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ALCOHOL_COMEDY

                                                      February 3, 2000


Some friends of mine were once
speculating that the prodigious
drinking on display in the film       The Thin Man movies are great, as
"The Thin Man" was a bit of           is the Dashiel Hammett novel, as
post-Prohibition euphoria.            indeed are all the Dashiel Hammett
                                      novels... though they're all great
                                      in different ways.
  Myself I think these movies
  are an example of an                   The "Thin Man" is
  identifiable sub-genre                 one of the last
  that I call "alcohol comedies".        things that he
  If they're a prohibition               wrote: arguably
  thing, I would guess they got          it's more             (Book and film,
  their start around the                 light-weight than     *both* released
  beginning of prohibition               the others because    1934)
  (e.g. the Thorne Smith novel           he didn't really
  "Topper") rather than around           believe in them
  the end.                               any more.

               Compare to
               "Cheech and Chong"
               routines, or                     Instead of the implacable,
   THORNE      The "Freak Brothers"             incorruptible hero
               comics.                          determined to fight it
                                                out on principle, we have
                            Though the          the drunken Nick Charles,
                            1920s may           married into money, and
                            have been           nearly uninterested in
I can't think of            the start           plying his original trade.
many contemporary           of the
alcohol comedies.           American
There was that              alcohol                  TAKEN_LIGHTLY
Dudley Moore                comedy,
movie "Arthur",             but what
but that was a              about, say
while back.                 Gargantua
                            and                    Another prime example
   Ah, but more             Pantagruel?            of the classic
   recently there's                                American alcohol
   Jackie Chan's                                   comedy would be the
   "Drunken Master"                                now nearly forgotten
   and related                                     stories of John J.
   movies...                                       Malone, by Craig Rice.
                    
                                                      I've heard it said
                                                      that in their day
                             Malone was the           these rivaled
                             anti-Perry Mason,        Agatha Christie in
                             e.g. he hung out         sales...
                             at "Joe the Angel's    
                             City Hall Bar".          The author ("Georgiana
                                                      Ann Randolph Walker
                                                      Craig" if you want to
                                                      get technical) was
                                                      featured on the cover
                                                      of Time Magazine, in
                                                      1946.


                    To some extent, the
                    Homer Evans stories by
                    Elliot Paul qualify as
                    alcohol commedy.

                                 TAKEN_LIGHTLY



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