Ten favorite comedies
Mar 26 '00
In all seriousness, I cannot claim that these are the 10 best comedies of all time, since there are huge holes in my knowledge of this area. For instance, Chaplin should probably be here, the Marx Brothers, maybe a Hope and Crosby Road movie, Martin and Lewis, etc. It's just been so long since I have seen any of these that I didn't feel comfortable trying to choose among them, so I left them off.
These are my favorites today; who knows what would have made the list a month from now? Some are generally recognized as classics, others aren't. I chose not to include some like MP and the Holy Grail for one reason or another. I also tried to avoid listing films that would be considered musicals or fit better into another genre. So, here goes:
10. The Great Race (1965) This one was a staple of my childhood, often late on Saturday nights. And I watched at least part of it every time (It's a long one, at 160 minutes!) Directed by Blake Edwards, I enjoy it much more than his Pink Panther offerings, which have always left me cold (no offense to the Panther fans out there). For me, it is also the prime offering of the giant, slapstick genre of the 1960s. Starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood and lots of gizmos, gadgets, and pies.
9. Some Like it Hot (1959) Another comedic outing for both Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (in drag for much of the film) this time paired up with Marilyn Monroe. Legendary offscreen conflicts between Curtis, director Billy Wilder, and Monroe (Curtis compared kissing Marilyn to kissing Hitler!) don't seem to hurt the onscreen action one little bit. Interestingly, the film flirts with homosexuality, very daring for that era.
8. Tootsie (1982) Another man-in-drag comedy, this time with Dustin Hoffman looking great in red sequins. Hoffman based much of the character of Dorothy on his mother. Jessica Lange won a best supporting actress oscar for her role in this movie. Look for a very young Geena Davis wearing very little. Mrs. Doubtfire copied much of Tootsie, but much less successfully in my opinion.
7. Adam's Rib (1949) A battle of the sexes set in a courtroom. Stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, so you know it's going to have great chemistry. Watching the home movie segment in the film is somewhat eerie . . . knowing about the great attraction between these two, it is extremely realistic. It almost makes me feel like I've intruded into something private.
6. The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) Cult film from South Africa that delighted the world in the early 1980's. Slapstick and satire abound in this film which stars an actual bushman from the Kalahari named N!xau. Many people argue that this movie is racist, and it certainly does tread a very fine line. However, since the biggest buffoons are the white characters, I think it is much more an indictment of the modern white world with its consumerism and waste.
5. Brain Candy (1996) A full length film from the five man Canadian comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, who play most of the characters, including the female ones. A beautifully filmed movie, it spoofs the corporate world, celebrity, and our infatuation with the drug Prozac. Mark McKinney does a dead on impersonation of SNL's producer Lorne Michaels. One of Dave Foley's few roles is character who chimes in every now and again, prompting the others to question who he is. This seems to be the Kids' acknowledgment that Foley's input was limited in the writing and formation of this movie, due to the fact that he was busy with his series News Radio.
4. Serial Mom (1994) John Waters' hilarious look at a sweet, but maniacal suburban housewife named Bev, who gets fed up with all those little annoying things that others do, and starts offing anyone who dares not to floss their teeth, wear a seatbelt, rewind a rental video, or anything else that gets on her (and Waters') nerves. Kathleen Turner is wonderful as Bev, a role that would have gone to Divine if this movie had been made a few years earlier. After having made Hairspray and Crybaby for mainstream audiences, this movie marks a bit of a return to the style and content of Waters' earlier films, though don't expect it to be the Waters of Pink Flamingos either. By the way, Waters' voice can be heard in the film as the tape-recorded voice of Ted Bundy, and the film also gives us our first good look at Matthew Lillard (Scream's killer Stuart) as Bev's son Chip.
3. Raising Arizona (1987) I saw this movie at a drive-in, in the pouring rain, with a couple of friends. We about laughed ourselves silly. A Cohen brothers' movie, with a great cast, headed by Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage. However, the real stars of this movie are Barry Sonnenfeld's inventive and beautiful cinematography (bouncing baby's view of the world) and the score featuring Beethoven, Stravinsky, and original music by Carter Burwell.
2. Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) People sometimes tell Mel Brooks that this is their favorite movie by him, to which he says, "Thanks, but it's not mine." A stylish send-up of A Tale Of Two Cities and A Comedy Of Errors, starring Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland in the double roles of two sets of mismatched twins. An introduction by the great Orson Wells gives the film a mock air of seriousness and authority.
1. Young Frankenstein (1974) This is a movie that Mel Brooks DID make. What can be said about this film that hasn't been said before? A great cast with Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman and the incomparable Madeline Kahn, who recently lost her battle with cancer. In a stunning tribute to the monster as played by Boris Karloff, Peter Boyle's depiction of the monster is a powerful mix of slapstick, horror, and pathos.
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annbronson
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Member: Ann Bronson
Location: Astoria, Oregon
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