AFI's Top 100 Comedies
PUSSSYKATT
The last time I checked the American Film Institute Web site for its all-time
greatest movie comedies poll numbers, the Howard Stern movie "Private Parts"
was leading the pack, with "Dumb & Dumber" closing in.
Thank God for blue-ribbon panels.
When the AFI tallied the ballots from its 1,800-member jury of film makers,
actors, critics and historians, the actual winner — announced on a CBS
special last night — was Billy Wilder's 1959 classic "Some Like It Hot."
Apparently, there's nothing funnier than men in drag. Sydney Pollack's 1982
"Tootsie," with Dustin Hoffman in heels, finished second.
Stanley Kubrick's 1964 political black comedy "Dr. Strangelove" finished third,
ahead of Woody Allen's 1977 masterpiece of romantic angst "Annie Hall" and the
Marx Brothers' seminal 1933 slapstick, Leo McCarey's "Duck Soup."
And, believe it or not, the voters found another 95 movies better than "Private
Parts" and, pardon the redundancy, "Dumb & Dumber."
The list is proudest at the very top. Wilder's madcap, gender-bending romp with
Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis is a pitch-perfect comedy that got
career performances from its three stars, even though Monroe apparently was too
doped-up to know what she was doing most of the time.
A comedy purist might look at the list and stop cold at No. 27, Peter and Bobby
Farrelly's "There's Something About Mary," and say the whole exercise has been
voided, especially when you consider that John Madden's "Shakespeare in Love,"
a comedy that won the Best Picture Oscar that year, failed to make the list at
all.
But comedies, I suppose, are for the young in their time and, in an era when
juvenile tastes all seem caught in a zipper, who's to say "Mary" won't become
the greater cultural marker?
But it's impossible to believe that the voters agreed that 23 comedies made in
the last 20 years were better than "Shakespeare" and that some of them were
"Caddyshack," "9 to 5," "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Beverly Hills Cop," and "Good
Morning, Vietnam." And, exccuuuse me, but is the aptly named 1979 Steve Martin
comedy "The Jerk" (No. 89) funnier — on any level — than "Shakespeare in
Love"?
On the other hand, some very good recent comedies made the grade. Among them:
Charles Crichton's "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988); Rob Reiner's "This is Spinal
Tap" (1984); Harold Ramis' "Groundhog Day" (1993); Barry Levinson's "Diner"
(1982), and Joel and Ethan Coen's "Fargo" (1996).
Incidentally, "Fargo" earns one of the list's more curious footnotes. It came
in at No. 93 on the best comedy list, down nine positions from its spot on the
AFI's ranking of the 100 greatest movies of the 20th Century.
Stranger yet, while "Some Like It Hot" was leaping from No. 14 on the all-time
great movies list to No. 1 among comedies, it passed two other comedies —
"Singin' in the Rain" (the No. 16 comedy) and "The Graduate" (the No. 9 comedy)
— to do it.
Inevitably, these lists are read with a subjective eye and filtered through
nostalgic memories. How hard and how often have I laughed at these movies?
Using those criteria, I wouldn't quibble with many of the films in the top 20,
though I consider the sixth-place finish of Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" more
a tribute to the enduring power of fart jokes than to any lasting greatness.
In fact, either of Brooks' other top 20 honorees — No. 11, "The Producers,"
and No. 13, "Young Frankenstein," perhaps the most-quoted comedy ("What hump?")
of them all — deserved higher rankings.
Though the AFI special is a labored fund-raiser that figures to run through the
cycle of genres in the coming years, it's fun to see comedies in the glow of
the limelight, at least for a moment. Historically, comedy has gotten no
respect in Hollywood.
And it's still not getting much. Only 13 movies made both the comedy and top
100 of the century lists.
Only five comedies — Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night" (1934), Wilder's
"The Apartment" (1960), Tony Richardson's "Tom Jones" (1963), "Annie Hall" and
"Shakespeare in Love" — have won Best Picture Oscars in 72 years. And "Tom
Jones," regrettably, shares with "Shakespeare" the embarrassment of not making
the AFI top 100.
What's weirdest about the jury results is how arbitrarilly bad movies
intermingle with good ones. No. 23, Reiner's "When Harry Met Sally…" (1989),
ahead of No. 24, George Cukor's "Born Yesterday" (1950)? No. 42, Penny
Marshall's "Big" (1988), ahead of No. 43, George Lucas' "American Graffiti"
(1973)? No. 82, Howard Zieff's "Private Benjamin" (1980), ahead of No. 83,
Vincente Minnelli's "Father of the Bride" (1950)?
If we step back from the individual entires, some trends emerge about who the
jury thinks are the funniest people in the first century of movies. Cary Grant
topped all actors with eight movies on the list, followed by the Marx Brothers
and Woody Allen with five each, and Spencer Tracy, Buster Keaton, Charlie
Chaplin, and — talk about odd man out — Bill Murray in four.
Katharine Hepburn and Margaret Dumont, the perennial foil of Marx Brothers
shenanigans, topped the women's repeat list, with four films each.
Woody Allen also directed his five comedies, making him the most honored of all
comedy directors in the poll, besting legends George Cukor, Charlie Chaplin and
Preston Sturges with four films each.
Allen and Wilder, who wrote the screenplays for five top 100 comedies, lead the
writers.
AFI's Top 100 Comedies
1. Some Like It Hot (1959)
2. Tootsie (1982)
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
4. Annie Hall (1977)
5. Duck Soup (1933)
6. Blazing Saddles (1974)
7. M*A*S*H (1970)
8. It Happened One Night (1934)
9. The Graduate (1967)
10. Airplane! (1980)
11. The Producers (1968)
12. A Night at the Opera (1935)
13. Young Frankenstein (1974)
14. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
15. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
16. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
17. The Odd Couple (1968)
18. The General (1927)
19. His Girl Friday (1940)
20. The Apartment (1960)
21. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
22. Adam's Rib (1949)
23. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
24. Born Yesterday (1950)
25. The Gold Rush (1925)
26. Being There (1979)
27. There's Something About Mary (1998)
28. Ghostbusters (1984)
29. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
30. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
31. Raising Arizona (1987)
32. The Thin Man (1934)
33. Modern Times (1936)
34. Groundhog Day (1993)
35. Harvey (1950)
36. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
37. The Great Dictator (1940)
38. City Lights (1931)
39. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
40. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
41. Moonstruck (1987)
42. Big (1988)
43. American Graffiti (1973)
44. My Man Godfrey (1936)
45. Harold and Maude (1972)
46. Manhattan (1979)
47. Shampoo (1975)
48. A Shot in the Dark (1964)
49. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
50. Cat Ballou (1965)
51. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
52. Ninotchka (1939)
53. Arthur (1981)
54. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
55. The Lady Eve (1941)
56. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
57. Diner (1982)
58. It's a Gift (1934)
59. A Day at the Races (1937)
60. Topper (1937)
61. What's Up, Doc? (1972)
62. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
63. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
64. Broadcast News (1987)
65. Horse Feathers (1932)
66. Take the Money and Run (1969)
67. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
68. The Awful Truth (1937)
69. Bananas (1971)
70. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
71. Caddyshack (1980)
72. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
73. Monkey Business (1931)
74. 9 to 5 (1980)
75. She Done Him Wrong (1933)
76. Victor/Victoria (1982)
77. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
78. Road to Morocco (1942)
79. The Freshman (1925)
80. Sleeper (1973)
81. The Navigator (1924)
82. Private Benjamin (1980)
83. Father of the Bride (1950)
84. Lost in America (1985)
85. Dinner at Eight (1933)
86. City Slickers (1991)
87. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
88. Beetlejuice (1988)
89. The Jerk (1979)
90. Woman of the Year (1942)
91. The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
92. Ball of Fire (1941)
93. Fargo (1996)
94. Auntie Mame (1958)
95. Silver Streak (1976)
96. Sons of the Desert (1933)
97. Bull Durham (1988)
98. The Court Jester (1956)
99. The Nutty Professor (1963)
100. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
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