Tragicomedy, Melodrama, and Genre in Early Sound Films: The Case of Two “Sad Clown” Musicals

Authors

  • Michael G. Garber State University of New York, Purchase College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2016.135

Keywords:

Genre theory, Melodrama, Tragicomedy, Comedy, Movie musicals, Hollywood musicals, Musical comedy, Pagliacci, Buster Keaton

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study applies the theatrical theories of stage genres to examples of the early sound cinema, the 1930 Hollywood musicals Puttin’ on the Ritz (starring Harry Richman, and with songs by Irving Berlin) and Free and Easy (starring Buster Keaton). The discussion focuses on the phenomenon of the sad clown as a symbol of tragicomedy. Springing from Rick Altman’s delineation of the “sad clown” sub-subgenre of the show musical subgenre, outlined in The American Film Musical, this article shows that, in these seminal movie musicals, naïve melodrama and “gag” comedy coexist with the tonalities, structures, philosophy, and images of the sophisticated genre of tragicomedy, including by incorporating the grotesque into the mise en scene of their musical production numbers.

Author Biography

Michael G. Garber, State University of New York, Purchase College

Michael G. Garber, PhD, is an interdisciplinary scholar and teacher of the histories of film, theatre, music, dance, and popular culture. He is an adjunct lecturer at the State University of New York, Purchase College (for the Liberal Studies Department) and Westchester Community College (for the Digital Filmmaking Program), who has presented internationally and published widely in the fields of musicology, theatre, cinema, and dance.

References

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Bradley, Edwin M. 1996. The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932. Jefferson: McFarland.

Brooks, Peter. 1976. The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Cook, David A. 1996. A History of Narrative Film, third ed. London: W.W. Norton.

Cope, Jackson I. 1973. The Theater and the Dream: From Metaphor to Form in Renaissance Drama. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Feuer, Jane. 1993. The Hollywood Musical, second edition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Frye, Northrop. 1957. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Guthke, Karl S. 1966. Modern Tragicomedy: An Investigation into the Nature of the Genre. New York: Random House.

Hall, Mordaunt. 1930. “Melody and Beauty,” New York Times Feb. 15, 15.

Hamm, Charles. 1997. Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot – The Formative Years, 1907-1914. New York: Oxford University Press.

Henke, Robert. 1997. Pastoral Transformations: Italian Tragicomedy and Shakespeare’s Late Plays. Mississauga: Associated University Presses.

Herrick, Marvin T. 1962. Tragicomedy: Its Origin and Development in Italy, France, and England. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Kayser, Wolfgang. 1963. The Grotesque in Art and Literature, trans. Ulrich Weisstein. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Originally published as Das Groteske: seine Gestaltung in Malerei und Dichtung (Oldenburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag, 1957).

Kruszewska, Felicja. 2002. A Dream, trans. Jadwiga Kosicka. London: Routledge.

P.K.S. 1930. “Slapstick of Keaton in Sound,“ Los Angeles Times, Apr. 12, A7.

Strauss, H. David. 1930. “Free and Easy,” Billboard, Apr. 26, 22.

Variety, 1930. “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” Review. Feb. 19, 21.

Wolf, Stacey. 2002. A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

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Published

2016-10-11

How to Cite

Garber, M. G. (2016). Tragicomedy, Melodrama, and Genre in Early Sound Films: The Case of Two “Sad Clown” Musicals. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 5(2), 53–86. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2016.135

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2016): Spring 2016

Section

Articles

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