Thursday, March 29, 2012

For my money, nobody ever did screwball comedy like Irene Dunne.

I almost forgot. I wanted to include this in my earlier post … but better late than never! Allow me to recommend yet another hilarious Irene Dunne screwball comedy … this one from 1938 called Joy of Living. It’s the story of a Broadway musical star (Dunne) with a family of noisy, whiny, unemployed leeches (Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee and Lucille Ball) who are draining her bank account and cluttering up her life. Enter Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., as a stalking fan who morphs into her love interest and shows her how to break away from her sponging relatives and enjoy life. Their first night on the town together includes a scene at a roller rink doing “crack the whip” — when they’re both seriously inebriated —that’s probably the funnest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, I almost couldn’t breathe. I might have to buy the DVD so I can watch this scene at least once a week.
That’s probably about all for now because I think I hear a FedEx truck outside.

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