Classic Comedy Hall of Fame

Registered User

04-28-19

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Well, well, we have an even darker comedy than Arsenic and Old Lace. This one is just delightful in its murderous humor, it takes such fun in joy in presenting us with such a likable and interesting young character who just happens to be a murderer as well. I loved all the characters in the movies, all the future dukes and duchesses had interesting quirks and personalities, and both Edith and Sibella were great. The acting was a bit stiff, but it's made up for in the brilliance of the dialogue and character building. The film is also really funny, and I think the memoir style for the film made it very effective and enjoyable.

GulfportDoc

Registered User

04-29-19

Modern Times (1936)
Most film historians/reviewers place Modern Times in their lists of top 100 films. Indeed Charlie Chaplain is one of the major figures in film comedy, and his �Little Tramp� is one of the most iconic characters in all of cinema.

Modern Times is unique for several reasons: it is the last appearance of the Little Tramp; it is Chaplain�s last "silent"; it is the first time we hear Chaplain�s voice in a film�albeit only via some gobbledygook lyrics; it�s his only Little Tramp film which featured a full co-star (Paulette Goddard); and it is the first Chaplain film to reveal his political leanings.

The film was very costly, and didn�t recoup it�s expenses at the American box office, although it was very popular in England and Europe. One wonders if audiences weren�t slightly tiring of the Little Tramp and his slapstick antics after 20-plus years as a movie persona.

At nearly 90 minutes in length the picture was the longest Chaplain directed film at the time. Most of his previous comedies had been in the 50-70 minute range. The elaborate and costly sets were very impressive, contributing to the film�s $1.5M budget.

There were some vividly memorable scenes, for example his body winding through the machinery cogs; the scenes after his accidental ingestion of cocaine (which remarkably escaped the censors); his caf� song and mime routine in which he audibly sings; and the lovely ending in which the he walks off into the sunrise hand in hand with his girlfriend in anticipation of a bright future�a great finale for the Little Tramp.

I�ve always favored Buster Keaton over Chaplain�s comedies. But there�s no denying Chaplain�s importance in the history of comedy films.

~Doc

Last edited by GulfportDoc; 04-30-19 at 10:20 AM.

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

04-30-19

Harvey (Henry Koster,1950)

A 6' 8" invisible rabbit...who knew such a film could be so rewarding! I loved this! I'd seen it only once before many years ago, so it was a real treat to watch again. Gosh, there's so many good things happening in the film that I don't know where to start. Actors: of course, what a cast! could Elwood P. Dowd be played by anyone else than James Stewart? Stewart's wonderful in this and in the DVD extras there was an interview from 1990 with Stewart and he sighted Harvey as one of his own favorite movies. Stewart had been in the stage play of Harvey, and when director Henry Koster made the film he decided to use some of the stage performers which was unusual for the time. Also unusual was the director's choice to literately shoot the film in long master-takes without breaking for close up shots. That way the film had a continuity and energy like the award winning play had.

And what energy the screenplay has! It takes off from the opening when Dowd leaves that neat looking old Victorian home with the heavy pillars and sun room with curved glass...and the film never lulls as it's packed with people and nuances that makes the film a joy to watch. You know what was cool was the interior of the house...no way did I expect to see that curved sun room window from the inside, but surprise, they created it from the interior for a shot during the tea party scene.

Oh, the older eccentric sister Veta Loiuse was played to utter perfection by stage actress Josephine Hull, who had played Veta in the stage play. She was good! So was her desperate to be wed daughter, Myrtle May and the Maytag Repairman Jesse White aka the nut-catcher. What a hoot he was! And I'd be amidst if I didn't give a shout out to one of my fav character actors Cecil Kellaway.

But you know what shines greater than any of the actors or sets or even direction? "The play is the thing." Hitchcock said that once, and it's so true. The play's script was written by Mary Chase who won a Pulitzer Prize and it's her story that makes these people so three dimensional. Even the doctor and nurse have their own subplot of a near-miss romance, which not only adds depth but makes these smaller roles seem so important to the story. And that's what Harvey and Harvey do, they make lemonade out of proverbial lemons.

One of my favs so far in this HoF.

Last edited by Citizen Rules; 04-30-19 at 01:38 PM.

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

04-30-19

Glad to hear it, CR, THANKS!

__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

04-30-19

Originally Posted by edarsenal

Glad to hear it, CR, THANKS!

It'll be a tough call for me as to which makes the top of my list, so many great comedies here!

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

04-30-19

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

It'll be a tough call for me as to which makes the top of my list, so many great comedies here!

we've had an excellent run of HoFs where this has been really tricky, recently.

Siddon

Msg

Registered User

05-01-19

Trouble in Paradise was a rewatch for me, I always knew Lubitsch was good but I never really had a favorite one. This is really a three person story a con man is torn between his lover (conwoman) and a wealthy I thought widow but now I'm not so sure. In Lubistchland all men are in their 40's and 50's and all the women are in their 20's and 30's for me it sort of bogged down the plot a bit.

I was charmed by the story and I enjoyed quite a few of the philosophy from Herbert Mitchell. My big regret is that I wish Kay Francis older or more of her character drawn out. I did however enjoy Miriam Hopkins performance as the girlfriend she definitely made the most out of her screen time.

One of the things I really loved about this film was the cinematography, it has a certain elegance but the camera almost feels like it's own character moving through room after room introducing the characters breaking into random montages that are perfectly sentimental. This was a great movie I just don't know if it was a great comedy.

Siddon

Msg

Registered User

05-01-19

@ahwell 12/14 @AlexWilder 2/14 @Citizen Rules 7/14 @edarsenal 9/14 @GulfportDoc 10/14 @Siddon 3/14
@Nathanial 1/14

44 reviews in so far (98) so we are now at the half-way mark I feel like June 1st would be a good stop date

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

05-01-19

Sherlock Jr. ( Buster Keaton 1924)

Buster Keaton is the man! I've seen him in other stuff and he's always funny! He's my favorite silent era comic actor. He even had a very long acting run working all the way up until the 1960s. I recently seen him in an old episode of the Twilight Zone where he played a man who longed to go back to a simpler time. And he does, and it's back to the early 1900s and they filmed that portion as a silent with title cards!

Buster Keaton could convey so much emotion to us just by the look on his face. I loved the part where he gives his girlfriend a ring, and it's a tiny little diamond! She's not impressed either, but then Keaton takes a magnifying glass out of his pocket and hands it to her, so that the ring will look big to his girl..that was funny!

What I enjoyed the most wasn't the humor, but the creativity, especially those crazy stunts. Shortly into the film Buster who's a film projections falls asleep and dreams he's in the film that he's been watching on the screen. I loved who they did the double exposure that had the sleeping Buster leaving his own body, and getting his trademark straw hat...then the best part is when he leaps onto the silver screen. How cool is that!

As the dream Buster is chased, he quickly goes from the city, to the country, then to the jungle, all done seamlessly. The film is quite a technical feat I mean think about this was done in 1924.

Besides being a talented actor, Buster Keaton was also a skilled director and directed Sherlock Jr. which is pretty damn amazing when you think about it.

ahwell

Registered User

05-01-19

Harvey

This is a great comedy, although not very funny. I loved the fantasy elements, almost a precursor of the horror comedy, although it's not much of horror at all. I actually found Mr. Doud to be a bit of an annoying character, too cheerful all the time, like he was forcing it. But his relationship with Harvey was quite wonderful, and I loved the character interactions. "Now, I'd like you to meet a very dear friend of mine..." he must say that a dozen times in the movie. Overall, it has a great cast of characters and styles, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

05-01-19

Top Hat

Dale Tremont: Madge, have you any objections if I scare your husband so that he'll never look at another woman?
Madge Hardwick: Dale, no husband is ever too scared to look.

While at first this is a very, very good Musical with some terrific dance numbers, it is befitting of the genre of Comedy. Especially with the quick wit of the secondary actors; Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore and the wonderfully dry sarcasm of Helen Broderick. Even though both Rogers and Astaire do equally well verbally as they do tap dancing to ballroom, I do believe their supporting actors really bring the comedic aspects home quite nicely.
With a typical screwball scenario of Astaire being mistaken by Rogers as a married man, the inevitable love affair hits stumbling block after honorable stumbling block.

I also need to comment on some of the stages they used, especially The Venice set or more accurately, the imagined, glamorized staged interpretation of Venice was pretty d@mn wonderful.

I have taken far FAR too long to have finally seen this "Must See" Rogers and Astaire vehicle and I am so very glad I finally did.

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

05-02-19

Monkey Business (1931)

What's funner than a barrel full of herring, err I mean monkeys...the Marx Brothers! and on a passenger ship to boot

I love movies set on ships. It's like a whole world apart from the real one, and that works wonders for comedies such as Monkey Business. I know the ship was a set, but they sure had great looking sets. I mean just look at the photo above and it's easy to image they're on the promenade deck, sailing the Atlantic.

Thelma Todd was a peach, and I really liked her in this. It was a treat seeing her as I haven't seen her in much at all. I know she was popular in the precode era, but I wondered why she didn't have more of a movie career...After reading IMDB's trivia I now know why

What a bummer...Sometimes I regret reading about stars, they shine so brightly that one would think they would be immortal.

Sorry to end on such a dower note.

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

05-02-19

Your comments caused me to go and read as well.
I'm equal parts sad AND angry about it.

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

05-02-19

Originally Posted by edarsenal

Your comments caused me to go and read as well.
I'm equal parts sad AND angry about it.

I'm still thinking about it myself.

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

05-03-19

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

I'm still thinking about it myself.

I did know Miss Todd died at an early age but never knew the circumstances to it all.
Just terrible all around.

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

05-03-19

Originally Posted by edarsenal

I did know Miss Todd died at an early age but never knew the circumstances to it all.
Just terrible all around.

I didn't even know so died young. I thought that she was one of the many 1920s early 30s actresses who faded out when a new crop of actors arrived on the scene. I believe she's in another Marx Brothers film, I'd like to see that someday.

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

05-03-19

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

yep Horse Feathers, some great skits in that one.

Siddon

Msg

Registered User

05-03-19

Arsenic and Old Lace, Cary Grant plays a bachelor who decides to get married he ends up in his childhood home with his two aunts, his crazy brother. While at his home he discovers that his aunts are running a sort of euthanasia program of sorts doing away with burdensome elderly men who answer their ads. While at his childhood home his other brother the one who doesn't think he's Teddy Roosevelt escapes from prison with an alcoholic doctor (Peter Lorre) he's just your normal run of the mill serial killer.

I'm sorry but I really don't like these sorts of movies. The problem is that each comedy bit is sort of strung together but often times the bits feel forced and the characters feel fake. Cary Grant's character is in almost every scene of the film and Mortimer becomes a tiresome figure. Of every five jokes or so only one really landed for me. The other problem is the serial killer Jonathan who is supposed to be Boris Karloff isn't nearly as good as Karloff and even though they keep bringing up Karloff it still doesn't work. I wonder if the film would have been better if Priscilla Lane (the wife) had a bigger role in the plot. Often times it felt like characters would just randomly walk off into another room and just come in when it was time to do something funny. It was very difficult for me to track the movements and motivations of the characters in the film.

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

05-04-19

It's a Gift (1934)

Cool nomination as it's not a well known film and today W.C. Fields is like Rodney Dangerfield in that he...'gets no respect.' ...I've only seen one other Fields' movie and that's the riotously funny My Little Chickadee (1940) with Mae West. I like W.C. Fields but he wasn't at his best here. The first part of the film dragged and it seemed stilted and staged and I didn't find anything funny about it. Some of the actors most notably his daughter couldn't act and were flat in the delivery of their lines. Though she was pretty enough, so I forgave her

The wife was good!

I have to say the blind man gag was cringe worthy. Even back in 1934 that must have felt like an old, stale vaudevillian gag, not funny.....BUT the film did get funny and I did laugh once they headed out west to the orange orchard. The picnic scene on a rich man's estate was hilarious. I loved how they made a HUGE mess with their garbage. And the crackers falling on the little boys head was hilarious, even more so when they fell into his mouth. OK that was inspired comedy, but too bad most of the film felt like a cake walk.

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GulfportDoc