.k.a. Mad Wednesday); title: Bob Hope: My favorite brunette (1947); title: Charlie Chaplin: Monsieur Verdoux (1947); title: Red Skelton: A southern Yankee (1948); title: Epilogue.