Comedy Films

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in a very funny skit from the Colgate Comedy Hour. It’s a spoof on a game show where Dean tortures poor Jerry for the 64 million.

This is a cute political comedy starring Frank Morgan of Wizard of Oz fame. It was directed by Roy Rowland and produced by Robert Sisk from an original screenplay by Isobel Lennart and William Kozlenko.

A combat outfit returns from the war.  Veterans Jimmy Stevens (Edmond O’Brien), Eddie, Mike and Ollie  collect their twenty dollar assistance checks every week. The guys meet former W.A.V.E. Jean Madison (Wanda Hendrix).  Jimmy dubs her “The Admiral”.

Africa Screams is a 1949 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. The film is notable for having two members of the Three Stooges (Shemp Howard and Joe Besser) working together in a non-Stooge vehicle.

Cary Grant plays Earnest Bliss a rich socialite who makes a bet with his doctor that he can make a living for one year using none of his current wealth. This is a real cute movie.

The first Amos n’ Andy film. Amos n Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune’s station WGN.

Barney tries to play Cupid and succeeds, but he doesn’t like it.

Barney tries to play cupid, but doesn't like Andy's final choice.

Andy gets himself and Opie in trouble with Opies teacher Ms. Krump.

Andy and Barney investigate a string of robberies at Wally’s Filling Station.

Andy gets in trouble with Opies teacher and must undo the damage with a lesson in American history.

Aunt Bea has a problem with a 100 proof medicine man. Andy raids Aunt Bea.

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are former nightclub partners who are now enlisted in the Army. Sergeant Puccinelli (Dean Martin) now ranks above his former partner, Private First Class Korwin (Jerry Lewis). Puccinelli is desperately trying to get transferred from his dull job to active duty overseas.

Charles Laughton plays Edward C. Wilson Esq, who despite his title, is the town character. His drunken debauchery puts him at odds with Mr. Gray, the resident in charge of the welcome islands. It also puts him at odds with the other Europeans, especially Martha Jordan, the local missionary. Martha and “Mr. Ted” become an unlikely pair as they face a typhoid epidemic that has taken over the islands.

This musical comedy is set on a mysterious island where scantily clad warrior women hold all the power and men are regarded as disposable beings useful only for breeding purposes. Comic scenes result when four airmen arrive on the island and become the object of native womenfolk’s desires.

In this episode of the Beverly Hillbillies we get to see Max Baer Jr. in drag playing Ellies cousin Jethrine. Grannie and Pearl are trying to get Ellie May and Jethrine in a race to the altar

Between Pearl’s yodelling, Ellie’s animals and Grannie trying to keep Pearl out of the kitchen, it’s a funny episode of the Beverly Hillbillies.

The Beverly Hillbillies series starts with the OK Oil Company learning of oil in Jed Clampett’s swamp land and paying him a fortune to acquire the rights to drill on his land.

In this episode Jed decides he’s gonna become a banker. Buddy Ebsen stars as Jed.

Jed has to be the judge to make peace between Pearl, Grannie, Pearls yodelling, Ellies dogs… you get the idea….

The Beverly Hillbillies get an introduction to Baseball and the Dodgers. This is season 1 episode 20.

When the Beverly Hillbillies show up for Halloween, the Clampetts neighbors think it’s trick or treat.

Boys of the City is a 1940 black-and-white comedy/thriller film directed by Joseph H. Lewis. It is the second East Side Kids film and the first to star Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, and Ernest Morrison.

A Bucket of Blood is a 1959 comedy horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Dick Miller. It teaches the important lesson that beatniks should not drink their hair tonic.

George Burns and Gracie Allen win a free trip to Hawaii in this 1950′s comedy show.

A conversation with Gracie leaves the tax man chagrined. George doesn’t even try to explain it.

This is a silent era film about a guy who needs to become a soldier in order to impress a girl. He has two loves. One is the girl. The other is “The General”. A locomotive.

This time Buzzy O’Brien (Frankie Darro) is a florists delivery boy. He still thinks he’s a detective though and finds out that his boss was in a foreign espionage ring. Only Buzzy, with his sometime faithful companion Jefferson (Mantan Moreland) can crack the ring and save the day.

Actor Wylie Thorton is shot to death at his back stage birthday party. Detectives have their work cut out for them, because everyone, including a trick shooting chimpanzee wanted Wylie dead.

The Danny Thomas Show (known as Make Room for Daddy during the first four seasons) is a sitcom which ran from 1953 to 1957 on ABC and from 1957 to 1964 on CBS. A revival series known as Make Room for Granddaddy aired on ABC from 1970 to 1971.

The Danny Thomas Show (known as Make Room for Daddy during the first four seasons) is a sitcom which ran from 1953 to 1957 on ABC and from 1957 to 1964 on CBS. A revival series known as Make Room for Granddaddy aired on ABC from 1970 to 1971.

David Manners plays a crusading studio writer, Adrienne Ames plays an actress, Bela Lugosi plays a studio manager, and Edward Van Sloan plays a film director. The comedy thriller features three leading players from the previous year’s Dracula (Lugosi, Manners, and Van Sloan), and was the first film directed by Edwin L. Marin.

W.C. Fields plays a dentist in this Max Sennett film. It’s the first of 4 short 20 minute films with W.C. Fields made in 1932.

Duffy’s Tavern centers around the misadventures, get-rich-quick-scheming, and romantic missteps of the title establishment’s malaprop-prone, metaphor-mixing manager, Archie.

It’s Dusty’s Trail. It’s Gilligan’s Island in the Old West. In this episode, Dusty removes a thorn from the paw of a bear, and the bear becomes his friend.

It starred Loretta Young, David Niven and Broderick Crawford with a large supporting cast including Hugh Herbert, Billie Burke, C. Aubrey Smith, Virginia Field, Raymond Walburn, Zasu Pitts and Eve Arden.

Father’s Little Dividend is a 1951 comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie is the sequel to Father of the Bride (1950).

The Flying Deuces was the first Laurel and Hardy film not to be produced by Hal Roach, although they had played supporting roles in MGM features previously. The film was made and released by RKO Radio Pictures.

It just doesn’t get much cuter than this. George and Gracie are host to a bunch of space alien rocket girls.

The East Side Kids set out to fix up a house in the suburbs for Glimpy’s sister and her new husband. They find out the the neighbors are pretty spooky, including “The Man of a Thousand Horrors”, Bela Lugosi. This one has Ava Gardner in it. That’s always good.

When talkies were new, there was a guy named W.C. Fields who took center stage in translating vaudeville to the silver screen.

The show announced itself each week as “America’s favorite comedy show, starring America’s queen of comedy, Joan Davis, as Mrs. Joan Stevens.” The series focused on a married couple, Joan and Bradley Stevens. Joan Stevens usually found herself in numerous wacky jams, with or without the help of her younger sister (played by her real-life daughter, Beverly Wills).

An American musical comedy based on the satirical play by Nikolai Gogol that deals with local corruption and a case of mistaken identity in … all early 19th century Russia. Its ambiguous sets and costumes places the study somewhere in Eastern Europe during Napoleonic rule. Perhaps because the film was produced during the onset of the Cold War, the vagueness of the setting might indicate that the producers did not want to make a comedy about Russia. This vehicle for Danny Kaye reduced the biting satire and increased the music for American audiences.

Buzzy O’Brien (Frankie Darro) is a bellhop in a hotel where a guest is murdered. He teams up with Jefferson (Mantan Moreland) and wants to protect Kitty Monahan(Sheila Darcy), who he only protects because her name is Kitty Monahan. The police blame Kitty for the murder and Buzzy hides her at his home with his mother (Lillian Elliott). Based on Charles Molyneaux Brown’s story “Death Hops the Bells.

Jack and the Beanstalk is a 1952 family comedy starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is a comic revision of the classic fairy tale. Like Gone with the Wind, the movie starts out monochrome and goes to color.

Judge Priest depicting life in Kentucky after the Civil War and Reconstruction Period.
It still shows the stereotypes and prejudices which existed at that time in a somewhat humorous manner.

The Keystone cops were incompetent fictional policemen capable of extreme slapstick. Mac Sennett was responsible for changing comedy forever. By 1914, Sennet shifted the Keystone Kops from starring roles to background characters for comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle.

Blood-chilling revelations of the weird cult that practices its black magic in the impenetrable jungles of Central America!

Lady Behave is a light hearted romantic comedy. Millionaire Neil Hamilton gets drunk at a stylish party and wakes up married! He bolts off to his lawyer to have the marriage annulled, but finds out his new bride is already married.

The Lady Says No (1952) is a hoot. It’s a romantic comedy starring David Niven and Joan Caulfied. She’s a writer that writes a man hating book, he’s a photographer that wants to prove her all wrong. I thought it was pretty funny.

The film is a farce about an inadequate young florist’s assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. A Roger Corman classic.

he Bob Cummings Show (also known as Love That Bob) is an American television sitcom which was produced from 1955 to 1959. The program began with a half-season run on NBC, then ran for two full seasons on CBS, and returned to NBC for its final two seasons. The program was later rerun in the daytime hours on ABC and then syndicated under the title Love That Bob.

Lucille Ball becomes a marine with the shortest career in military history, she gets drafted.

Lucy and Desi Arnaz split, so Lucy went on to do this later TV series, the Lucy Show. In this episode, Lucy gets a draft notice for Lou C. Carmichael and ends up drafted into the Marines.

It’s been 60 years, but Pine Ridge has never forgotten the comic pair that made the town famous enough to provoke an official town name change. The town is host to the Lum n Abner Museum. Adjacent to the Museum is a replica of the legendary “Jot ‘em Down Store,” the central setting of the radio programs. And Lum and Abner is one of the more popular swaps among old-time radio fans.

A veteran finds his way to to his home town and meets a society girl who is fleeing her boyfriend. This is a witty little comedy. I think you will find it to be quite enjoyable.

McLintock! is a 1963 comedy Western starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, and loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The film is famous (or infamous) for its two spanking scenes, in which mother and daughter are each paddled with coal shovels: the daughter by her suitor, the mother by her estranged husband.

Heres really early Jack Benny as the Medicine Man. He has to help the son and daughter of a mean shopkeeper. He’s a medicine show “doctor”. Its funny. It’s Jack Benny. How could you go wrong?

Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyckstar in this comedy about a political campaign This movie became a box office hit. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best original story (for Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.).

Blackmailer McDonald is murdered by one of his victims. His body is dumped in the trunk of his enemy, newspaper editor Kruger and the plot begins.

Mr. and Mrs. North are fictional American amateur detectives. Created by Frances and Richard Lockridge, the couple were featured in a series of 26 Mr. and Mrs. North novels, a Broadway play, a motion picture and several radio and television series. They were not professional detectives but simply an ordinary couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week for 12 years.

Mr. and Mrs. North are fictional American amateur detectives. Created by Frances and Richard Lockridge, the couple were featured in a series of 26 Mr. and Mrs. North novels, a Broadway play, a motion picture and several radio and television series. They were not professional detectives but simply an ordinary couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week for 12 years.

My Favorite Brunette is a 1947 movie spoofing movie detectives and the film noir style. Starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, it also features Lon Chaney, Jr. playing Willie, a character based on his Of Mice and Men role Lennie; Peter Lorre as Kismit, a comic take on his many film noir roles; and cameo appearances by film noir regular Alan Ladd and Hope partner Bing Crosby.

A socialite hires a derelict to be her family’s butler, only to fall in love with him, much to his dismay. The film stars William Powell and Carole Lombard.

A chimney sweep from Wigan dreams of winning the TT Races in the Isle of Man. With money ‘borrowed’ from his grandfather, George Shuttleworth builds the ‘Shuttleworth Snap’ motorcycle after failing to join the Rainbow Motor-Cycle team.

Actor Philippe Martin (Francis Lederer) and his married date Yvonne (Liev De Maigret) plan to neck in a darkened cinema, but he gets the wrong seat and mistakenly kisses lovely Monique (Ida Lupino), a publisher’s daughter.

Here’s an episode of Ozzie and Harriet from 1964. With June. I always liked Ozzie and Harriet better with June. Ozzie and the boys are on a mission to liven up the women’s club dance.

W.C Fields is at it again. This time as a cranky druggist.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a filmed 1957 ninety-minute musical color television special originally shown by NBC on November 26, 1957, as their Thanksgiving Day offering for that year. Based on the famous poem by Robert Browning and using the music of Edvard Grieg with special lyrics by Hal Stanley and Irving Taylor, it starred Van Johnson, Claude Rains (in his only singing and dancing role), Lori Nelson, Jim Backus, and Kay Starr.

This is the Red Skelton show with John Carradine as a guest. Red does a pantomime and a skit where he becomes a famous impressionist artist.

Here’s an episode of the Red Skelton show from 1956. It’s got Mickey Rooney as a guest star and Red Skelton plays his famous Freddie Freeloader.

Here’s an episode of the Red Skelton Show with Red in some funny schtick with guest star. Tough guy, George Rafts gives Red Skelton the third degree and slaps him around to make him sing.

Road to Bali is a 1952 comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. It was released by Paramount Pictures and is the sixth of the seven Road to… movies. It was the only such movie filmed in color and was the first to feature surprise cameo appearances from other well-known stars of the day.

Lum and Abner, an American radio comedy which aired as a network program from 1932 to 1954, became an American institution in its low-keyed, arch rural wit.

This is just about where Buster Keaton got lost in the transition to talkies. Jimmy Durante, Rth Selwin and Thelma Todd co star in this story about Professor Potts of Potts College. Professor Potts (Keaton) inherits a fortune and thinks he can finally enjoy life.

Spooks Run Wild is a 1941 film and the seventh film in the East Side Kids series, starring Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Bobby Jordan. Released in 1941, it was directed by Phil Rosen, in his first and only outing in the series.

This is a western with a cast consisting entirely of little people. It’s obvious that Tiny Town was built for normal sized people who were killed and eaten by the towns citizens.

Joe spends a lot of his time at Nick’s Pacific Street Saloon. Tom, who credits Joe with once saving his life, stops by regularly to run errands for Joe. Today, Tom notices a woman named Kitty when she comes into Nick’s, and he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a distraught young man repeatedly calls his girlfriend, begging her to marry him. Nick himself muses on all the various persons who come into his bar, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time. You’ll love these wonderful characters!

Topper is a spinoff of the Topper movie from 1937. It’s the story of a guy who is haunted by an invisible couple and their dog who died in a landslide.