By the late 1930s, the formula for the screwball comedy was already firmly in place: Throw a comically mismatched couple into a wild situation, mix in equal parts sharp banter and slapstick, and stir until frothy and romance ensues.
Depression-era audiences made screwball comedy one of the most popular, and profitable, genres. Writers and producers who needed to find ways to keep the genre fresh came up with one of the earliest, and most intriguing, attempts at breaking genre conventions in 1938's “Swing High, Swing Low,” playing at Woodmere on Tuesday, March 4.
Co-written by Oscar Hammerstein II and starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, the film explores what happens after that big, final kiss in those other screwball comedies and asks exactly how long "Happily Ever After" really lasts.
"Swing High, Swing Low" starts in familiar territory. Maggie (Carole Lombard) is an uptight woman in Panama en route to the States to marry a dull but wealthy stockyard magnate when she crosses paths with Skid (Fred MacMurray), an affable trumpet player just out of the army. After a series of misunderstandings – culminating in a fistfight with a young Anthony Quinn – they're both left stranded and penniless along the Panama Canal. The pair hatch a plan to work at a local nightclub together. The catch? They must pretend to be married to each other to secure the gig.
If "Swing High, Swing Low" were only content to follow the well-tread screwball formula, it would still be a worthy entry in the genre. Lombard and MacMurray, in their third film together, have tremendous chemistry and deliver the script's quick-draw banter with ease. The dialogue has the same lyricism that marks Hammerstein's musicals, and the cast is rounded out by screwball comedy veterans Charles Butterworth and Jean Dixon, playing friends of Maggie and Skid who find themselves embroiled in their own romance. But halfway through the runtime, the film dives into the uncharted waters of romantic melodrama as a music agent takes an interest in Skid's trumpet and tries to put him on New York stages, but only as a solo act.
That this tonal bait-and-switch works so well is a testament to the players involved, particularly Lombard. Few other actors of the era were as firmly associated with the screwball genre as Carole Lombard. Her roles in films like "Hands Across the Table" and "My Man Godfrey" established her as the kind of woman who could hold her own against her male co-stars and deliver the quick wit and physical comedy required in films like these. "Swing High, Swing Low" asks that of her and more. Over the course of the film, we see Maggie come into her own, growing from a stern if naive woman into one who is more confident and worldly, but still unafraid to be vulnerable. MacMurray, who would go onto darker, seedier roles in films like "Double Indemnity," more than establishes his dramatic bonafides here and is more than capable of playing against Lombard when the film takes a turn.
The genius of "Swing High, Swing Low" is that it puts the tension that powers the best screwball comedies to new use. The viewer holds onto that effervescent will-they-won't-they tension from the first half of the film as new, dramatic circumstances test Maggie and Skid's bond. The payoff, then, becomes all the more satisfying.
Though the screwball genre would continue to change and evolve throughout the 40s and 50s, it would rarely see the same kind of formal experimentation of "Swing High, Swing Low." While playing with expectations is par for the course in modern filmmaking, the rules of genre film were just taking form when "Swing High, Swing Low" started trying to break them.
"Swing High, Swing Low" will screen at Woodmere art museum on Tuesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. as part of the Tuesday Night at the Movies film series. Light refreshments will be available before the screening. Tuesday Night at the Movies screenings are free to the public, but contributions are welcome. Please check woodmereartmuseum.org for updates on weather-related changes.
