ANOTHER FINE MESS

Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton. The Marx Brothers. Billy Wilder. Woody Allen. The Coen brothers. Where would the American film be without them? And yet, the cinematic genre they all represent -- comedy -- has perennially received short shrift from critics, film buffs, and the Academy Awards.Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy is an attempt to right that wrong. Running the gamut of film history, from City Lights to Knocked Up, Another Fine Mess retells the story of American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother -- the comedy. In 30 chapters, each devoted to a single performer or director, Another Fine Mess retraces the steps of the American comedy film, filling in the gaps and following the connections that link Mae West to Doris Day, or W.C. Fields to Will Ferrell.

Another Fine Mess is an attempt to rectify the legacy of inattention, by studying the American comedy film, not only as a worthy cinematic genre, but as a craft in which the members of the guild are influenced by their predecessors, and in turn, influence their successors. The first book of its kind in more than a generation, Another Fine Mess is an all-expenses-paid tour of the American comedy, encompassing the masterpieces, the box-office smashes, and all the little-known gems inbetween.

ORDER NOW:

AMAZON

Barnes & Noble

Powell's

“Only the fearless spring into the canonical underpinnings of film comedy, a genre little understood and, well, laughed at. Saul Austerlitz has thrillingly built a canon of artists, defending and critiquing their careers (is there anything of merit to be learned from Duck Soup? Yes! Meet the Fockers? Oh, yes!) with the acute binocular vision of a scholar and a fan. I was enrapt, argumentative, gobsmacked, amused and ready to rethink what I know about American film comedy. Crack this book open, and let the debate — and the flying pies — begin.”

— GLEN DAVID GOLD, AUTHOR OF CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL AND SUNNYSIDE