In the early 1930s, an Italian immigrant living in California who was working in the still-young motion picture industry discovered that his engineering background gave him a leg up in basic technical knowledge of how to incorporate sound and pictures together. A product of the early studio system, he directed nine films in the first three years of the decade until he produced his first piece of work that showed he was more than an assembly line filmmaker. As film incorporated sound in the early 30s, it could also for the first time contain dialogue. Certainly characters “spoke” in the silent era in that they could move their mouths and a title card could bring in what they said, but the sharp and quick back-and-forth that defined, say, the comedy of Oscar Wilde on the stage was physically impossible on the screen. Deftly using sound and understanding that it could introduce wordplay and verbal comic timing allowed this man to create a new kind of film, dubbed the “screwball” comedy, a film so critically and commercially successful that it was the first film ever to win all five of the “big five” Academy of Motion Picture Awards in a single year. In 1934, Robert Riskin won best screenplay, Claudette Colbert won best actress, Clark Gable won best actor, and Frank Capra won best director for their work on 1934’s best picture
41: Hudsucker DNA Part 1: Capra
41: Hudsucker DNA Part 1: Capra
41: Hudsucker DNA Part 1: Capra
In the early 1930s, an Italian immigrant living in California who was working in the still-young motion picture industry discovered that his engineering background gave him a leg up in basic technical knowledge of how to incorporate sound and pictures together. A product of the early studio system, he directed nine films in the first three years of the decade until he produced his first piece of work that showed he was more than an assembly line filmmaker. As film incorporated sound in the early 30s, it could also for the first time contain dialogue. Certainly characters “spoke” in the silent era in that they could move their mouths and a title card could bring in what they said, but the sharp and quick back-and-forth that defined, say, the comedy of Oscar Wilde on the stage was physically impossible on the screen. Deftly using sound and understanding that it could introduce wordplay and verbal comic timing allowed this man to create a new kind of film, dubbed the “screwball” comedy, a film so critically and commercially successful that it was the first film ever to win all five of the “big five” Academy of Motion Picture Awards in a single year. In 1934, Robert Riskin won best screenplay, Claudette Colbert won best actress, Clark Gable won best actor, and Frank Capra won best director for their work on 1934’s best picture