Who doesn't love to laugh? I know I do. I grew up during in a great time, when the television was filled daily with Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy shorts, and there was always a Marx Brothers or W.C. Fields film playing somewhere. And let's not forget Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis, Ma & Pa Kettle and, of course, Francis The Talking Mule. Comedy was king. As a youth, I started collecting silent comedies on Super 8mm and discovered the comic trinity of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.
The biggest problem with making a list of comedies is deciding what actually is a comedy. How many laughs are needed to turn a drama into a comedy? What about funny musicals? Or funny horror films? It calls for some very subjective judgments.
I am not going to handcuff myself with as many self-imposed restrictions as I did when I made my lists of horror films. My decision concerning what is a comedy will be decided on the basis of the individual film. However, I will try to restrain myself from flooding a decade with the work of a single comic visionary. For example, I am not going to put six Marx Brothers films on this list. I will only pick one of their films as representative of their work.
Also, I am going to try to rate the films in the context of their times. Therefore, expect to see some films on the lists which would be considered politically incorrect today. I will, however, discuss the controversy concerning some of those films when it seems appropriate.
The 1930s are unquestionably my favorite decade for comedies. The studios turned to comedy to alleviate the despair of the Great Depression. One of the things I enjoy most about the comedies of this period is a sense of anarchy, particularly from in the films from Paramount. Comedians like the Marx Brothers, Mae West and W.C. Fields were capable of anything -- especially pre-Code. The comedies of the 1940s and 1950s seem more staid and family friendly. However, the feature films of the period do not tell the whole story. A lot of the best comedy was being performed in the thriving short subject market. There you will find the best work of Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals and Charley Chase. I will not include shorts on the top ten list, but I will include some representative ones in the honorable mention section.
With no further ado, here's the list:
Mae West plays a circus performer who finds herself wooed by a number of wealthy New Yorkers, including a young Cary Grant.
Classic pre-code Mae West, slinging sexually-charged one-liners left and right. There's nothing shocking about her words today, but at the time she was at the cutting edge. In fact, after the production code started really being enforced, this film was effectively banned for decades. When I first saw this film as a child, most of the naughtiness was over my head. I certainly didn't understand what she meant when she said, "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Now I do.
A stern Russian woman, Greta Garbo, in Paris for a trade mission finds herself falling in love with a capitalist, Melvyn Douglas.
Garbo laughs. And so did America. MGM was looking for a comedy to lighten up the image of their serious star. It came in this three sentence idea from Melchior Lengyel: “Russian girl saturated with Bolshevist ideals goes to fearful, capitalistic, monopolistic Paris. She meets romance and has an uproarious good time. Capitalism not so bad, after all." The film was a big hit, but it proved to be Garbo's second to last film. She would retire after 1941's Two-Faced Woman.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Writing, Original Story, and Best Writing, Screenplay.
The success of the film shouldn't be a surprise considering the cumulative number of Academy Award wins and nominations the cast and crew would accumulate throughout their careers. Here's a sampling: Greta Garbo was nominated for three Academy Awards before receiving an honorary one. Lubitsch was also nominated for Best Director three times before getting an honorary Academy Award. Melvyn Douglas won two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and had one nomination for Best Leading Actor. Charles Bracket won three Oscars and was nominated for another six. He received an honorary one, too! Billy Wilder won six Academy Awards. I'm not going to count the nominations. Walter Reisch was no slouch either. He won one Academy Award and was nominated for three additional ones. Cinematographer William H. Daniels won one Academy Award and was nominated three additional times. I could go on, but you get the picture.
An American dancer in Britain falls in love with a model who mistakens him for his producer.
Fred Astaire, check. Ginger Rogers, check. Edward Everett Horton, check. Let the fun begin. Few films of the period express the general joyfulness of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers pictures. Plenty of singing and dancing and laughs. To me, the plots are more or less interchangeable. However, this one is my favorite. And I'm not alone in that opinion. It was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Song, Original, and Best Dance Direction (an award no longer given.)
Here's a clip:
In order to attend a convention of their fraternal organization in Chicago without their wives, Laurel & Hardy feign illness and claim they have to go on a long sea cruise for recuperation. Complications arise when the ship they were supposedly on sinks before they get home.
Laurel & Hardy were known primarily for their short films. Producer Hal Roach didn't have much confidence in them as feature performers. I don't know why. Their features were fine. I wrestled between this one and 1937's western spoof Way Out West as their representative film of the period. Both of them are very funny. Many people would give Way Out West the edge if only for the charming musical numbers, but Sons of the Desert is more representative of their work in general.
Here's the whole film:
A retired detective, Nick Charles, and his socialite wife Nora investigate a murder in this film based on the book by Dashiell Hammett.
I love The Thin Man movies. Sometimes, however, I think I love them more generally than specifically. I love spending time with William Powell and Myrna Loy as the hard-drinking, wise-cracking, crime solving couple. They offer the height of sophisticated thirties wit with an earthy edge. But sometimes the mysteries distract from the fun. This film, the first in the series, gives perhaps more screen time to the mystery itself than the sequels. That's not really a problem, but the film really sparkles when Nick and Nora are on the screen. Here's my theory why -- in addition to the great script and crisp direction: Powell and Loy's performance style is more modern than the other actors in the film. Everyone else acts like they're in a serious stage melodrama. Powell and Loy just breeze their way through it with a smile and a wink. They are fantastic and have great chemistry together.
The first question my agent, the late Stu Robinson of Paradigm, would ask me after he read one of my scripts was: "Who do you see in the lead?" My answer was almost always: "William Powell."
(He didn't find that helpful.)
Claudette Colbert plays a runaway heiress hitchhiking across the country, who is helped by a man, Clark Gable, who is actually a reporter. Romance ensues.
This film was one of the most successful screwball romantic comedies ever, but its greatness was not clearly evident in pre-production. No one expected this film to be a monster hit. In fact, Clark Gable was lent from to Columbia by MGM to make this movie as a punishment. The film was such a phenomenon that undershirt sales fell dramatically when the audience discovered that Gable wasn't wearing one.
Although filmmakers complain today that the Academy doesn't honor comedies, it had no problem doing so during this decade. This film was the first one to win all five of the major categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (adapted). The next film to accomplish that feat would be 1975's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Pretty good for a punishment project!
Cary Grant plays a paleontologist seeking a grant whose life is turned upside down when he meets an heiress, Katherine Hepburn, with a pet leopard named Baby.
The 1930s were famous for their screwball comedies. This was the best of them. In this film, screwball heiress Katherine Hepburn disrupts the life of the straight-laced Cary Grant. Director Howard Hawks was a master of the genre. He was an early innovator of fast talk and overlapping dialogue. Strangely, however, this film was not considered a success on its initial release, but its status has grown over the years.
Screenwriter Dudley Nichols was one of the top practitioners of the trade during the Golden Age of Hollywood, which put him in demand with top directors like Howard Hawks and John Ford. He had previously won an Oscar for 1935's The Informer. He was nominated for the award three additional times.
W.C. Fields plays a henpecked husband and shop owner who moves his family West to buy an orange grove.
Fields played two kinds of characters, con men and henpecked husbands. This is easily the best of the henpecked husband roles. The film is an unmitigated joy. Pure Fields through and through. I recently saw the film after not seeing it since childhood, and I laughed all the way through. With the possible exception of The Bank Dick, or his absurdist short The Fatal Glass of Beer, this is the must see Fields film.
Here's a clip:
Groucho tries to get Margaret Dumont into high society by having her support the opera, but makes a mistake when he signs an unknown tenor represented by Chico and Harpo.
Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking: Why not Duck Soup? I love Duck Soup, and I will concede that it has more laughs per minute overall, but this one is nearly as funny but also a better film. It features many classic set-pieces, like the stateroom scene, and their disruption of the opera is the best climax of any of their films. They are still the anarchic Marx Brothers of the Paramount films here, but in a better framework. MGM would soon tame their energy, but this film is a classic. Plus, I don't mind the music.
Here's the whole movie:
The Little Tramp tries to raise money to help a blind flower girl get an operation to restore her eye sight.
The industry honchos thought Chaplin was insane to release a silent movie so far into the sound era, but the laugh was on them. The film was a massive hit. That said, it wasn't entirely silent. It had a recorded musical score. City Lights was a perfect blend of slapstick and pathos. The ending is one of the most touching and memorable scenes in the history of cinema. Chaplin would follow this film up with Modern Times in 1936. That film was also essentially silent, with music and sound effects and some spoken words. It was also very funny, but City Lights is better. It was Chaplin's favorite film. It was Orson Welles' favorite, too.
If you only want to see one silent film, make it this one.
(Or maybe The Gold Rush.)
Here's the whole film:
Honorable Mention:
FEET FIRST, 1930. Silent film great Harold Lloyd dangles from a skyscraper in this remake of his 1923 classic Safety Last, but it doesn't play as well with sound. LIBELED LADY, 1937. A screwball comedy with my favorite couple William Powell and Myrna Loy? Count me in. A must see, but I already had a film with them on the list. FREE AND EASY, 1930. Silent film genius Buster Keaton failed to transition quickly to sound. His problems were compounded by the insensitive bureaucracy at MGM (and his drinking.) He would never approach his silent glory. THE FRONT PAGE, 1931. This was the first version of the oft-remade film based on a play by the great Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. ALIBI IKE, 1935. Satchel-mouthed comedian Joe E. Brown is known today primarily for his performance in 1959's Some Like It Hot, but he did a wonderful series of films in the thirties which are sadly overlooked today. COCKEYED CAVALIERS, 1934. The comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey is largely forgotten today, but once they rivaled the Marx Brothers. (I have only seen a handful of their films.) THE AWFUL TRUTH, 1937. Leo McCarey directed this Cary Grant/Irene Dunne vehicle about a divorcing couple trying to disrupt their ex's relationships. MY MAN GODFREY, 1936. In this screwball comedy, William Powell is mistakened as a homeless man and hired on a whim as a butler for a nutty, rich family. However, he's really a disillusioned son of a wealthy Boston family. HOLIDAY, 1938. My favorite Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant vehicle, but more of a drama than a comedy. TWENTIETH CENTURY, 1934. A funny John Barrymore/Carole Lombard picture directed by Howard Hawks. In THEODORA GOES WILD, 1937, Irene Dunne plays a racy author trying to hide her occupation from her small town neighbors.
Notable Shorts:
THREE LITTLE BEERS, 1935. The Three Stooges made nearly two hundred sound shorts -- working well into the 1950s. Their films of the 1930s, with Curly, were the best. This film is perhaps my favorite. Read my in depth analysis of The Three Stooges HERE. (I was recently interviewed by the author of an upcoming biography of Shemp Howard. I suppose that makes me an official authority on the team.) TEACHER'S PET, 1930. The Little Rascals series ran between 1923 and 1942 with a revolving cast of children. My favorite period was the transition between their silent and sound films with a cast that included Jackie Cooper, Matthew "Stymie" Beard and Norman "Chubby" Chaney. Chubby is buried not far from my house. THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, 1933. W.C. Fields didn't make many shorts but this spoof of Yukon dramas was an absurdist tour de force. It was universally panned at the time. NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE, 1936. Baltimore's own Charley Chase is little known today, but he made a great series of comedies at the Hal Roach studios. After his on camera career ended, he also directed some Three Stooges shorts. HELPMATES, 1932. In my opinion, Laurel & Hardy reached their peak with their shorts at the end of the silent era. Although the Academy Award winning film The Music Box, 1932, is regarded as they best sound short, I like this one better.
Other Lists:
The biggest problem with making a list of comedies is deciding what actually is a comedy. How many laughs are needed to turn a drama into a comedy? What about funny musicals? Or funny horror films? It calls for some very subjective judgments.
I am not going to handcuff myself with as many self-imposed restrictions as I did when I made my lists of horror films. My decision concerning what is a comedy will be decided on the basis of the individual film. However, I will try to restrain myself from flooding a decade with the work of a single comic visionary. For example, I am not going to put six Marx Brothers films on this list. I will only pick one of their films as representative of their work.
Also, I am going to try to rate the films in the context of their times. Therefore, expect to see some films on the lists which would be considered politically incorrect today. I will, however, discuss the controversy concerning some of those films when it seems appropriate.
The 1930s are unquestionably my favorite decade for comedies. The studios turned to comedy to alleviate the despair of the Great Depression. One of the things I enjoy most about the comedies of this period is a sense of anarchy, particularly from in the films from Paramount. Comedians like the Marx Brothers, Mae West and W.C. Fields were capable of anything -- especially pre-Code. The comedies of the 1940s and 1950s seem more staid and family friendly. However, the feature films of the period do not tell the whole story. A lot of the best comedy was being performed in the thriving short subject market. There you will find the best work of Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals and Charley Chase. I will not include shorts on the top ten list, but I will include some representative ones in the honorable mention section.
With no further ado, here's the list:
10. I'M NO ANGEL, 1933
Directed by Wesley Ruggles
Story and Screenplay by Mae West
Mae West plays a circus performer who finds herself wooed by a number of wealthy New Yorkers, including a young Cary Grant.
Classic pre-code Mae West, slinging sexually-charged one-liners left and right. There's nothing shocking about her words today, but at the time she was at the cutting edge. In fact, after the production code started really being enforced, this film was effectively banned for decades. When I first saw this film as a child, most of the naughtiness was over my head. I certainly didn't understand what she meant when she said, "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Now I do.
9. NINOTCHKA, 1939
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Story by Melchior Lengyel
A stern Russian woman, Greta Garbo, in Paris for a trade mission finds herself falling in love with a capitalist, Melvyn Douglas.
Garbo laughs. And so did America. MGM was looking for a comedy to lighten up the image of their serious star. It came in this three sentence idea from Melchior Lengyel: “Russian girl saturated with Bolshevist ideals goes to fearful, capitalistic, monopolistic Paris. She meets romance and has an uproarious good time. Capitalism not so bad, after all." The film was a big hit, but it proved to be Garbo's second to last film. She would retire after 1941's Two-Faced Woman.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Writing, Original Story, and Best Writing, Screenplay.
The success of the film shouldn't be a surprise considering the cumulative number of Academy Award wins and nominations the cast and crew would accumulate throughout their careers. Here's a sampling: Greta Garbo was nominated for three Academy Awards before receiving an honorary one. Lubitsch was also nominated for Best Director three times before getting an honorary Academy Award. Melvyn Douglas won two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor and had one nomination for Best Leading Actor. Charles Bracket won three Oscars and was nominated for another six. He received an honorary one, too! Billy Wilder won six Academy Awards. I'm not going to count the nominations. Walter Reisch was no slouch either. He won one Academy Award and was nominated for three additional ones. Cinematographer William H. Daniels won one Academy Award and was nominated three additional times. I could go on, but you get the picture.
8. TOP HAT, 1935
Directed by Mark Sandrich
Screenplay by Dwight Taylor and Allan Scott
Story by Dwight Taylor
An American dancer in Britain falls in love with a model who mistakens him for his producer.
Fred Astaire, check. Ginger Rogers, check. Edward Everett Horton, check. Let the fun begin. Few films of the period express the general joyfulness of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers pictures. Plenty of singing and dancing and laughs. To me, the plots are more or less interchangeable. However, this one is my favorite. And I'm not alone in that opinion. It was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Song, Original, and Best Dance Direction (an award no longer given.)
Here's a clip:
7. SONS OF THE DESERT, 1933
Directed by William A. Seiter
Story by Frank Craven
In order to attend a convention of their fraternal organization in Chicago without their wives, Laurel & Hardy feign illness and claim they have to go on a long sea cruise for recuperation. Complications arise when the ship they were supposedly on sinks before they get home.
Laurel & Hardy were known primarily for their short films. Producer Hal Roach didn't have much confidence in them as feature performers. I don't know why. Their features were fine. I wrestled between this one and 1937's western spoof Way Out West as their representative film of the period. Both of them are very funny. Many people would give Way Out West the edge if only for the charming musical numbers, but Sons of the Desert is more representative of their work in general.
Here's the whole film:
6. THE THIN MAN, 1934
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Screenplay by Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich
Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
A retired detective, Nick Charles, and his socialite wife Nora investigate a murder in this film based on the book by Dashiell Hammett.
I love The Thin Man movies. Sometimes, however, I think I love them more generally than specifically. I love spending time with William Powell and Myrna Loy as the hard-drinking, wise-cracking, crime solving couple. They offer the height of sophisticated thirties wit with an earthy edge. But sometimes the mysteries distract from the fun. This film, the first in the series, gives perhaps more screen time to the mystery itself than the sequels. That's not really a problem, but the film really sparkles when Nick and Nora are on the screen. Here's my theory why -- in addition to the great script and crisp direction: Powell and Loy's performance style is more modern than the other actors in the film. Everyone else acts like they're in a serious stage melodrama. Powell and Loy just breeze their way through it with a smile and a wink. They are fantastic and have great chemistry together.
The first question my agent, the late Stu Robinson of Paradigm, would ask me after he read one of my scripts was: "Who do you see in the lead?" My answer was almost always: "William Powell."
(He didn't find that helpful.)
5. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, 1934
Directed by Frank Capra
Screenplay by Robert Riskin
Based on the short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Claudette Colbert plays a runaway heiress hitchhiking across the country, who is helped by a man, Clark Gable, who is actually a reporter. Romance ensues.
This film was one of the most successful screwball romantic comedies ever, but its greatness was not clearly evident in pre-production. No one expected this film to be a monster hit. In fact, Clark Gable was lent from to Columbia by MGM to make this movie as a punishment. The film was such a phenomenon that undershirt sales fell dramatically when the audience discovered that Gable wasn't wearing one.
Although filmmakers complain today that the Academy doesn't honor comedies, it had no problem doing so during this decade. This film was the first one to win all five of the major categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (adapted). The next film to accomplish that feat would be 1975's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Pretty good for a punishment project!
4. BRINGING UP BABY, 1938
Directed by Howard Hawks
Screenplay by Dudley Nichols & Hagar Wilde
Story by Hagar Wilde
Cary Grant plays a paleontologist seeking a grant whose life is turned upside down when he meets an heiress, Katherine Hepburn, with a pet leopard named Baby.
The 1930s were famous for their screwball comedies. This was the best of them. In this film, screwball heiress Katherine Hepburn disrupts the life of the straight-laced Cary Grant. Director Howard Hawks was a master of the genre. He was an early innovator of fast talk and overlapping dialogue. Strangely, however, this film was not considered a success on its initial release, but its status has grown over the years.
Screenwriter Dudley Nichols was one of the top practitioners of the trade during the Golden Age of Hollywood, which put him in demand with top directors like Howard Hawks and John Ford. He had previously won an Oscar for 1935's The Informer. He was nominated for the award three additional times.
3. IT'S A GIFT, 1934
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Screenplay by Jack Cunningham and W.C. Fields (as Charles Bogle)
Story by J.P. McEvoy
W.C. Fields plays a henpecked husband and shop owner who moves his family West to buy an orange grove.
Fields played two kinds of characters, con men and henpecked husbands. This is easily the best of the henpecked husband roles. The film is an unmitigated joy. Pure Fields through and through. I recently saw the film after not seeing it since childhood, and I laughed all the way through. With the possible exception of The Bank Dick, or his absurdist short The Fatal Glass of Beer, this is the must see Fields film.
Here's a clip:
2. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, 1935
Directed by Sam Wood
Screenplay by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind
Story by James Kevin McGuinness
Groucho tries to get Margaret Dumont into high society by having her support the opera, but makes a mistake when he signs an unknown tenor represented by Chico and Harpo.
Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking: Why not Duck Soup? I love Duck Soup, and I will concede that it has more laughs per minute overall, but this one is nearly as funny but also a better film. It features many classic set-pieces, like the stateroom scene, and their disruption of the opera is the best climax of any of their films. They are still the anarchic Marx Brothers of the Paramount films here, but in a better framework. MGM would soon tame their energy, but this film is a classic. Plus, I don't mind the music.
Here's the whole movie:
1. CITY LIGHTS, 1931
Written and directed by Charles Chaplin
The Little Tramp tries to raise money to help a blind flower girl get an operation to restore her eye sight.
The industry honchos thought Chaplin was insane to release a silent movie so far into the sound era, but the laugh was on them. The film was a massive hit. That said, it wasn't entirely silent. It had a recorded musical score. City Lights was a perfect blend of slapstick and pathos. The ending is one of the most touching and memorable scenes in the history of cinema. Chaplin would follow this film up with Modern Times in 1936. That film was also essentially silent, with music and sound effects and some spoken words. It was also very funny, but City Lights is better. It was Chaplin's favorite film. It was Orson Welles' favorite, too.
If you only want to see one silent film, make it this one.
(Or maybe The Gold Rush.)
Here's the whole film:
Honorable Mention:
FEET FIRST, 1930. Silent film great Harold Lloyd dangles from a skyscraper in this remake of his 1923 classic Safety Last, but it doesn't play as well with sound. LIBELED LADY, 1937. A screwball comedy with my favorite couple William Powell and Myrna Loy? Count me in. A must see, but I already had a film with them on the list. FREE AND EASY, 1930. Silent film genius Buster Keaton failed to transition quickly to sound. His problems were compounded by the insensitive bureaucracy at MGM (and his drinking.) He would never approach his silent glory. THE FRONT PAGE, 1931. This was the first version of the oft-remade film based on a play by the great Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. ALIBI IKE, 1935. Satchel-mouthed comedian Joe E. Brown is known today primarily for his performance in 1959's Some Like It Hot, but he did a wonderful series of films in the thirties which are sadly overlooked today. COCKEYED CAVALIERS, 1934. The comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey is largely forgotten today, but once they rivaled the Marx Brothers. (I have only seen a handful of their films.) THE AWFUL TRUTH, 1937. Leo McCarey directed this Cary Grant/Irene Dunne vehicle about a divorcing couple trying to disrupt their ex's relationships. MY MAN GODFREY, 1936. In this screwball comedy, William Powell is mistakened as a homeless man and hired on a whim as a butler for a nutty, rich family. However, he's really a disillusioned son of a wealthy Boston family. HOLIDAY, 1938. My favorite Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant vehicle, but more of a drama than a comedy. TWENTIETH CENTURY, 1934. A funny John Barrymore/Carole Lombard picture directed by Howard Hawks. In THEODORA GOES WILD, 1937, Irene Dunne plays a racy author trying to hide her occupation from her small town neighbors.
Notable Shorts:
THREE LITTLE BEERS, 1935. The Three Stooges made nearly two hundred sound shorts -- working well into the 1950s. Their films of the 1930s, with Curly, were the best. This film is perhaps my favorite. Read my in depth analysis of The Three Stooges HERE. (I was recently interviewed by the author of an upcoming biography of Shemp Howard. I suppose that makes me an official authority on the team.) TEACHER'S PET, 1930. The Little Rascals series ran between 1923 and 1942 with a revolving cast of children. My favorite period was the transition between their silent and sound films with a cast that included Jackie Cooper, Matthew "Stymie" Beard and Norman "Chubby" Chaney. Chubby is buried not far from my house. THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, 1933. W.C. Fields didn't make many shorts but this spoof of Yukon dramas was an absurdist tour de force. It was universally panned at the time. NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE, 1936. Baltimore's own Charley Chase is little known today, but he made a great series of comedies at the Hal Roach studios. After his on camera career ended, he also directed some Three Stooges shorts. HELPMATES, 1932. In my opinion, Laurel & Hardy reached their peak with their shorts at the end of the silent era. Although the Academy Award winning film The Music Box, 1932, is regarded as they best sound short, I like this one better.
Other Lists:
Top 10 Comedies of the 2000s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1990s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1980s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1970s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1960s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1950s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1940s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1930s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 2010s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 2000s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1990s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1980s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1970s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1960s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1950s
Top 15 Horror Films of the 1930s and 1940s
My 10 Favorite James Bonds Films
My 10 Favorite Faith Based Films
My 10 Favorite Laurel & Hardy Shorts
Top 10 Comedies of the 1990s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1980s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1970s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1960s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1950s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1940s
Top 10 Comedies of the 1930s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 2010s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 2000s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1990s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1980s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1970s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1960s
Top 10 Horror Films of the 1950s
Top 15 Horror Films of the 1930s and 1940s
My 10 Favorite James Bonds Films
My 10 Favorite Faith Based Films
My 10 Favorite Laurel & Hardy Shorts
The 10 Worst Films I Paid To See!
My 5 Favorite Westerns
7 Guy Films
20 Films, or Confessions of a Misspent Youth
The Marx Brothers Films Ranked
The Chaplin Mutual Shorts Ranked
Beatles Albums Ranked
My 20 Favorite Beatles Songs
My 5 Least Favorite Beatles Songs
My 5 Favorite Rolling Stones Albums
My 5 Favorite Dylan Albums
My 5 Favorite Westerns
7 Guy Films
20 Films, or Confessions of a Misspent Youth
The Marx Brothers Films Ranked
The Chaplin Mutual Shorts Ranked
Beatles Albums Ranked
My 20 Favorite Beatles Songs
My 5 Least Favorite Beatles Songs
My 5 Favorite Rolling Stones Albums
My 5 Favorite Dylan Albums
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