Monday, December 26, 2011

Check out the big list on Brad: Essential American film comedies, 1895-1963

A friend asked me to compile a list of my favorite film comedies. What started off as an offhand exercise turned, as it usually does, into an obsessive quest. Here's Part One of a survey of those movies I think it's essential for you to see if you are a student of comedy, or just need to laugh your ass off.

What do you think? Help me out and let me know what I missed -- you will earn a shiny star and smiley face!


BEST AMERICAN FILM COMEDIES – TO 1963


CHAPLIN

Dough and Dynamite
The Tramp
One A.M.
The Rink
The Immigrant
The Kid
The Gold Rush
City Lights
Modern Times


KEATON

One Week
The Playhouse
Cops
Our Hospitality
Sherlock, Jr.
The Navigator
Seven Chances
Go West
The General
Steamboat Bill Jr.
The Cameraman


LLOYD

Never Weaken
Grandma’s Boy
Safety Last!
The Freshman
The Kid Brother
Speedy


LAUREL & HARDY

The Battle of the Century
You’re Darn Tootin’
Two Tars
Big Business
Bacon Grabbers
Angora Love
Wrong Again
The Finishing Touch
The Music Box
The Flying Deuces


CHARLEY CHASE

Mighty Like a Moose
Crazy Like a Fox
All Wet
Movie Night


MISC SILENTS

Tillie’s Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett)
Hands Up! (Raymond Griffith)
Mabel’s Blunder (Mabel Normand)
Show People (Marion Davies)
There It Is (Charley Bowers)

ERNST LUBITSCH

The Marriage Circle
Trouble in Paradise
The Love Parade
Monte Carlo
Ninotchka
The Shop around the Corner
To Be or Not to Be
Heaven Can Wait


MARX BROTHERS

Animal Crackers
Monkey Business
Horse Feathers
Duck Soup


W.C. FIELDS

The Dentist
The Fatal Glass of Beer
The Barber Shop
It’s a Gift
Man on the Flying Trapeze
The Bank Dick
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break


THREE STOOGES

Men in Black
Punch Drunks
Violent is the Word for Curly
Micro-Phonies
Brideless Groom
You Natzy Spy!
Disorder in the Court
Hold That Lion!


ROBERT BENCHLEY

The Treasurer's Report
The Sex Life of the Polyp
How to Sleep
A Night at the Movies
That Inferior Feeling


WARNER BROTHERS CARTOONS

Porky in Wackyland
Rhapsody in Rivets
Rabbit Fire
Rabbit Seasoning
Duck! Rabbit! Duck!
The Big Snooze
Duck Amuck
High Diving Hare
What’s Up, Doc?
Baseball Bugs
Rhapsody Rabbit
Rabbit of Seville
What’s Opera, Doc?
Duck Dodgers in the 24 ½ Century
One Froggy Evening
Show Biz Bugs
Baby Bottleneck
The Scarlet Pumpernickel
Robin Hood Daffy
The Dover Boys at Pimento University
For Scent-imental Reasons
The Foghorn Leghorn
Pigs in a Polka
Wackiki Rabbit
Porky’s Duck Hunt
Too Hop to Handle
Scaredy Cat
Ali Baba Bunny
Fallin’ Hare
Ain’t She Tweet
Long-Haired Hare
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery


SCREWBALL COMEDIES

The Front Page
It Happened One Night
Twentieth Century
My Man Godfrey
The Awful Truth
Bringing Up Baby
My Favorite Wife
Ball of Fire
Midnight
Theodora Goes Wild
Nothing Sacred
The Philadelphia Story
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
I Was a Male War Bride
His Girl Friday
Holiday


PRESTON STURGES

The Great McGinty
Christmas in July
The Lady Eve
Sullivan’s Travels
The Palm Beach Story
Hail, the Conquering Hero
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek


MISC

Road to Morocco
Woman of the Year
Adam’s Rib
The Inspector General
The Seven-Year Itch


BILLY WILDER

Some Like It Hot
The Apartment
The Fortune Cookie