Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged, and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.
The year 1941 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Citizen Kane.
The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney films Pinocchio and Fantasia.
The following is an overview of 1936 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Elizabeth Ruth Grable was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model and singer.
César Julio Romero Jr. was an American actor and activist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and the Joker on the live action Batman television series of the mid-1960s, which was included in TV Guide's 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time. He was the first actor to play the character.
Berkeley William Enos, known professionally as Busby Berkeley, was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances.
Carole Landis was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C. from United Artists. She was known as "The Ping Girl" and "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy, Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart.
Ali Baba Goes to Town is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by David Butler and starring Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, and Roland Young. Cantor plays a hobo named Aloysius "Al" Babson, who walks into the camp of a movie company that is making the Arabian Nights. He falls asleep and dreams he is in Baghdad as an advisor to the Sultan (Young). He organizes work programs, taxes the rich, and abolishes the army, in a spoof of Roosevelt's New Deal. This film was the second of three in which Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero appeared together, second was Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and The Little Princess (1939).
Wintertime is a 1943 Twentieth Century-Fox musical film directed by John Brahm and starring Sonja Henie and Cesar Romero. It also features Woody Herman and His Orchestra.
Moon Over Miami is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Walter Lang with Betty Grable and Don Ameche in leading roles and co-starring Robert Cummings, Carole Landis, Jack Haley and Charlotte Greenwood. It was adapted from the play by Stephen Powys. This was previously adapted into a 1938 film titled Three Blind Mice directed by William A. Seiter and starring Loretta Young, Joel McCrea and David Niven.
I Wake Up Screaming is a 1941 American mystery thriller film noir. directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature and Carole Landis, and features one of Grable's few dramatic roles. It is based on the novel of the same name by Steve Fisher, adapted by Dwight Taylor. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Springtime in the Rockies is an American Technicolor musical comedy film released by Twentieth Century Fox in 1942. It stars Betty Grable, with support from John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Cesar Romero, Charlotte Greenwood, and Edward Everett Horton. Also appearing were Grable's future husband Harry James and his band. The director was Irving Cummings. The screenplay was based on the short story "Second Honeymoon" by Philip Wylie.
Coney Island is a 1943 American Technicolor musical film released by Twentieth Century Fox and starring Betty Grable in one of her biggest hits. A "gay nineties" musical, it also featured George Montgomery, Cesar Romero, and Phil Silvers, was choreographed by Hermes Pan, and was directed by Walter Lang. Betty Grable also starred in the 1950 remake, Wabash Avenue.
Diamond Jim is a 1935 biographical film based on the published biography Diamond Jim Brady by Parker Morell. It follows the life of legendary entrepreneur James Buchanan Brady, including his romance with entertainer Lillian Russell, and stars Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Cesar Romero and Binnie Barnes.
Charles Halton was an American character actor who appeared in over 180 films.
Week-End in Havana is a 1941 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang and starring Alice Faye, John Payne and Carmen Miranda. The film was produced and distributed by Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox. It was the second of three pictures the two stars made together and the second Faye film to have a Latin American theme, typical of Fox musicals of the early 1940s. Faye was pregnant during filming. It is also known by the alternative titles A Week-End in Havana and That Week-End in Havana.
Love Before Breakfast is a 1936 American romantic comedy film starring Carole Lombard, Preston Foster, and Cesar Romero, based on Faith Baldwin's short story Spinster Dinner, published in International-Cosmopolitan in July 1934. The film was directed by Walter Lang from a screenplay by Herbert Fields assisted by numerous contract writers, including Preston Sturges.
A Gentleman at Heart is a 1942 romantic comedy film starring Cesar Romero, Carole Landis, and Milton Berle. A bookie acquires an interest in an art gallery.
