Hollywood Sex Comedies, 1953–1964: A Critical Analysis of 25 Films

Erickson (Any Resemblance to Actual Persons) looks at Hollywood’s sex comedies (feature-length films in which love affairs and sexual situations motivate the comedic storyline) in his typically tidy style. He summarizes each entry’s plot and journey from inception to screen, including how much (or little) was altered to get past censors. He begins with 1954’s The Moon Is Blue and wraps up with 1964’s Kiss Me, Stupid. This volume looks at the characteristics of sex comedies and gives an overview of how the genre developed as it wrangled with the Production Code and the Catholic League of Decency over dealing with (or even mentioning) sex, virginity, pregnancy, infidelity, and other risqué-for-the-era topics. Classics such as The Seven Year Itch and Pillow Talk are discussed, but there are also quirkier entries, such as Under the Yum Yum Tree and Tennessee Williams’s post-marriage comedy Period of Adjustment. This book is an engrossing trip through one of the liveliest parts of the transition between Old and New Hollywood.