How many 1950s films have made the countdown, thus far? What is your sense without looking?
The answer is
one.
Singin' in the Rain (#50).
If Billy Wilder's
Some Like it Hot is in fact in the Top 10 that will be the only other title from that decade to appear. It is the kind of oversight that would never, ever happen on a list curated by critics or made up by a magazine staff. But for MoFo taste, en masse...apparently so.
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World was made in 1963, but with its galaxy of stars from Spencer Tracy on down and its cinematography and sensibility it feels much more like a holdover product of the 1950s to me than the 1960s.
Anyway, my theory is that the 1950s are an odd time culturally that in general doesn't date well, especially in regards to comedy. Silent movies are Silent movies, the comedies of the '30s and '40s have been replicated enough by subsequent generations of filmmakers that they still seem familiar and funny (for example #60
What's Up, Doc?). The 1960s are very well entrenched in popular culture (as in #96
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and #32
National Lampoon's Animal House). But the square, fudd-duddy, Post-WWII, Eisenhower era of the 1950s? The two films on the countdown set there,
Back to the Future (#35) and
Ed Wood (#69), both seem to be very much making fun of the outdated nature of that period's attitudes. If
Some Like it Hot does indeed make the Top Ten that means the only two movies made in the 1950s on the list, it and
Singin' in the Rain, are interestingly enough both SET in the 1920s.
The other comedies that placed on the MoFo Top 100 Films of the 1950s list were
All About Eve (#12), which is not really a full-on comedy,
Harvey (#31), the Daffy Duck short
Duck Amuck (#89), and
Roman Holiday (#92). That's it. American Comedy in the 1950s it seems was being covered by the television airwaves:
"I Love Lucy", "Leave it to Beaver", "Father Knows Best", "The Donna Reed Show", etc.
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World did not place anywhere on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1960s.
The Graduate was #6 (#27 here),
The Apartment #8 (#30 here),
Playtime was #31 (#49 on this list), while
Breakfast at Tiffany's was #39,
My Fair Lady #40,
A Hard Day's Night #53,
Charade at #57, Disney's
The Jungle Book hit #88, and
Barefoot in the Park was #91 with none of them making this list. Though
One Two Three and
The Producers did make it here without showing on the 1960s list. Oh, and there's still some Kubrick flick about nukes that was #4 on that list and just may still be coming (it is).
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of those touchstones that movie and comedy buffs all know, but it certainly isn't going to be in this Top Ten.