Wes D. Gehring

“Wes Gehring (Ball State University) is back with yet another of his discourses on the nature and genres of film comedy. Ever since his research on the comic antiheroes of American films, his remarkable studies have ranged from his bio-bibliography Marx Brothers (CH, Mar’88) to American dark Comedy (CH, Dec ’96). However, his classic Screwball Comedy: Defining a film Genre (1983) remains the highpoints of his writings....[In this book on] the 1930s Depression origins of the sister genres of comic courtship---the madcap screwball comedy and the reality-based romantic comedy---Gehring shows how the two grew up into unique and contrasting types. For example, he points to plot pacing and differing emphasis on being funny versus accenting love as distinguishing codes. He presents a specialized portrait on double duty stars Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, who paired in both genres. His most notable contributions is a survey of modern-era variations and twists on both screwball and romantic comedies, e.g., The Runaway Bride and Sleepless in Seattle, respectively….Choice, March 2003 vol. 40, p1190… (altro)

“The scholar Wes Gehring has drawn attention [in his book, Groucho & W.C. Fields: Huckster Comedians, p.22] to a Twain character, that of the huckstering Colonel Sellers in the 1873 novel The Gilded Age (Twain’s first novel, co-authored by him with Charles Dudley Warner)…[and] Gehring has pointed out the verbal slickness of Sellers, whose ‘tongue was a magician’s wand that turned dried apples into figs and water into wine as easily as it could change a novel into a palace and present poverty into imminent future riches.’ The related resemblance [to the classic American huckster] is tempting.”---Simon Louvish, from his Fields biography: Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, p.122… (altro)

A good biography of Will Cuppy has been long overdue. I even considered writing one myself, but no need now. This one is well done. Thoroughly researched, it draws on Cuppy’s books, but also on his reviews of mystery stories, his correspondence, and other sources both published and unpublished. Even his personal scrapbooks! For years I’ve been wanting to visit the Cuppy papers at the University of Chicago. That hasn’t worked out; this book is the next best thing.

It discusses his politics and his sexual orientation, concluding that he was apolitical and asexual. His curious relationship with his mentor, Isabel Paterson. His need for emotional and professional support. The “subtextual codes” in his writing. His suicidal tendencies. His creative use of footnotes. It puts him into context with contemporary satirists such as Robert Benchley, James Thurber, and S. J. Perelman. It compares him to Groucho Marx, Henry David Thoreau, and others.

The author is a professor of film, and it shows. He injects films into this book more than Cuppy’s life would warrant. Cuppy was not a movie star and did not write for the movies. Why then are so many of the illustrations in this book from Hollywood movies? But there are some gems, including two portraits of Cuppy in his youth.

Author Gehring admires Cuppy but is critical of him, even to calling him a “man/child.” This book illuminates Cuppy’s enigmatic character and adds dimensions to his persona. Recommended to Cuppy fans. It will help them spot the undercurrents in his life and work.

This book is indexed and lavishly sourced, with an extensive bibliography and many pages of chapter notes.… (altro)