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50 Greatest Comedies of All Time Part 1 |
There were many missing films in this list that should
have been included or mentioned, for example: Sherlock Jr. (1924),
![]() "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the "100 Greatest Films". |
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Premiere Magazine's
50 Greatest Comedies of All Time (part 1, chronological) |
1. SAFETY
LAST (1923) Energetic, all-American Harold Lloyd will do anything to convince his girl that he's a big success in the big city. How this results in his hanging from a clock face on the side of a tall building is just one of the pleasures of this death-defying slapstick classic. |
2. ![]() Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp goes prospecting and winds up eating his shoe. The most pleasingly frantic and inventive of the actor-director's silent era features. |
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7. MY MAN GODFREY (1936) |
8. THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) |
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10. ![]() Legend has it that this rapid-fire gender-bent slant on The Front Page was kicked off by a reading of the play at Howard Hawks's house, with a woman taking the part of Hildy Johnson. Whatever the inspiration, this classic, alternating between near-moronic farce and quasi-tragedy and blasting all the notes in between, features Cary Grant at his weaseliest, Rosalind Russell at her toughest and tenderest, and Ralph Bellamy at the height of Bellamyness. |
11. A CHUMP AT OXFORD (1940) Long before Back to School and Billy Madison plumbed the comic possibilities of goofball students in the groves of academe, there were Laurel and Hardy, wreaking havoc on ivory towers and ivied halls. |
12. THE
BANK DICK (1940) Misanthropic, boozy W.C. Fields just wants to, well, lie around and drink. But there are all these people distracting him—e.g., his family—and all these things that these people want him to do. When a misunderstanding makes a hero out of him, he tries to ride his newfound esteem for all it's worth. And then things go even more wrong for him… |
13. TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) |
14. ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942) |
15. THE MIRACLE
OF MORGAN'S CREEK (1944) The put-one-over-on-the-censors audaciousness of Preston Sturges's most frantic farce, about a small-town woman in a delicate condition writ large, is best exemplified by its heroine's last name: Kockenlocker. |
16. THE LADYKILLERS (1955) Alec Guinness plays a toothy and scrupulous criminal who rents a room from the world's sweetest old lady, then enlists her unwitting participation in his gang's bank heist. But when the thugs decide they must rub out Mrs. Wilberforce, events give new meaning to the word "backfire." |
17. BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET
(1958) Or, The Gang That Couldn't Rob Straight. In which a motley crew of Italian layabouts plan the perfect crime and execute the perfect disaster. A fortuitous one-time-only coupling of slapstick and the neorealist ethos. |
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19. THE
APARTMENT (1960) Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine fall in love in a series of small, bittersweet moments that provide shelter from their lives in big business. Moviewise, it's charming. |
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21. A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964) The second time was the charm for Peter Sellers as fumbling French detective Jacques Clouseau. Sent to investigate a murder, the inept inspector ignores all facts and falls for the most obvious suspect, a beautiful maid with a knack for holding the murder weapon. |
22. THE PRODUCERS (1968) A shady theatre producer and an accountant set out to stage the worst play in history and ended up, sadly, with a huge hit. And they need only one song, "Springtime for Hitler," to do it. |
23. M*A*S*H (1970) |
24. SLEEPER
(1973) Woody Allen paid homage to his favorite funnymen - Groucho, Chaplin, Keaton - and in the process concocted a zany sci-fi story full of unforgettable sight gags and one-liners. If only the future really included the orgasmatron and society governed by a nose. |
25. BLAZING
SADDLES (1974) With this no-holds-barred spoof of Hollywood's westerns, Mel Brooks delivered a raunchy blend of slapstick silliness, sexual innuendo, and enough racial epithets to fill a Spike Lee movie. Unforgettable line: "Mongo only pawn in Game of Life." |