Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies by Alan Dale
"A friend asked me why I laugh
so hard at slapstick movies and I couldn't stop short of a book in reply." —Alan
Dale, from preface to Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies
PHOTOS FROM Comedy Is a Man in Trouble
The protean poseur: Chaplin in The Cure (1917). Courtesy
of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive.
By dressing down, the comic actress can play physical comedy. Colleen Moore
with wicked stepmother Vera Lewis in Ella Cinders (1926). Courtesy of
the Museum of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive.
Harold Lloyd as The Kid Brother (1927). Courtesy of the Museum of Modern
Art Film Stills Archive.
Brothers Chico, Zeppo, Groucho, and Harpo
Marx in Duck Soup (1933). Courtesy of the Museum of the Modern Art Film
Stills Archive.
Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing
Up Baby (1938). Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive.
Martin and Lewis: it couldn't last. Courtesy of
the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archives.