Depression/Comedy Act II: The RKO Cinematic Universe


If you follow any aspect of modern Hollywood (you know, the stuff I don't usually screen at these film nights) you will probably have noticed that there are a few topics which tend to dominate the discussions these days. In between chit-chat about Star Wars and Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, you will almost certainly have encountered people talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Everything, it seems, is a "universe" these days. Mark Zuckerberg is currently trying to turn Facebook into a "Metaverse". Godzilla and King Kong have recently been punching each other to death in the latest instalment of what Universal Studios is calling its "Monster-verse" and Captain America, Iron Man, Thor et al inhabit something their fan base likes to call the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In the early days of comic books, superheroes usually travelled alone. Superman of the 1940s was never going to cross paths with Batman or Wonder Woman (except perhaps in the imaginations of their avid readers) and the earliest film adaptations were reflections of that. 

Today, everyone interacts with everyone. Thus, we get to see Captain America punching Iron Man; Iron Man punching Thor, and Spider-Man punching Captain America. (Punching is compulsory. They're all punching.)


But the idea of a "cinematic universe" isn't quite as radically new as the current generation might think. Back in the heyday of the Hollywood studio system, all the big film studios had large casts of "contract players"; which is why you tended to see familiar faces in film after film after film.

Over the next month or so, I want to focus on three of those familiar faces.

Fasten your seatbelts, because we're about to see quite a bit of the three of them, in various configurations. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, you could say.


The specific films I have chosen are some of the sharpest (and funniest) comedies of the era. They feature Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. Sometimes they feature Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn; sometimes it's Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. In one case it's Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers.

These are all separate films with separate plots and characters, but there is also much that connects them. You might almost say they inhabit the same universe.

There are the animals, for one thing.



Cary Grant gets to have fun with his sexuality.



Ginger Rogers recaptures her youth. Repeatedly.



And there is much deconstruction of traditional gender roles.


But all in good time.

This week we are going to begin with perhaps the most iconic of all 1930s comedies, and arguably one of the funniest films ever made. I can't believe I have never screened this film in almost ten years of movie nights at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.


"Because I just went gay all of a sudden!"


Bringing Up Baby is remembered today as the madcap comedy by which all other madcap comedies are measured. It's also the first Hollywood film to use the word "gay" in its modern (sexual) sense. No retrospective of Depression-era comedy would be complete without this particular film.


But have you ever tried to summarise the plot of Bringing Up Baby? I defy anyone to do it.

It involves a repressed scientist and a wacky heiress; a misplaced dinosaur bone; a dog (who steals the dinosaur bone, of course); a million dollars; two leopards; a clueless big-game hunter and a very arrogant psychiatrist whose car is stolen. Twice.


There's no way this film should work. It breaks every rule of narrative construction as it gleefully careens from one insane set piece to the next, but somehow, against all odds, it comes together to create something... magical.


If you have seen Bringing Up Baby, you will know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven't seen it... well, it will be my privilege to present it to you on Thursday.

Please bear in mind that we will be gathering in "Screen Two" for the next few months.


Screen Two is of course the lower level of the Church (the Crypt?) accessible via the side entrance on Bunsen Street.

Bringing Up Baby is just the first of a powerhouse set of films we have planned for the next few weeks, so get ready for some hard-core Depression/Comedy as we launch Part II of the series!

Bringing Up Baby will be screening on at 7.30pm on Thursday, the 18th of April, at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.

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