COMEDY FILMS THAT ROCK

Comedy and the general ability to laugh may well be uniquely human. It certainly makes the world a better place to be in. I have selected twenty movies I have really enjoyed for the comedy. Many of them have other aspects that add up to great viewing. Certainly they all speak of the age of their creation and how people were thinking and feeling at the time. Some have taken really serious issues and turned them upside down.

The writer Dale Launer couldn't have done a better job. The cast which includes Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei and Fred Gwynne know their business. Two young men are arrested for a crime they didn't commit in a backward southern part of the good old USA. One of the young men, played by Ralph Macchio, brings in a relative who is supposed to be this back east hot shot lawyer. Unfortunately, what he knows about the law could fit onto an average sized postage stamp. There is great humor created between this lawyer, played by Pesci, the Judge (Fred Gwynne) and the lawyer's smarter other half, played by Marisa Tomei. Of course justice does win out in the end but you should check it out to find out just how that is possible.

This film based on the hit Television series The Munsters, took America's favorite fright family to England where the locals there were not thrilled to meet them. Apart from the usual wonderful cast from the television show such as Yvonne de Carlo, Fred Gwynne, Alan lewis and Butch Patrick, the British threw in great funny man Terry-Thomas just so the chaps from across the pond wouldn't get all the laughs.

It seems that 1966 was a great year for comedy. Certainly for comedy that dealt with the theme of horror. This was far from being the first carry on movie produced by the British but for my money it is the best. Starring Harry H. Corbett  as a detective who discovers all sorts of horrible things in foggy London and Tom Clegg as one of those horrible things, it was a laugh rather than a scream a minute. Fenella Fielding plays the hard to resist vampish female vampire.

This was an outrageous sex romp where you have this bloke, Alvin Purple (Graeme Blundell) unable to find true love with one woman because every woman  he meets falls madly in love with him and wants his body. It is of course a dream most men have at one time or another. Turning the dream into a bit of a nightmare and into a huge comedy no doubt took effort. This movie is also well known for its easy on the eye female cast which included Abigail, Jacki Weaver, Jill Forster and Christine Amor.  Hot stuff.

Take a cast that belongs in a straight spy or crime thriller and are willing to play it straight then throw in a bumbling detective. This was director Edward Blake's masterpiece. It also did the career of Peter Sellers some good in that it endeared him to a younger, more 'with it' audience.

Take an actor who only ever played tough guys but always wanted to do comedy (Leslie Nielsen) and give him his break. Sure, he did okay with airport comedy but let's see what he can really do.Take an attractive woman like Priscilla Presley and see if she can play a straight man (person?). Throw in a truck load of sight gags and innuendos off the coconut tree and you have the first Naked Gun film.

Yes, 1988 was a year in which comedy thrived. This off the wall Australian comedy had the Americans scratching their heads and saying things like: What the...? To be fair, Young Einstein has a lot of in jokes only Australians and possibly New Zealanders could really appreciate.

Starring Yahoo Serious, it did very well in Australia. It has very little to do with the true life of Einstein or, for that matter, Marie Curie (Odile Le Clezio). It must be noted, however, that the real Einstein did have a sense of humor and that is what the film is really about. The music makes you feel proud to be an Australian and some of the scenes make you hungry for an apple or two. This film doesn't really show how rock and roll came about but it would be marvelous if it did happen this way. I suppose its all relative.

Take a bunch of guys who wowed them on stage with their music and comedy routines and let them go wild on film. One marvelous result was the Marx Brothers triumph, Horse Feathers. You would think an understanding of American football might help you come to grips with this movie. No such luck and rightly so. Just jump into the craziness, the waters fine.

For me this is an all time favorite because I simply love planes and plane travel. The theme song grabs you and holds onto you for days after you have heard it and the cast was simply the best. Terry-Thomas does what he usually does in playing the superb rotter. Patrician Rawnsley, played by Sarah Miles, is a love interest for two of the gentleman (well, one is actually an American) fliers and, for some reason, she wants to fly, too. Crash landing don't seem to put her off much. Great visuals and a glimpse into an age that will never be again.

Starring Steve Martin, this is a beautiful film that mixes strange Shakespearian asides with a few nifty special effects and the pure wonder of life in possibly the most off the planet city in the USA. There is a love affair going on here between Martin and Los Angeles that is hard to miss and that is very endearing. Sarah Jessica Parker appears in a rather kooky but nice role as SanDeE (the character's spelling, not mine). There is some lovely music by Enya. Can an American weather man find love with an English Beatle's fan? Well, he can if the city of L. A. heps out a little with some street sign magic. 

A Russian submarine loses its way and ends up on American soil on a small Island off the coast of New England. Panic ensues. Are the Russians invading? No. They just want directions on how to get home and they want to avoid a gun battle with frightened locals. Starring Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin and Brian Keith, this comedy might not have been possible five years earlier on when the threat from Russia seemed more real to Americans.  

This was Peter Sellers' last film and quite possibly his best. Sellers plays a simple minded gardener who manages to wow important people with his calm attitude and his smile. At a dinner party his ways are misinterpreted and the power brokers take him to be a sly genius. The movie also stars Shirley MacLaine and Jack Warden.

Dracula and vampirism have been sent up numerous times before this film was made but this is a really good example of how to do it right. With the genius of Mel Brooks behind it and starring Leslie Nielsen as the fanged count it couldn't go wrong. Peter MacNicol gives as great performance as the disturbed Renfield.

This Mel Brooks effort starring Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn and Teri Garr was a smash hit from the start. Though it sent up the old Universal Frankenstein movies, it also honored them. Brooks had a great sense of timing and knew how to put a winning cast together.

This low budget British effort starring John Cleese and Eric Idle has a lot of gags that are still passed on today. Who could forget the coconuts for example? The search for the Holy Grail was never meant to be easy, especially with a whole bunch of daft knights and the plague around the corner and mud, let us not forget mud, the peasant's lot in life.

Starring Woody Allen. Ursula Andress and Paula Prentiss, this is a bedroom romp movie with wheels on. The goings-on at some hotels in the country! Mad psychologists and sex obsessed patients complete the picture nicely. Oh, and an excellent theme song too. The 'sixties really did swing.

This is a detective flick that doesn't take itself too seriously. Nick and Nora Charles think they are in for a quiet life. Nick (William Powell) also the Thin Man is from the rough side of the tracks and knows the coppers and the crims. He also can teach a fish how to swim in liquor and blanches at the sight of that horrible white stuff called milk. Nora ( Myrna Loy) comes from a wealthy background and has contacts with high society. Astor, their pet dog, tends to keep out of trouble most of the time but that isn't always easy with Nick and Nora being around. At the end of the movie deductive reasoning sneaks up on Nick and of course the crime they get involved in is solved and so the start of a series of Thin Man movies begins.

This is a great spy spoof starring James Coburn as super spy Flint. There are women out there plotting to take over the world and only a handsome male agent with real class can stop them. Also starring Jean Hale, Anna Lee, Totty Ames and Diane Bond.

This is Mike Myers' wonderful send of the James Bond of the swinging 'sixties. A secret agent frozen in time is released to the world to deal with a threat from the past. Elizabeth Hurley plays the love interest in this comedy. Just what does happen to a henchman's family when he dies on the job? Just what was so great about the 'sixties that made it swing? Can an actor comedian play two role successfully in the same movie? Can an evil genius have a son a lot smarter and more practical than he is? All these questions and more are answered. It is a pity the other Powers movies didn't really come up to par though they were successful.

This Aussie movie, starring Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski, was based very roughly on a true Australian character. It was an Australian version of Tarzan meets Jane with lots of laughs, beautiful scenery and great dialogue. It did well in Australia, New Zealand. the USA and the UK.

I know I probably didn't get all your favorite comedy films. I hope I managed to get some of them. I hope you enjoyed the read.