The Romantic Comedies

Since the time of Aristotle, romantic comedies have sought to tell a story about two people, and questions whether or not they would end up together as Billy Mernit (author of Writing the Romantic Comedy)informs. They also make us question what it means to be in a relationship and tell us a little about ourselves. The romantic comedies were extremely popular with moviegoers during its Golden Age of the 1930’s as Daniel M. Kimmel (author of I’ll Have What She’s Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies) informs us. The good romantic comedies of this time were referred to as “weepies” or “three hanky pictures (Kimmel). Over time, though, the romantic comedies dwindled to the point where nowadays the romantic comedies seem to be dead (Mernit). Today, the romantic comedy is alive and well, but it goes unrecognized due to it adapting. The appearance of the romantic comedy may have changed, but the key elements have not changed. The key elements of any romantic comedy include two characters who will meet and fall in love with each other, a conflict that will tear the two of them apart, and an ending where love has changed the main characters and they will either accept or deny love such as the events of Philadelphia Story.

To start any romantic comedy there needs to be a meeting between the two main characters, be it between former lovers, new acquaintances, or even at times the worst of enemies. This meeting as suggested by Mernit does not “have to be a literal first meeting for the leads, but it’s significant, hopefully amusing encounter where the spark is lit.” This encounter is called the “meet-cute” (Mernit).

In Philadelphia Story things are a little different from what is expected. Instead of meeting one characte...

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...t trust her. When she discovers that everyone is already there for the wedding, Mike offers to marry her, but Tracy declines because his photographer is in love with him. Dexter ends up convincing Tracy of his love for her and Tracy, in turn accepts Dexter’s love for her and they get married.

The moral lesson taught by Philadelphia Story is the idea that relationships can be messy and difficult to maintain, even after marriage. Tracy and Dexter Haven found out that maintaining a relationship was hard work the hard way. To display this idea the first few minutes of Philadelphia Story are silent and show Tracy and Dexter Haven having a fight in which Tracy breaks a golf club and Dexter ends up pushing Tracy down before storming off. The silence allows the audience to understand that a fight is occurring and that is all that is necessary for the scene to be understood.