'' Films that are definitive of the genre usually feature farcical situations, a combination of slapstick and fast-paced repartee, and show the struggle between economic classes. They also generally feature a self-confident and often
stubborn central female protagonist and a plot involving courtship, marriage, or
remarriage. These traits can be seen in both
It Happened One Night (1934) and
My Man Godfrey (1936). The film critic
Andrew Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a
sex comedy without the sex." Like farce, screwball comedies often involve masquerades and disguises in which a character or characters resort to secrecy. Sometimes screwball comedies feature male characters
cross-dressing, further contributing to elements of masquerade (
Bringing Up Baby (1938),
Love Crazy (1941),
I Was a Male War Bride (1949), and
Some Like It Hot (1959)). At first, the couple seems mismatched and even hostile to each other, but eventually overcome their differences amusingly or entertainingly, leading to romance. Often, this mismatch comes about when the man is of a lower social class than the woman (
It Happened One Night (1934),
Bringing Up Baby and
Holiday, both 1938). The woman often plans the final romantic union from the outset, and the man is seemingly oblivious to this. In
Bringing Up Baby, the woman tells a third party: "He's the man I'm going to marry. He doesn't know it, but I am." '', Jean (center, played by
Barbara Stanwyck) passes herself off as an upper-class woman. These pictures also offered a cultural escape valve: a safe battleground to explore serious issues such as class under a comedic and non-threatening framework. Class issues are a strong component of screwball comedies: the upper class is represented as idle, pampered, and having difficulty coping with the real world. By contrast, when lower-class people attempt to pass themselves off as upper class or otherwise insinuate themselves into high society, they can do so with relative ease (
The Lady Eve, 1941;
My Man Godfrey, 1936). Some critics believe that the portrayal of the upper class in
It Happened One Night was brought about by the
Great Depression, and the financially struggling moviegoing public's desire to see the upper class taught a lesson in humanity. Another common element of the screwball comedy is fast-talking, witty
repartee, such as in ''
You Can't Take It with You (1938) and His Girl Friday'' (1940). This stylistic device did not originate in the genre: it is also found in many of the old
Hollywood cycles, including
gangster films and traditional romantic comedies. Screwball comedies also tend to contain ridiculous, farcical situations, such as in
Bringing Up Baby, where a couple must take care of a pet leopard during much of the film. Slapstick elements are also frequently present, such as the numerous pratfalls
Henry Fonda takes in
The Lady Eve (1941). One subgenre of screwball is known as the
comedy of remarriage, in which characters divorce and then remarry one another, such as:
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936),
The Awful Truth (1937),
His Girl Friday (1940),
The Philadelphia Story (1940). Some scholars point to this frequent device as evidence of the shift in the American moral code, as it showed freer attitudes toward divorce (though the divorce always turns out to have been a mistake, as seen in
His Girl Friday: "You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part.' Why divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.") Another subgenre of screwball comedy is the woman chasing a man who is oblivious to or uninterested in her. Examples include
Barbara Stanwyck chasing
Henry Fonda (
The Lady Eve, 1941);
Sonja Henie chasing
John Payne (
Sun Valley Serenade, 1941, and
Iceland, 1942);
Marion Davies chasing
Antonio Moreno (
The Cardboard Lover, 1928); Marion Davies chasing
Bing Crosby (
Going Hollywood, 1933); and
Carole Lombard chasing
William Powell (
My Man Godfrey, 1936). The philosopher
Stanley Cavell has noted that many classic screwball comedies turn on an interlude in the state of
Connecticut (
Bringing Up Baby,
The Lady Eve,
The Awful Truth). In
Christmas in Connecticut (1945), the action moves to Connecticut and remains there for the duration of the film.
New York City is also featured in a lot of screwball comedies, which critics have noted may be because of the economic diversity of the city and the ability to contrast different social classes during the Great Depression. The screwball comedies
It Happened One Night (1934) and
The Palm Beach Story (1942) also feature characters traveling to and from
Florida by train. Trains, another staple of screwball comedies and romantic comedies from the era, are also featured prominently in
Design for Living (1934),
Twentieth Century (1934) and
Vivacious Lady (1938). ==Examples from the classic period==