Presented by Lifelong Learning

with Bruce Thompson, Lecturer in History and Literature at UCSC

From It Happened One Night (1934) and The Shop Around the Corner (1940) to When Harry Met Sally (1987) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), many of the most beloved Hollywood romantic comedies were written by Jewish screenwriters. What exactly is romantic comedy (hint: the genre was invented by a writer named Shakespeare), and why have so many of the writers and directors of classic Hollywood romantic comedies been Jewish? And what have they taught American movie audiences about the frustrations and delights of courtship and the relationship between love and wit? Among the writers we will consider: Samson Raphaelson (Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner), Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town), Sidney Buchman (Theodora Goes Wild, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Ben Hecht (Twentieth Century, His Girl Friday), Billy Wilder (Ninotchka, The Apartment), Ernest Lehman (Sabrina, North by Northwest), and Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle).