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Roger Ebert's Great Movies - Great Comedies
Movie history did not begin in 1967, but my career as a movie critic did. In my Great Movies project, I take the time to revisit and write about the memorable movies of the past, many of which I've never before had the chance to review. All of the movies included are available on home video and many play frequently on the cable movie channels; if you want to make a survey of the greatest films ever made, this would be a good way to start. -- Roger Ebert
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Safety Last
Roger Ebert's review
Safety Last
1923 | 78 Minutes | NRDirected by:Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Starring:Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, and Westcott B. Clarke
Genre: Comedy
After Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the silent film era's "third genius" was Harold Lloyd, w...
The General
Roger Ebert's review
The General
1927 | 79 Minutes | NRDirected by:Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
Starring:Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Charles Smith, Frank Barnes, and Glen Cavender
Genre: Comedy
Buster Keaton plays Johnny Gray, a Southern railroad engineer who loves his train engine, The Gen...
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The Circus
Roger Ebert's review
The Circus
1928 | 72 Minutes | GDirected by:Charles Chaplin
Starring:Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Betty Morrissey, Harry Crocker, and Allan Garcia
Genre: Comedy
The Circus is generally considered to be a lesser Charlie Chaplin effort, coming as it does betwe...
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City Lights
Roger Ebert's review
City Lights
1931 | 87 Minutes | GDirected by:Charlie Chaplin
Starring:Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Florence Lee, and Allan Garcia
Genre: Comedy Drama
Charles Chaplin was deep into production of his silent City Lights when Hollywood was overwhelmed...
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Trouble in Paradise
Roger Ebert's review
Trouble in Paradise
1932 | 83 Minutes | NRDirected by:Ernst Lubitsch
Starring:Miriam Hopkins, Herbert Marshall, Kay Francis, Edward Everett Horton, and Charles Ruggles
Genre: Comedy
Ernst Lubitsch used Laszlo Aladar's play +The Honest Finder as a springboard for one of his most ...
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Duck Soup
Roger Ebert's review
Duck Soup
1933 | 70 Minutes | NRDirected by:Leo McCarey
Starring:Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Zeppo Marx, and Margaret Dumont
Genre: Comedy
In this 1933 Marx Brothers film, the mythical country of Freedonia is broke and on the verge of r...
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The Thin Man
Roger Ebert's review
The Thin Man
1934 | 93 Minutes | NRDirected by:W.S. Van Dyke II
Starring:William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, and Minna Gombell
Genre: Mystery & Suspense
Filmed on what MGM considered a B-picture budget and schedule (14 days, which at Universal or Col...
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My Man Godfrey
Roger Ebert's review
My Man Godfrey
1936 | 94 Minutes | NRDirected by:Gregory La Cava
Starring:William Powell, Carole Lombard, Eugene Pallette, Alice Brady, and Gail Patrick
Genre: Comedy
One of the landmark "screwball" comedies of the 1930s, My Man Godfrey offers the radiant Carole L...
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The Rules of the Game
Roger Ebert's review
The Rules of the Game
1939 | 110 Minutes | NRDirected by:Jean Renoir
Starring:Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Mila Parely, Roland Tourain, and Jean Renoir
Genre: Drama
Now often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Règle du jeu/Rules of th...
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Great Comedies from the '40s & '50s-
The Great Dictator
Roger Ebert's review
The Great Dictator
1940 | 127 Minutes | NRDirected by:Charles Chaplin
Starring:Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, and Henry Daniell
Genre: Comedy
"This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loo...
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The Bank Dick
Roger Ebert's review
The Bank Dick
1940 | 69 Minutes | NRDirected by:Eddie Cline
Starring:W.C. Fields, Una Merkel, Grady Sutton, Cora Witherspoon, and Evelyn Del Rio
Genre: Comedy
W.C. Fields plays Egbert Souse, a bibulous denizen of Lompoc who supports his family by winning r...
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The Lady Eve
Roger Ebert's review
The Lady Eve
1941 | 94 Minutes | NRDirected by:Preston Sturges
Starring:Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, and Eric Blore
Genre: Comedy
(Preston Sturges) wrote and directed this classic romantic comedy starring Henry Fonda and Barbar...
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Kind Hearts and Coronets
Roger Ebert's review
Kind Hearts and Coronets
1949 | 105 Minutes | NRDirected by:Robert Hamer
Starring:Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, and Audrey Fildes
Genre: Comedy
Alec Guinness gets to die eight times, playing a line of successors to a dukedom, in the Ealing b...
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Mr. Hulot's Holiday
Roger Ebert's review
Mr. Hulot's Holiday
1954 | 86 Minutes | NRDirected by:Jacques Tati
Starring:Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Michelle Rolla, Louis Perrault, and Andre Dubois
Genre: Comedy
Already familiar to many, especially following his acclaimed directorial debut Jour De Fete, Jacq...
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Smiles of a Summer Night
Roger Ebert's review
Smiles of a Summer Night
1955 | 108 Minutes | NRDirected by:Ingmar Bergman
Starring:Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, and Margit Carlqvist
Genre: Comedy
Bergman's comic masterpiece opens with middle-aged lawyer Frederik Egerman (Gunnar Bjornstrand) a...
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Mon Oncle
Roger Ebert's review
Mon Oncle
1958 | 126 Minutes | NRDirected by:Jacques Tati
Starring:Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie, Alain Becourt, and Lucien Fregis
Genre: Comedy
Five years after his first appearance, Jacques Tati's M. Hulot returns with Mon Oncle, a film set...
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Some Like It Hot
Roger Ebert's review
Some Like It Hot
1959 | 125 Minutes | NRDirected by:Billy Wilder
Starring:Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, and Pat O'Brien
Genre: Comedy
The launching pad for Billy Wilder's comedy classic was a rusty old German farce, <I>Fanfares of ...
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Great Comedies from the '60s-
The Apartment
Roger Ebert's review
The Apartment
1960 | 125 Minutes | NRDirected by:Billy Wilder
Starring:Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, and David Lewis
Genre: Comedy
Widely regarded as a comedy in 1960, The Apartment seems more melancholy with each passing year. ...
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The Exterminating Angel
Roger Ebert's review
The Exterminating Angel
1962 | 95 Minutes | NRDirected by:Luis Bunuel
Starring:Jacqueline Andere, Jose Baviera, Silvia Pinal, Augusto Benedico, and Antonio Bravo
Genre: Comedy
The great screen surrealist Luis Buñuel co-wrote and directed this dark, bitterly witty satire. A...
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A Hard Day's Night
Roger Ebert's review
A Hard Day's Night
1964 | 85 Minutes | GDirected by:Richard Lester
Starring:Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Wilfrid Brambell
Genre: Comedy
During the first worldwide flush of Beatlemania in 1964, United Artists wanted to ship out a movi...
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Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love th...
Roger Ebert's review
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1963 | 93 Minutes | PGDirected by:Stanley Kubrick
Starring:Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens
Genre: Comedy
In 1964, with the Cuban Missile Crisis fresh in viewers' minds, the Cold War at its frostiest, an...
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Playtime
Roger Ebert's review
Playtime
1967 | 155 Minutes | NRDirected by:Jacques Tati
Starring:Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Georges Montant, John Abbey, and Billy Kearns
Genre: Comedy Drama
Arriving nearly a decade after Mon Oncle, Playtime continues the adventures of M. Hulot. More tha...
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The Firemen's Ball
Roger Ebert's review
The Firemen's Ball
1967 | 73 Minutes | NRDirected by:Milos Forman
Starring:Josef Svet, Jan Vostrcil, Vaclav Stockel, Josef Kolb, and Frantisek Debelka
Genre: Comedy
Firemen's Ball was Czechoslovakian director Milos Forman's final film in his home country; he was...
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The Producers
Roger Ebert's review
The Producers
1968 | 88 Minutes | PGDirected by:Mel Brooks
Starring:Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Dick Shawn, and Christopher Hewett
Genre: Comedy
Theatrical producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) was once the toast of Broadway. Now he lives in ...
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Great Comedies from the '70s-
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
Roger Ebert's review
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
1971 | 113 Minutes | NRDirected by:
Starring:Milena Dravic, Ivica Vidovic, Miodrag Andric, and Jackie Curtis
Genre: Drama
"W.R." is pioneering sexologist Wilhelm Reich, whose precedent-breaking theories concerning carna...
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Mon Oncle Antoine
Roger Ebert's review
Mon Oncle Antoine
1971 | 104 Minutes | NRDirected by:Claude Jutra
Starring:Jacques Gagnon, Jean Duceppe, Olivette Thibault, Claude Jutra, and Lyne Champagne
Genre: Drama
French Canadian director and actor Claude Jutra enjoyed his greatest critical success with this e...
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Roger Ebert's review
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1972 | 100 Minutes | PGDirected by:Luis Buñuel
Starring:Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier, and Jean-Pierre Cassel
Genre: Comedy
In typical Luis Buñuel fashion, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie surrealistically skewers th...
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Day For Night
Roger Ebert's review
Day for Night
1973 | 110 Minutes | PGDirected by:Francois Truffaut
Starring:Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Leaud, and Alexandra Stewart
Genre: Comedy Drama
Known to English-speaking audiences as Day for Night, La nuit américaine was director François Tr...
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Amarcord
Roger Ebert's review
Amarcord
1973 | 120 Minutes | RDirected by:Federico Fellini
Starring:Magali Noel, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, and Giuseppe Ianigro
Genre: Comedy Drama
Federico Fellini's warmly nostalgic memory piece examines daily life in the Italian village of Ri...
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Network
Roger Ebert's review
Network
1976 | 120 Minutes | RDirected by:Sidney Lumet
Starring:Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, and Wesley Addy
Genre: Comedy Drama
A trenchant satire of "trash TV," Network seems to grow only more relevant with each passing year...
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Annie Hall
Roger Ebert's review
Annie Hall
1977 | 94 Minutes | PGDirected by:Woody Allen
Starring:Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, and Carol Kane
Genre: Comedy
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismat...
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Being There
Roger Ebert's review
Being There
1979 | 130 Minutes | PGDirected by:Hal Ashby
Starring:Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, and Richard Dysart
Genre: Comedy Drama
Having lived his life as the gardener on a millionaire's estate, Chance (Peter Sellers) knows of ...
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Manhattan
Roger Ebert's review
Manhattan
1979 | 96 Minutes | RDirected by:Woody Allen
Starring:Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, and Meryl Streep
Genre: Comedy Drama
On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the fr...
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Great Comedies from the '80s-
A Christmas Story
Roger Ebert's review
A Christmas Story
1983 | 98 Minutes | PGDirected by:Bob Clark
Starring:Peter Billingsley, Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, and Ian Petrella
Genre: Comedy
Nine years after the Yuletide slasher flick Black Christmas, Porky's director Bob Clark once agai...
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This is Spinal Tap
Roger Ebert's review
This Is Spinal Tap
1984 | 82 Minutes | RDirected by:Rob Reiner
Starring:Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Rob Reiner, Harry Shearer, and Tony Hendra
Genre: Comedy
Largely improvised by director Rob Reiner and his cast, This Is Spinal Tap looks and sounds like ...
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After Hours
Roger Ebert's review
After Hours
1985 | 97 Minutes | RDirected by:Martin Scorsese
Starring:Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Linda Fiorentino, and Teri Garr
Genre: Comedy Drama
Martin Scorsese's After Hours is a dark, tragi-comic tale of a fish out of water, centering on an...
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Moonstruck
Roger Ebert's review
Moonstruck
1987 | 102 Minutes | PGDirected by:Norman Jewison
Starring:Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia, and Danny Aiello
Genre: Comedy
When there's a full moon over Brooklyn, anything can happen, and everything happens in the neighb...
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Roger Ebert's review
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
1987 | 93 Minutes | RDirected by:John Hughes
Starring:Steve Martin, John Candy, William Windom, Michael McKean, and Edie McClurg
Genre: Comedy
Were it not for its profanity-laden opening scenes, John Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles m...
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Withnail and I
Roger Ebert's review
Withnail and I
1987 | 105 Minutes | RDirected by:Bruce Robinson
Starring:Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths, Ralph Brown, and Michael Elphick
Genre: Comedy
Screenwriter Bruce Robinson made his directorial debut with this British comedy. Withnail (Richar...
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Mystery Train
Roger Ebert's review
Mystery Train
1989 | 110 Minutes | RDirected by:Jim Jarmusch
Starring:Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, and Joe Strummer
Genre: Comedy
Written and directed by the ever-unpredictable Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train is comprised of three ...
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Say Anything...
Roger Ebert's review
Say Anything...
1989 | 100 Minutes | PG-13Directed by:Cameron Crowe
Starring:John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, and Joan Cusack
Genre: Comedy Drama
Ione Skye plays Diane Court, high-school valedictorian on the verge of heading to England on a pr...
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Great Comedies from the '90s & Beyond-
The Hairdresser's Husband
Roger Ebert's review
The Hairdresser's Husband
1990 | 84 Minutes | RDirected by:Patrice Leconte
Starring:Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena, Roland Bertin, Maurice Chevit, and Phillipe Clevenot
Genre: Comedy Drama
Erotic, funny, and very French, this film relies heavily on the critically-acclaimed performance ...
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Léolo
Roger Ebert's review
Léolo
1992 | 107 Minutes | NRDirected by:Jean-Claude Lauzon
Starring:Maxime Collin, Ginette Reno, Julien Guiomar, Pierre Bourgault, and Yves Montmarquette
Genre: Comedy Drama
Jean-Claude Lauzon's highly praised film tells the strange story of Léolo, a young boy from Montr...
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Groundhog Day
Roger Ebert's review
Groundhog Day
1993 | 101 Minutes | PGDirected by:Harold Ramis
Starring:Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Brian Doyle-Murray
Genre: Comedy
Bill Murray plays Phil, a TV weatherman working for a local station in Pennsylvania but convinced...
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Fargo
Roger Ebert's review
Fargo
1996 | 98 Minutes | RDirected by:Joel Coen
Starring:Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy, Peter Stormare, and Harve Presnell
Genre: Crime Drama
Filmmaking siblings Joel Coen and Ethan Coen both embraced and poked satirical fun at their Minne...
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Secrets & Lies
Roger Ebert's review
Secrets & Lies
1996 | 140 Minutes | RDirected by:Mike Leigh
Starring:Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, and Claire Rushbrook
Genre: Drama
A family is forced to confront the personal issues they've been avoiding for years in this powerf...
The Big Lebowski
Roger Ebert's review
The Big Lebowski
1998 | 117 Minutes | RDirected by:Joel Coen
Starring:Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, and Peter Stormare
Genre: Comedy
The plot of this Raymond Chandler-esque comedy crime caper from the Coen Brothers (Joel Coen and ...
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Adaptation
Roger Ebert's review
Adaptation
2002 | 115 Minutes | RDirected by:Spike Jonze
Starring:Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, and Brian Cox
Genre: Comedy Drama
The creative team behind Being John Malkovich -- director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Ka...
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Roger Ebert's review
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2004 | 108 Minutes | RDirected by:Michel Gondry
Starring:Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and Elijah Wood
Genre: Comedy Drama
The second feature from director Michel Gondry (Human Nature) finds the filmmaker reteaming with ...
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A Prairie Home Companion
Roger Ebert's review
A Prairie Home Companion
2006 | 105 Minutes | PG-13Directed by:Robert Altman
Starring:Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, and Lily Tomlin
Genre: Comedy
Acclaimed filmmaker Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Nashville) brings National Public Radio stalwart G...
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