i was surprised at the choices for this film festival, Clowning Glories and Screwball Women, Mabel Normand and Marion Davies. I mean, okay, yes, those were women who were in early comedies. And I guess I don't know that much about the early period when Mabel Normand was in films, I just know her life story in the musical form of Mack and Mabel, and that she is Bernadette Peters. But come on, if you're going to do justice to the screwball heroines, there are such fabulous choices. Carole Lombard? Barbara Stanwyck? Claudette Colbert? Katherine Hepburn? These were some very funny, very smart women. This is an issue that is near and dear to my heart, because I was quite obsessed with screwball comedies for a period in high school. They can be really awesome and funny, and challenge the common representation of submissive females in the 30s and 40s, substituting them with independent and strong-willed women who give their male counterparts a run for their money (often literally). It feels like Normand and Davies were selected offhandedly, without any honest effort to celebrate the shining stars of early female comedy. also, i love how often cary grant was the foil for the comediennes in screwball comedies. what a 'mo. and a wonderful dude.