I have always been a fan of classic comedy movies. They have a certain “way back when effect.” The stars of yesteryear made people laugh using clean comedy. Today, if you can accept the overuse of profanity and sexual content, many of the comedy movies are pretty good and fashionable. But my five choices for great comedy movies are:
- It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Talk about star-studded, this comedy movie has them all. The movie opens with Smiler Grogan, (Jimmy Durante) an ex con, heading at high speed to a California park where he has hidden $350,000 dollars under palm trees shaped like a big “W.” Grogan accidentally drives off a cliff in view of four cars. The drivers go down to help Grogan but he is already dying, before he ‘kicks the bucket’ he manages to tell them about the money buried under the big “W.” With that much money and a good tip, the occupants of the four cars discuss dividing the money into equal shares, but as greed takes over, each decide they would rather keep the money for themselves. The fun and laughter begin with a crazy chase across the state in search of the hidden loot, with Captain Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) in pursuit of the money-hungry scavengers. The movie concludes with the money-hungry scavengers in a hospital, including Captain Culpepper.
- Barefoot in the Park
I cannot get enough of this movie. This is a funny, romantic comedy play by Neil Simon. Robert Redford and Jane Fonda are, Paul and Corie Bratter, a newly married couple who move into a small apartment in New York, which happens to be located on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator. Mildred Natwick portrays Corie’s mother, Ethel Banks, and Mabel Albertson is Aunt Harriet. Charles Boyer is Victor Velasco, a dapper, free-spirited womanizer, with a passion for living life freely. Herb Edelman is Harry Pepper, (the telephone man), and is the first visitor to take on the five flights of stairs, and to encounter the Bratters’ first quarrel.
A short-lived TV series consisting of thirteen 30 minute episodes was produced from 1970-71, with Scoey Mitchell and Nipsey Russell as Paul and Corie Bratter. Another TV version of the play aired in 1981 with Richard Thomas and Bess Armstrong as Paul and Corie Bratter, Barbara Barrie as Mrs. Banks, and Hans Conried as Victor Velasco.
- Home Alone
This movie, along with “A Christmas Story” are two of my most favorite holiday comedy movies. The story begins in Chicago with Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin), an 8-year-old, accidentally left behind when his family goes to Paris for the holidays. Once he realizes that he is home alone, Kevin must learn to fend for himself, and so he does when two bumbling burglars, Harry and Marv (played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), plan to rob the McAllisters house. Kevin begin planning and setting traps for the crooks, while his mother continues to search and seek help to get home to Kevin.
However, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Home Alone 3, and Home Alone 4 (the TV version), just do not have the magic of the first movie. In Home Alone 2, Kevin is left alone again, but this time he gets on the wrong plane headed for New York, instead of Florida with his family.
In “Home Alone 3” Alex D. Linz is Alex Pruitt, who encounters four high-tech spies searching for a top-secret microchip hidden in a remote-control toy car. When bags are mixed up at the airport, Alex’s neighbor, Mrs. Hess (Marian Seldes), gets the bag with the toy and gives it to Alex for shoveling the snow from her sidewalk, and thus begins another game of ‘bad guy’ entrapment by a small kid left home alone.
Home Alone 4 (the 2002 TV version) is a real let down. There is nothing excitable about this installment. This TV series uses new characters, Peter and Kate are divorced, and Harry’s new partner is his wife, Vera. Harry and Vera plan to kidnap the prince of a royal family coming to stay at the house for Christmas. This version is definitely not worth wasting time.
- Pillow Talk, Send Me No Flowers, and The Glass Bottom Boat
Three of Doris Day’s most lovable, romantic comedies. In “Pillow Talk” Jan Morrows (Doris Day) share a two-party phone line with handsome Brad Allen (Rock Hudson), a song writer, who is being financed by Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall). Brad is quite the ladies’ man, and spends hours on the two-party line wooing and crooning his female sweethearts. Jan tries everything to get Mr. Allen off her party-line, including reporting him to the telephone company. While out on a date, Brad sees Jan for the first time and is immediately smitten. In a desperate attempt to meet her, he changes his name and accent, and becomes Texan, (Rex Stetson). Jan finds herself equally drawn to the handsome Texan, and the two soon begin dating. Meanwhile, Jonathan, eager to find out who has stolen the heart of the woman he wants to marry, hires a detective to follow Brad. By the time his identity is revealed, Brad a.k.a. (Rex) and Jan are going away for a romantic weekend together. When Jan stumbles upon sheet music with the same tune she has heard Brad sing over the phone to other women, Jonathan bursts into the room and reveal Rex’s true identity.
Send Me No Flowers is as equally funny, and also stars Doris Day, Rock Hudson, and Tony Randall. George Kimball (Rock Hudson) is a hypochondriac, and during one of his visits to the doctor, he overhears him diagnosing a dying man with only two weeks to live, and believes that he is the dying man. George tells his best friend Arnold Nash (Tony Randall) about his fate. Wanting to make sure his wife Judy (Doris Day) will be taken care of when he dies, George tries to find her a new husband. During a day out golfing, Judy is rescued by an old boyfriend, Bert Power (played by Clint Walker), and is invited to dinner. Judy stumbles upon George in a coat-check room with a beautiful woman and assumes he is having an affair. In order to save his marriage, George confesses to Judy that he only has two weeks to live. Now she feels sorry for him and caters to his every whim. When Dr. Ralph Morrissey (Edward Andrews) returns from a fishing trip, Judy learns that George is not dying after all, and thus begins non-stop comedy, which is actually from the beginning to the end.
The Glass Bottom Boat stars Doris Day as Jennifer Nelson and Rod Taylor as Bruce Templeton. The two meet when Mr. Templeton is out boating, and reels in Jennifer’s mermaid suit leaving her bottomless. After being hired at a research lab, she discovers that Mr. Templeton is her boss. Templeton’s friend General Bleecker thinks that Jennifer is a Russian Spy, and it isn’t long before she is put under comical surveillance, and followed.
- Some Like It Hot
One of Hollywood’s most loved comedies, starring Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane, Tony Curtis as Joe/Josephine, and Jack Lemmon as Jerry/Daphne. It is February 1929. Joe and Jerry, two unemployed musicians, witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Forced to leave town, the two take the first job available, playing in Sweet Sue’s all-girl band. In order to pull it off, Joe and Jerry become Josephine and Daphne (in dresses), and join the trip with the rest of the band to Florida. Soon they meet voluptuous “Sugar Kane”, described by Jerry as “jello on springs.” The movie is hysterically funny, with clever twists and surprising turns.
