As much as I adore musicals, and westerns, and romantic dramas, I love me a really good funny movie. One that makes me erupt in loud guffaws and break out in joyous tears. Sadly, there are darn few of those anymore - most of today's comedians seem to go for the lowest common denominator (Yes, I'm talking about you, Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler). So today's edition of Top 5 focuses on my favorite movie comedies.
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) - A group of motorists witness a car over a ledge. As they go to the scene to check it out, they discover Jimmy Durante who has been ejected and is just a few moments away from kicking the bucket. Before he does, he tells them about a treasure in loot that he has hidden "Under the big W." From there, it's every man for himself as they try to outrun and outwit each other and be the first to find the buried treasure. The movie stars the great Spencer Tracy, and every comic then known, with a host of others in cameo performances. It's flat-out hysterical. I love it.
One, Two, Three (1961) - Written and directed by Billy Wilder, this satire is about Coca-Cola's man in Berlin at the beginning of the 1960's. He's assigned to keep tabs on the boss's daughter, who has just eloped with a communist from East Berlin. Can he fix the situation before his Boss arrives?
The movie stars Jimmy Cagney as the Coca-Cola exec, and Horst Buchholz as the communist. The dialog is spoken at break-neck speed, and hilarity ensues, with all sorts of jokes skewering communists and capitalists alike. Make sure to pay attention for some small tributes to movie history, too. You will definitely laugh out loud.
(Special note: With this one, it helps to have some understanding of history and of the Cold War)
To Be or Not to Be (1942) - Jack Benny and Carole Lombard star as married Jewish actors Josef and Maria Tura. She rendezvous with a young military officer during his Hamlet soliquoy, at which point they become aware of a Nazi plot to overthrow the Polish resistance. Then they must use all of their acting skills to defeat a Nazi spy. It's pointed social satire and hysterically funny. It's a pointed and hysterical satire of the Nazis. Director Ernst Lubitsch had a long career spanning from Silents to Talkies, and of all his comedy classics ("Ninotchka", and "The Shop Around the Corner" among them), this is his comedy masterpiece.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - The title of this movie alone should let you know that you're in for something. In it, an insane Air Force General sets off the process for nuclear war, while various politicians and military personnel from both sides try to stop it. Sounds deadly serious - I mean how could a movie about nuclear war be funny, especially if it's directed by Stanley Kubrick, right? Wrong. This movie is flat out hysterical. For one thing, it has the great Peter Sellers, playing four different parts, and for another, it has Slim Pickens putting on his best rodeo. Political, satirical, and very very funny.
(Tip: Watch for a young James Earl Jones as a member of the flight crew.)
The More the Merrier (1943) - It's World War II, and there's a housing shortage in Washington, D.C. Jean Arthur has an apartment and puts half of it up for rent. Charles Coburn (in an Oscar-winning performance), with a little trickery, rents it, then proceeds to rent half of his half to Joel McCrea, without telling Arthur. All sorts of awkward situations occur, as the three try to maneuver around each other. While all this is going on, Coburn is also trying to play matchmaker for the other two - it also has one of the steamiest scenes of a movie from that era, and how it ever made it past the production code, I'll never know. Funny, funny, funny, and my favorite Jean Arthur movie.
(Tip: Aside from the aforementioned steamy scene, watch for the one where Jean Arthur is explaining the next morning's schedule to Charles Coburn. Hysterical!)
