Mark Maynard | screwball comedy

The etymology of “beazel”

By Mark | August 22, 2019

I’d wanted to write last night about Donald Trump’s ever-changing position on mandatory background checks for gun sales, and the pathetic way in which he publicly grovels at the feet of the NRA, but, when I saw that one of my favorite films, Preston Sturges’s delightfully thoughtful 1941 screwball comedy Sullivan’s Travels, was going to […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged 1922, 1939, 1941, 19th Amendment, background checks, barlow, beazel, beezle, biscuit, bitch", censorship, Charlie Chaplin, cross-dressing, crumb-gobbler, crumb-gobblers, Donald Trump, equality, etymology, film history, films, flapper, flapperese, floozie, frail, George Cukor, great films, gun control, gun laws, ho, hobos, Joel McCrea, John L. Sullivan, Little Tramp, Logansport Pharos-Tribune, Mae West, mass shootings, NRA, pettable, pettable crumb-gobblers, petting, Preston Sturges, right to vote, roaring twenties, Robert Greig, Rosalind Russell, slang, suffrage, Sullivan's Travels, The Wicked Waltz and Other Scandalous Dances: Outrage at Couple Dancing in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries, The Women, universal background checks, Veronica Lake, women's rights | 19 Comments

Inherit Mark’s much-loved copy of “To Be or Not to Be”

By Mark | October 29, 2013

A few years ago, I decided to invest in a copy of the 1942 Ernst Lubitsch film “To Be or Not to Be” starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. The brilliantly quirky little black comedy, set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw in the run up to WWII, had long been a favorite of mine, and I’d gotten […]

Posted in Other, Uncategorized | Also tagged 1942, Billy Wilder, black humor, Carole Lombard, Clementine, Ernst Lubitsch, Hitler, Jack Benny, Nazi, political satire, To Be or Not to Be, when to talk with your kids about the Nazis, WWII | 6 Comments

On the movie Stage Door, and buying stuff through my Amazon store

By Mark | July 13, 2011

I bought a movie on a whim through Amazon the other day. I’d never seen it before, but, from what I could tell, it seemed like the kind of thing that I’d like. Among other things, the cast included a number of actresses that I happen to be quite fond of, including Katharine Hepburn, Lucille […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life | Also tagged Adolphe Menjou, Amazon, Andre, Andrea Leeds, Aunt Agatha's, butchering, chicken, Cornelia Bullock, Cross Street Books, e-commerce, Facts of Life, fast talking dames, Film, Footlights Club, Gail Patrick, Ginger Rogers, Gone with the Wind, good design, Katharine Hepburn, lamb, local, movie reviews, Murph, My Man Godfrey, Olivia de Havilland, shameless self-promotion, Stage Door, the future of this site, things that make Mark happy | 10 Comments

Tag Archives: screwball comedy

The etymology of “beazel”

Inherit Mark’s much-loved copy of “To Be or Not to Be”

On the movie Stage Door, and buying stuff through my Amazon store

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