Physical Comedy on Film

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how physical comedy does not stop at slapstick and considers how the movies of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers could also be defined as physical comedy. Through a review of several of their movies with an emphasis on "Top Hat", it demonstrates how all of their movies, made in the mid-1930s, shortly after sound had been added to films in the previous decade have elements of hilarity which can be attributed to physical comedy.

Outline
Sophisticated, Funny and Physical: The Romances of Astaire and Rogers
Let's Get Physical, Depression-Era Style
The Namesake Dance as Comedy
Feathers and Fred
A Short Compendium of More Fred and Ginger Physical Comedy

From the Paper:

"In the natural comedic way of things, Dale runs into Jerry by chance and they hit it off. But then Jerry sends her flowers billed to Hardwick's room and a bellman points Jerry out to her, so she'll have a name to go with the face of the man she's interested in; he had just called himself "Adam" since she said she didn't know him from Adam in an early line. Unfortunately, in that instant, Horace and Jerry trade places and Dale ends up thinking it is her friend Madge's husband with whom she is falling in love. And, of course, Jerry and Horace know nothing abut this. Neither does Madge at first. When she does hear of it, what she is told is, naturally, also wrong."

More papers on Physical Comedy on Film:

• Essay # 22181 : "Charlie Chaplin"
• Analytical Essay # 131340 : "Theoretical Perspectives on Film"
• Comparison Essay # 109631 : "Frankenstein in Print and on Film"

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