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Ed Sikov
Columbia University Press

Laughing Hysterically: American Screen Comedy of the 1950s

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AuthorEd Sikov
PublisherColumbia University Press
PublishedMar 18 2003
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139780231079839
Dimensions8.94 X 5.94 X 0.68 inches
Weight 0.98 pounds
BISAC
CategoriesPerforming Arts > Film - History & Criticism
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

With the likes of Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Frank Tashlin revelling in monkeys, babies, beautiful blondes, money, and cruelty in their signature films of the 1950s, this seemingly conformist period turns out to be one of the most dynamic and original eras in Hollywood history. What distinguishes these directors is their candid and amusing exploration of cultural anxieties in carnival form. Quirky yet complex films such as Monkey Business, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Sunset Boulevard, The Trouble with Harry, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? released and expressed the sexual repression and frustration we commonly associate with the decade. In clear and elegant prose, Sikov argues that these comedies are examples of popular cinema's uncanny capacity for cultural criticism. Highlighting Hawks's skewed classicism, Wilder's gallows humor, Hitchcock's subversive morbidity, and Tashlin's shrill CinemaScopic fragmentation, the author discusses the raucous rebelliousness of the films these directors made in an era of widespread conservatism. Through satire and caricature, their films focus on the general anxiety - particularly over homosexuality, female sexuality, rock and roll, and Communism - that lay below the surface of homogeneity, progress, and domesticity in the period. Illustrated with over forty film stills, Laughing Hysterically captures the clout and glamour of such '50s icons as Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, William Holden, and Jerry Lewis by insightful analysis of their influence on and expression of a burgeoning culture of consumption in the movies. The 1950s produced comedies that looked and sounded like nothing had ever looked and sounded before. Laughing Hysterically delights readers with an exploration of this very special group of films, and in the process, accomplishes what all good criticism should do: it makes the reader want to see the movies again from a fresh perspective.

Author Bio

Born in 1957 in Natrona Heights, PA, Ed Sikov is a 1974 graduate of Highlands High School, where he was a maladjusted loner. Escaping from his misery, Ed plunged into more of the same as a disaffected, alienated student at tiny Haverford College, where he majored in English and spent a lot of time by himself.

He graduated in 1979, moved to New York, came out of the closet, got happy, and went to film school. He earned a Ph.D. in film studies in 1986. He is the author of six books, has contributed essays to several gay-themed anthologies, and his work has appeared in such diverse publications as Premiere, Architectural Digest, Film Quarterly, the Village Voice, the Air Force Academy's literary journal, and the Brazilian edition of Cosmopolitan.

Education

1986 Ph.D. in Film, Columbia University
1983 M.Phil., Columbia University
1979 B.A., Haverford College

Source: edsikov.com

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Laughing Hysterically: American Screen Comedy of the 1950s

Performing Arts

Film - History & Criticism

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