Best Films - American films - Comedy

American cinema: Comedy (Page 1 of 7)

A Chump at Oxford (1940)

Alfred J. Goulding

Down to their last six dollars, Stan and Ollie are reduced to posing as a husband and wife to secure the post of butler and housemaid to the wealthy Vandeveers. Needless to say, Stan and Ollie’s attempts to help out at a dinner party end disastrously and the duo are soon back in the gutter looking for work... [More...]

A Damsel in Distress (1937)

George Stevens

Everyone at Tottleigh Castle knows that Lady Alyce Marshmorton is about to get married, but no one knows for certain who the lucky man will be. When the servants hold a wager, houseboy Albert bets that Lady Alyce will take as her husband a complete stranger, whilst the butler Keggs is confident that she will select her mother’s favourite, a jazz-loving buffoon named Reggie... [More...]

A Day at the Races (1937)

Sam Wood

Judy Standish is the unhappy owner of a sanatorium which faces closure unless she can raise the money to pay the mortgage. Her only hope is her wealthy client Emily Upjohn, an inveterate hypochondriac, but she has opted to leave the sanatorium when the doctors tell her that there is nothing wrong with her... [More...]

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Charles Crichton

London gangster George Thomason has masterminded the perfect jewel robbery, which he is about to put into action with his henchman Ken Pile, an animal-lover with a crippling stutter, and a pair of Americans - Wanda Gerschwitz and Otto West. The latter pretend to be brother and sister but are in fact lovers who intend to double-cross George and Ken after the robbery... [More...]

A Night at the Opera (1935)

Sam Wood

By donating money to Otis B. Driftwood, an opera promoter of dubious repute, wealthy widow Mrs Claypool hopes to buy her way into high society. Whilst in Milan, Driftwood signs up an unknown chorus singer, Riccardo, mistaking him for the great tenor Lassparri. The latter is signed up for the New York opera company by another promoter, Gottlieb... [More...]

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Charles Barton

Chick Young and Wilbur Grey are baggage clerks who, one day, are asked to deliver two crates to a waxworks museum. According to the crates’ owner, these contain the last remains of Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster. Sure enough, as Chick and Wilbur are unpacking the crates, the two horror fiends are revived... [More...]

Adam’s Rib (1949)

George Cukor

District Attorney Adam Bonner is far from pleased when he is called upon to prosecute Doris Attinger, a young woman who shot and wounded her husband when she found him in the arms of his mistress. The reason Adam is not pleased is because his wife, Amanda, who is also a lawyer, is convinced that Doris is the victim in the affair... [More...]

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

John Landis

David Kessler and Jack Goodman are two American college backpackers who decide to make a tour of Europe. Where better to begin than the bleak, soggy Yorkshire moors? As night falls, they enter an inn named The Slaughtered Lamb, hoping for rest and refreshment. Instead, they receive a deathly cold reception from a sinister collection of locals who, not liking foreign folk, drive them away with a warning not to stray on the moors... [More...]

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

George Sidney

Returning home to a hero’s welcome after WWII, navy personnel Clarence Doolittle and Joe Brady can hardly wait to get ashore and extract every last morsel of pleasure from their leave. But whilst Joe has a hot date lined up, Clarence is at a loose end and, worse, he lacks both experience and confidence in the woman-baiting department... [More...]

And Then There Were None (1945)

René Clair

Eight men and women, all unknown to each other, accept a mysterious invitation to an island estate. They are welcomed by two domestic servants, Mr and Mrs Rogers, who appear to be as ignorant of the reason for the meeting as the guests are. When they are all assembled together, they hear a strange message from their unknown host on a gramophone record... [More...]

Animal Crackers (1930)

Victor Heerman

Society dowager Mrs Rittenhouse is hosting an extravagant party at her Long Island mansion. The purpose of the party is to welcome back the famous explorer, Captain Spaulding, after his expedition to Africa, but the hostess cannot resist using the occasion to show off a priceless Beaugard painting, which has been given to her by her most fervent admirer, Roscoe W... [More...]

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Frank Capra

Mortimer Brewster returns to Brooklyn to visit his elderly aunts Abby and Martha with the news that he has just got married. The last thing he expects to find in his old home is a dead body in the window seat. His aunts casually admit that this is the latest of their mercy killings. Whenever a solitary old man enters their house, they take it upon themselves to put him out of his misery, with a glass of elderberry wine laced with poison... [More...]

The Awful Truth (1937)

Leo McCarey

Jerry Warriner returns home after his holiday to find that his wife Lucy has apparently got herself romantically involved with her music teacher, Armand Duvalle. Lucy suspects that Jerry also has something to hide, because he clearly hasn’t been to Florida as he claims. The couple agree on an amicable divorce, and Lucy moves out to live in an apartment with her mother... [More...]

Babes in Toyland (1934)

Gus Meins

Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee are a pair of happy-go-lucky apprentice toy-makers in Toyland. They live in a giant shoe with kind Mother Peep and her daughter Bo, who is forever mislaying her sheep. One day, Mother Peep is visited by Silas Barnaby, a mean-hearted man who threatens to evict her and her tenants unless she pays her mortgage... [More...]

Battling Butler (1926)

Buster Keaton

Alfred Butler is an effeminate aristocrat who, at his father’s prompting, goes off on a hunting trip in the mountains, in the hope that this will make a man of him. Leaving behind his comfortable home, accompanied only by his faithful valet and several lorryloads of creature comforts, Alfred embarks on his great adventure with enthusiasm... [More...]

Beat the Devil (1953)

John Huston

Billy Dannreuther and his wife Maria are on their way to make their fortune in Africa, but are held up in an Italian port whilst their steamboat undergoes some repair work. Here, they meet an eccentric English couple, Harry and Gwendolen Chelm, and a strange foursome led by a man named Peterson. It gradually becomes apparent that they all have one thing in common – to secure the rights to land that is reputed to be rich in uranium ore... [More...]

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Mel Brooks

In 1874, construction work on a new U.S. railroad is halted when it runs into an area of quicksand. The State Attorney General, Hedley Lamarr, persuades Governor LePetomane to authorise a change of route that will see the railroad redirected through the town of Ridge Rock. To avoid having to compensate the townsfolk, Lamarr hires a gang of thugs to drive them out of their homes... [More...]

Block-Heads (1938)

John G. Blystone

During WWI, Stan and Ollie bid a fond farewell just before Ollie goes over the top, leaving his friend to guard the trench. Twenty years later, Stan is still there, mechanically patrolling the trench, completely oblivious to the changes that have happened in the outside world. After he tries unsuccessfully to shoot down a passing aeroplane, Stan receives a visit from an irate pilot, who informs him that the war has been over for years... [More...]

Blotto (1930)

James Parrott

Stan and Ollie are planning to enjoy an evening of heavy drinking at a posh night club. This being prohibition era, they have to supply their own alcoholic refreshment, but luckily Stan’s wife has a bottle hidden away. Unfortunately, Mrs Laurel has no intention of letting her husband go out. Ollie phones his friend and suggests that he fakes a telegram requesting him to go off on urgent business... [More...]

Born Yesterday (1950)

George Cukor

Having made his fortune as a scrap metal merchant, Harry Brock moves to Washington DC to expand his empire by buying one or two congressmen. He takes with him his goofy mistress, Billie Dawn, whom he requires to sign documents periodically to conceal his shady business deals from the government. Brock is no sophisticate but he is embarrassed by his girlfriend’s complete lack of social skills and general knowledge... [More...]

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