In 1941, a year after his movie, The Great McGinty, won the first ever Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, celebrated screenwriter/director and "father of the screwball comedy," Preston Sturges, drew up the following "eleven rules for box-office appeal."
(Source: The Cinema of Preston Sturges: A Critical Study; Image: Preston Sturges, via PBS.)
- A pretty girl is better than an ugly one.
- A leg is better than an arm.
- A bedroom is better than a living room.
- An arrival is better than a departure.
- A birth is better than a death.
- A chase is better than a chat.
- A dog is better than a landscape.
- A kitten is better than a dog.
- A baby is better than a kitten.
- A kiss is better than a baby.
- A pratfall is better than anything.
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