Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton. The Marx Brothers. Billy Wilder. Woody Allen. The Coen brothers. Where would the American film be without them? Yet the cinematic genre these artists represent—comedy—has perennially received short shrift from critics, film buffs, and the Academy Awards.
Saul Austerlitz’s
Another Fine Mess
is an attempt to right that wrong. Running the gamut of film history from
City Lights
to
Knocked Up
,
retells the story of American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother—the comedy. In 30 long chapters and 100 shorter entries, each devoted primarily to a single performer or director,
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. The first book of its kind in more than a generation,
is an eye-opening, entertaining, and enlightening tour of the American comedy, encompassing the masterpieces, the box-office smashes, and all the little-known gems in between.