Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The most up-to-date study of the Hollywood romantic comedy film, from the development of sound to the twenty-first century, this book examines the history and conventions of the genre and surveys the controversies arising from the critical responses to these films. Provides a detailed interpretation of important romantic comedy films from as early as 1932 to movies made in the twenty-first century Presents a full analysis of the range of romantic comedy conventions, including dramatic conflicts, characters, plots, settings, and the function of humor Develops a survey of romantic comedy movies and builds a canon of key films from Hollywood's classical era right up to the present day Chapters work as discrete studies as well as within the larger context of the book

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 History, Cycles and Society
• 2 Thinking Seriously about Laughter and Romance
• 3 What is the Trouble in Paradise?: Trouble in Paradise (1932)
• 4 Jailbreak: His Girl Friday (1940)
• 5 The Home Front Romantic Comedy and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
• 6 Anatomy Lesson: Adam's Rib (1949)
• 7 Riding Sidesaddle in Some Like It Hot (1959)
• 8 Counter Conventions and Cultural Change in The Graduate (1967)
• 9 The Trials of Partnership in Annie Hall (1977)
• 10 Friendship, Sex and Courtship in When Harry Met Sally (1989)
• 11 Parody and the Grotesque in There?s Something About Mary (1998)
• 12 Women?s Ambivalence in Waitress (2007)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Placing romantic comedies in social, historical, and cultural contexts usually means studying the screwball comedies of the 1930s. Grindon (Middlebury) extends his investigation into the history, conventions, and controversies (the last a unique consideration) of Hollywood romantic comedy, from its edenic origins in Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932) to its grotesque fall in the Farrelly brothers' hilariously vulgar There's Something about Mary (1998). Throughout, the author teases out both obvious and subtle generic aspects of romance in comic situations. Surveying the paradigmatic plot, primary characters, animating conflicts, comic techniques (e.g., masquerades), and audience responses, Grindon takes the reader on a merry tour of the genre. He provides historical backdrops of period cycles, insightful reflections on the nature and functions of laughter and romance and on the potential for dormant political expressions, and close textual readings of ten stellar works, among them George Cukor's Adam's Rib (1949) and Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977). In contrast to the dull screen shots, Grindon's ideas sparkle with clarity and intelligence, though they did not make this reviewer laugh (perhaps because the incisive dissection of humor remains a solemn operation). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. T. Lindvall Virginia Wesleyan College