Netflix This: The Good Fairy

If you think the western is dead, you should take a look at the screwball comedy genre. This movie genre flourished during the 30s and early 40s, directed by such big names as Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder and Frank Capra and starring such giants as Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and the most versatile actress in movie history, Miss Barbara Stanwyck. Screwball comedies were so popular that one of them not only won an Oscar for Best Picture but became the first movie to sweep the Big Four Academy Awards. And that movie-It Happened One Night-isn't even one of the ten best screwball comedies of all time. Fortunately, Netflix offers a stunning collection of the best screwball comedies, including one of the least well known, but by far one of the funniest, The Good Fairy, starring Margaret Sullavan.

I was actually amazed to find The Good Fairy on Netflix. I mean The Thin Man sure; My Man Godfrey, of course; Ball of Fire, it goes without saying. But those are biggies, known even by fans who've never heard the words screwball and comedy put together. But that's why I love Netflix; you never know what treasure you'll uncover.

I first saw The Good Fairy about fifteen years ago on American Movie Classics and it was such a stupendously funny and off-the-wall little movie that it has stuck with me. I've been desperately searching for it on Turner Classic Movies to no avail. Thank God for Netflix, right? So what's so great about The Good Fairy? Well, this marvelously oddball descriptive phrase spoken by the guy who plays the Wizard of Oz about a waiter who is acting quite bizarre for reasons you know but he doesn't: "Did you notice that fella's eyes? They're like angry marbles." If that line doesn't crack you up, then probably you should skip The Good Fairy and Netflix something starring Sandra Bullock. I mean, come on, what the heck are angry marbles!