Homeschooling:  "History of Comedy in Movies Study Guide"

Types of Comedy

Disclaimer: If you have any concerns about the suitability of the following films, preview each one before seeing it with your children.  Standards among parents vary (as well as ages among children) and what I deem suitable for family viewing may not be up to your standards, and vice versa. Preferences in movie entertainment are also highly subjective.  If in doubt, try it out.

This is not a definitive study-list of movie comedies, just an attempt to provide a list of movies especially for families whose sponsor is deployed.  However, if you need a 'reason' to watch movies consider that watching them will give a sense of the times in which they were filmed and show the development of movie comedy.  Justify your fun if need be, but have fun anyhow. 

This list  will be added to as time allows.

 

To find copies of the following films do a web search by title and main actor(s).  There are many sources for old films including, but not limited to:
movies.com
amazon.com
cleanfilms.com/

1909
Slapstick Encyclopedia, Vol. 1- In the Beginning: Comedy Pioneers ("Broncho Billy" Anderson, director; Oliver Hardy, Mack Sennett, Fatty Arbuckle and others)

1913
Slapstick Encyclopedia, Vol. 2 - Keystone Tonight!: The Mack Sennett Comedies (Mack Sennett, director; Keystone Kops and others)

1914
Charlie Chaplin's Keystone Comedies (Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Kops)

1917
Arbuckle and Keaton Vol 2 (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton)

1918
Slapstick Encyclopedia, Vol. 3 - Funny Girls: Genders and Their Benders (Al Christie, director; has 'bawdy cross-dressing;' pre-Hays Office film; the "Slapstick Encyclopedia" series has eight volumes)

1921
Media and scandal  Today's media coverage of scandalous behavior is nothing new.  I'm unschooling American History as I make this particular page because at some point in the past I'd read 'something' about Fatty Arbuckle, but nothing was ever spelled out.  Now I know.

1925
The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)

1927
Duck Soup (Laurel and Hardy)
The General (Buster Keaton)

1929
Big Business (Laurel and Hardy)

1930
Animal Crackers (Marx Brothers)

1931
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)

1932
Horse Feathers (Marx Brothers)

1933
Duck Soup (Marx Brothers)
Hays Office

1934
The Thin Man (William Powell, Myrna Loy)

1935
A Night At The Opera (Marx Brothers)
Top Hat (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers)

1936
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, director)
My Man Godfrey (William Powell, Carole Lombard)

1937
A Day at the Races (Marx Brothers)
The Awful Truth (Irene Dunne, Cary Grant)

1938
Bringing Up Baby (Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant)

1939
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart)

1940
A Plumbing We Will Go (The Three Stooges)
His Girl Friday (Cary Grant, Rosaline Russell)
Philadelphia Story (Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn)

1941
An Ache in Every Stake (The Three Stooges)
Buck Privates (Abbott and Costello)
Hold That Ghost (Abbott and Costello)

1942
Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby sings White Christmas, Fred Astaire; combine with White Christmas, 1954)

1944
Arsenic and Old Lace (Cary Grant)

1945
The Bullfighters (Laurel and Hardy)

1946
Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases (1946+, animation)

1947
Life With Father (William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor)
The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (Cary Grant, Myrna Loy)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo)

1948
Easter Parade (Judy Garland, Fred Astaire)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (Cary Grant, Myrna Loy; compare to Tom Hanks' The Money Pit, 1986 )

1949
Adam's Rib (Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn)
I Was A Male War Bride (Cary Grant, Ann Sheridan and scenes of post-WWII Heidelberg)

1950
Father of the Bride (Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett; compare to Steve Martin's version, 1991)
Harvey (Jimmy Stewart)

1952
Singin' in the Rain (Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelley, Donald O'Connor)
Who's On First (Abbott and Costello television show; includes period commercials)

1954
White Christmas (Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney [George's aunt])

1955
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops

1956
The Court Jester (Glynis Johns, Angela Lansbury, Basil Rathbone and Danny Kaye doing the "chalice from the palace/vestle with the pestle" dialogue)

1958
No Time for Sergeants (Andy Griffith, Nick Adams, Don Knotts)

1961
The Absent-Minded Professor (Fred Macmurray; compare to Flubber, 1997 with Robin Williams)
Rocky & Bullwinkle (television show; animation)

1963
Charade (Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant)
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle)
The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis; compare to Eddie Murphy's 1996 version)

1964
Father Goose (Cary Grant, Leslie Caron)
Mary Poppins (despite my English friends' scorn concerning Dick van Dyke's accent; Julie Andrews )

1968
The Odd Couple (Walter Mattau, Jack Lemon)

1973
The Sting (Paul Newman, Robert Redford)

1976
Hawmps

1984
Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis)

1986
The Money Pit (Tom Hanks, Shelley Long)

1987
The Princess Bride (Cary Elwes, Mandy Pantinkin)

1988
The Pink Panther (animation)

1991
Father of the Bride (Steve Martin, Diane Keaton; compare to 1950 original)

1993
Mrs. Doubtfire (Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan)

1995
Babe (animation; Christine Cavanaugh, James Cromwell)
The Nutty Professor (Eddie Murphy; compare to Jerry Lewis's 1963 original)

1997
Flubber (Robin Williams; compare to 1961's The Absent-Minded Professor)
George of the Jungle (Brendan Fraser; 1967 tv cartoon series not yet released)

1999
Toy Story 2 (animation; Tom Hanks, Tim Allen)

2001
Shrek (animation; Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz )

2003
Finding Nemo (animation; Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe)