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Romantic Comedy

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Submitted By mase2real
Words 809
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Mason Brawley
Ms. Pearson
ENGL 1301 8 April 2013
Romantic Comedy Comparison Have you ever messed up in a relationship with someone you took for granted and eventually moved on but you did not? Well here is two unique movies that are about that situation and they depict the situation well while adding humor to the situation. The Philadelphia Story, (1940), is a great romantic comedy that has a better story line, actors and even more scenery than the earlier compared movie, The Awful Truth (1937). The Awful Truth had basically the same storyline as The Philadelphia Story but there was a big difference in how it all played out and begun. The Philadelphia Story began with the wife throwing the husband out of the house and the husband pushing the wife down. The Awful Truth began with the married couple catching each other in a white lie and the dispute lead to a marriage breakup, so they both began with very interesting intros to their stories. The Philadelphia Story was based on a couple that went through a divorce, the wife ended up trying to remarry and it was a big topic that everyone wanted to know about. The way they placed the events in the movie was a key factor in how it all played out. For instance when the reporters were getting debriefed on the situation, they made the storyline for the movie more believable and gave the actors more to work with. In The Awful Truth really did not do such a great job in setting up events to structure the rest of its movie together it just kind of went from situation to situation with no ties. When it comes to the acting between the two movies, I would have to go with The Philadelphia story, simply because it was a well-rounded job done by every actor they made you feel like you knew them. After you had a complete understanding of what everyone’s part was in the plot. However in The Awful Truth the actors were not as believable even though both movies had the same actor (Cary Grant) the job performed by the supporting cast was not as crisp in this movie. During the scene where they meet at the Ballroom dinner it was very sketchy and one sided for a while and most of it could have been left out of the movie. The Supporting cast was not as talented in my eyes as in The Philadelphia story the new fiancé (John Howard) was better portrayed than in The Awful Truth’s (Ralph Bellamy) was less convincing in his acting. John Howard was more of your average citizen who worked hard to live a comfortable lifestyle so he was not use to the high life and he enjoyed Tracy’s company. During The Philadelphia movie he was always pushing Tracy’s ex away and trying to accommodate her and did not approve of her ex-husband being around especially so close to their wedding. As for The Awful Truth, Ralph Bellamy was more of a push over and really did not show any emotion to her soon to be divorced husband being around them all the time. He would let him interrupt them whenever and to even provoke ideas and dwell on their past relationship without question. The scenes in The Philadelphia Story were more elaborate in contrast to the storyline to whereas The Awful Truth really did not have much scenery or creativeness. For example in The Awful Truth majority of the movie was spent in a very small bland area such as a hotel room. There is only so much that can go on in a hotel room not much room for conflict and opportunity. In The Philadelphia Story, it went from scene to scene it never got to complacent and was spent in many locations one scene had a conflict and in the next scene there was a fluid resolution. For instance, when the dialogue took a secretive turn they were at a pool spot ready to go swimming all alone for a while when (The Reporter) James Stewart was trying to decide whether or not to continue the story or not was interrupted by the ex-husband. The next scene he was convinced he was not going to do the story after Tracy offered him a house that was paid for and he slowly fell in love with her. The newer film would clearly be the better one in this case. It was the deciding factors that really helped that conclusion. The actors, storyline and scenery were very unique throughout both films, but it just was a better flow with it all in The Philadelphia Story.

The Awful Truth, Dir. Leo McCarey. Columbia Pictures, 1937. Film.
The Philadelphia Story, Dir. George Cukor. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 1940. Film.

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