Directed by George Cukor • 1938 • United States
Starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan

Two years before stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and director George Cukor would collaborate on THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, they brought their timeless talents to this delectable slice of 1930s...

Directed by Mitchell Leisen • 1939 • United States
Starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore

Arriving at Paris’s Gare de l’Est train station with only her gold lamé gown on her back, penniless American ex-showgirl Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) must use her wiles in order to work h...

Directed by Preston Sturges • 1944 • United States
Starring Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn

Preston Sturges’s uproarious screwball riot pushed the Production Code to its limit with its taboo-testing treatment of sex, marriage, and small-town morals. After a wild night out on the town, GI...

Directed by Raoul Walsh • 1932 • United States
Starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Marion Burns

Snappy dialogue, Raoul Walsh’s dynamic direction, and spirited performances from Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett make this offbeat comic treat one of the small glories of the pre-Code era. New York C...

Directed by Frank Capra • 1934 • United States
Starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly

Opposites attract with magnetic force in this romantic road-trip delight from Frank Capra, about a spoiled runaway socialite (Claudette Colbert) and a roguish man-of-the-people reporter (Clark...

Directed by Leo McCarey • 1937 • United States
Starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy

In this Oscar-winning farce, Cary Grant (in the role that first defined the Cary Grant persona) and Irene Dunne exude charm, cunning, and artless affection as an urbane couple who, fed up with each oth...

Directed by Richard Boleslawski • 1936 • United States
Starring Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell

Irene Dunne established herself as one of screwball’s brightest comedic talents with this exuberant tale of a small-town girl living a double life as the secret author of a scandalous bes...

Directed by Preston Sturges • 1944 • United States
Starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, William Demarest

Too embarrassed to admit to his family and friends that he was discharged from World War II because of hay fever, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) is befriended by a group...

Directed by George Marshall • 1945 • United States
Starring Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main

In this oddball cult comedy, professional pollster Pete Marshall (Fred MacMurray) gets more than he bargained for when he heads deep into the Ozarks to investigate the disappearances of severa...

Directed by Preston Sturges • 1941 • United States
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn

Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fondabumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cru...

Directed by Gregory La Cava • 1936 • United States
Starring William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady

Carole Lombard and William Powell dazzle in this definitive screwball comedy by Gregory La Cava—a potent cocktail of romantic repartee and social critique. Irene (Lombard), an eccentric, wealt...

Directed by Preston Sturges • 1942 • United States
Starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor

This wild tale of wacky wedlock from Preston Sturges takes off like a rocket and never lets up. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Tom and Gerry, a married New York couple on the skids, fin...

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch • 1932 • United States
Starring Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall

When thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) meets his true love in pickpocket Lily (Miriam Hopkins), they embark on a scam to rob lovely perfume company executive Mariette Colet (Kay Francis...

Directed by Lou Breslow • 1951 • United States
Starring Dick Powell, Peggy Dow, Joyce Holden

Every dog has his day in this delightfully offbeat fantasy comedy. After his eccentric millionaire owner bequeaths his vast fortune to his beloved German shepherd, it looks like the pooch, King, is one s...

Directed by Howard Hawks • 1934 • United States
Starring John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly

Carole Lombard established her genius for screwball comedy with this madcap classic, which practically set the template for the genre. Scripted by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (adapting th...

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch • 1938 • United States
Starring Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton

The great Ernst Lubitsch lends his famously sophisticated touch to this whimsical farce about a spoiled American millionaire who uses his wealth to lure an attractive French aristocra...

Directed by Mitchell Leisen • 1937 • United States
Starring Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland

The madcap misunderstandings pile up in this Preston Sturges–penned screwball fairy tale that sparkles thanks to the light touch of director Mitchell Leisen. An effervescent Jean Arthur stars as t...

Directed by Lloyd Bacon • 1949 • United States
Starring Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas

Baseball goes screwball—and we don’t just mean the pitch—in this breezy sports comedy. Chemistry professor Vernon Simpson (Ray Milland) has virtually no money, so marriage to the daughter (Jean Peters)...

Directed by Tay Garnett • 1937 • United States
Starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche

A hotshot reporter, a madcap heiress, and a rivalry that gradually gives way to romance? We must be in a 1930s screwball—and a delightful one at that. Steve Leyton (Tyrone Power, in his first top-bill...

Directed by Arthur Lubin • 1951 • United States
Starring Ray Milland, Jan Sterling, Gene Lockhart

Legendary feline performer Orangey the Cat stars alongside Ray Milland in this uproariously absurd screwball charmer. When an eccentric millionaire bequeaths his fortune—and his baseball franchise, ...

Directed by Howard Hawks • 1941 • United States
Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper make sparks in this snappy screwball take on the Snow White tale. She’s a burlesque queen with a colorful vocabulary who needs to lay low for a while as the police close in on ...

Directed by Howard Hawks • 1940 • United States
Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy

One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever made, HIS GIRL FRIDAY stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson, a standout among cinema’s powerful women. Hildy is matched in fo...

Directed by George Stevens • 1943 • United States
Starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn

Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn find that three’s a crowd in this delightful screwball romp. Set during the 1940s wartime housing shortage, THE MORE THE MERRIER stars Arthur as Washin...

Directed by Jean Negulesco • 1946 • United States
Starring Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Oscar Levant

Glamorous socialite Helen Wright (Joan Crawford) takes what she wants—clothes, alcohol, men—uses them up, and tosses them aside. Then she meets brilliant young violinist Paul Boray (John Garfiel...