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July 20, 2005

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) - 7

This is one of the only "screw-ball comedies" that Alfred Hitchcock ever made. This is really a film about marriage, and most of the jokes wouldn't work if told today because of the social change that has happened in contemporary life. I found the film hilarious. I have become so used to the crude humor that so many films stoop to these days, it is sort of refreshing to see a film that has more subtle humor. Because of film standards and rules of the 40's there are many things that couldn't be shown, which meant the directors had to be more creative (and I think are better story tellers) than they are now. On a trivia note: according to the DVD extras this film may be the first time pizza is mentioned in a film.

1 comment:

Jason said...

Both Hitchcock and Billy Wilder were masters at slipping stuff under the Film Standards radar, mainly by using subtly and (in Wilder's case) vaguely worded phrases.