Comedy

  • Jean Negulesco – How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

    USA1951-1960ClassicsComedyJean NegulescoMarilyn Monroe

    Synopsis:
    Three New York models, Shatze, Pola and Loco set up in an exclusive apartment with a plan….tired of cheap men and a lack of money, they intend to use all their talents to trap and marry three millionaires. The trouble is that it’s not so easy to tell the rich men from the hucksters – and even when they can, is the money really worth it?Read More »

  • Albert de Courville – There Goes the Bride (1932)

    1931-1940Albert de CourvilleComedyUnited Kingdom

    A businessman’s daughter runs away from an arranged marriage, only to find herself penniless and suspected of theft after she becomes the victim of a bag thief in the train. When she refuses to tell him who she really is, her accuser decides to take her home where he can keep an eye on her until 12 o’clock the next day, the time at which she has calculated that it will be safe to tell the truth! But when his fiancée arrives unexpectedly and then his ‘guest’ is mistaken for her, it all gets rather embarrassing…Read More »

  • Mario Mattoli – Totò al giro d’Italia AKA Totò does the Giro d’Italia (1948)

    1941-1950ClassicsComedyItalyMario Mattoli

    Totò Al Giro D’Italia is about the 1948 edition of the Giro d’Italia, in which Professor Totò sells his soul to the devil in order to win the love of the bella Doriana. She agrees to marry him only if he can win the national bicycle race, calculating that this is an impossibility, but one stage after another he defeats all great cycling champions of that time (Coppi, Bartali, Schotte, Kubler, Bobet, Magni, et al).Read More »

  • Norman Z. McLeod – Horse Feathers (1932)

    1931-1940Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtClassicsComedyNorman Z. McLeodUSA

    Synopsis:
    Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff has just been installed as the new president of Huxley College. His cavalier attitude toward education is not reserved for his son Frank, who is seeing the college widow, Connie Bailey. Frank influences Wagstaff to recruit two football players who hang out in a speakeasy, in order to beat rival school Darwin. Unfortunately, Wagstaff mistakenly hires the misfits Baravelli and Pinky. Finding out that Darwin has beaten him to the “real” players, Wagstaff enlists Baravelli and Pinky to kidnap them, which leads to an anarchic football finale.Read More »

  • Leo McCarey – Duck Soup (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyLeo McCareyUSA

    Synopsis:
    The small state of Freedonia is in a financial mess, borrowing a huge sum of cash from wealthy widow Mrs. Teasdale. She insists on replacing the current president with crazy Rufus T. Firefly and mayhem erupts. To make matters worse, the neighboring state sends inept spies Chicolini and Pinky to obtain top secret information, creating even more chaos!Read More »

  • Victor Heerman – Animal Crackers (1930)

    1921-1930ClassicsComedyUSAVictor Heerman

    Synopsis:
    Captain Spaulding, the noted explorer, returns from Africa and attends a gala party held by Mrs. Rittenhouse. A painting displayed at that party is stolen, and the Marxes help recover it. Well, maybe ‘help’ isn’t quite the word I was looking for–this is the Marx Brothers, after all…
    — Ken Yousten (IMDb)Read More »

  • Seijun Suzuki – Kawachi Karumen AKA Carmen from Kawachi (1966)

    1961-1970ComedyDramaJapanSeijun Suzuki

    Synopsis:
    ‘Carmen from Kawachi brings the nihilist Suzuki universe to a woman’s life in the decidedly unsentimental education of a provincial factory worker, Tsuyuko, whose rape by two fellow villagers starts her on the road to sexual awareness and finally, independence. It is a long, picaresque road indeed, meandering from Osaka’s Club Dada, through liaisons with a millionaire, a dominatrix, and an action painter–all the while cohabiting with a degenerate if loving roué. The determining encounter is with a corrupt monk, whose sordid affair with her mother had been for Tsuyuko a primal introduction to sexual hypocrisy and male brutality.’
    – James QuandtRead More »

  • Anatoliy Karanovich & Sergei Yutkevich – Ilinskiy o Mayakovskom AKA Mayakovsky Laughs (1973)

    1971-1980Anatoliy KaranovichComedyExperimentalRussiaSergei Yutkevich

    This little-seen and little-discussed film combines animation with self-reflexive, live action segments to embody the anarchic, satiric spirit of the poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930). The film also showcases Sergei Yuktevich’s fondness for formal experimentation. It is nominally adapted from Mayakovsky’s play “The Bedbug” and his screenplay “Forget All About the Fireplace.”Read More »

  • John Ford – The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)

    1931-1940ComedyCrimeJohn FordScrewball ComedyUSA

    Synopsis:
    Ordinary man-in-the-street Arthur Ferguson Jones leads a very straightforward life. He’s never late for work and nothing interesting ever happens to him. One day everything changes: he oversleeps and is fired as an example, he’s then mistaken for evil criminal killer Mannion and is arrested. The resemblance is so striking that the police give him a special pass to avoid a similar mistake. The real Mannion sees the opportunity to steal the pass and move around freely and chaos results.Read More »

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