Here's a side-splitting selection of classic comedies that appeal to every sense of humor from slapstick to sophisticated! This fun-filled 5-DVD set spans more than 25 years of laughter and includes 15 feature-length comedies:
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) - Charlie Chaplin THE GENERAL (1927) - Buster Keaton SPEAK EASILY (1932) - Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante MR. ROBINSON CRUSOE (1932) - Douglas Fairbanks Sr. PALOOKA (1934) - Stu Erwin, Jimmy Durante JUDGE PRIEST (1934) - Will Rogers MY MAN GODFREY (1936) - William Powell, Carole Lombard THE MILKY WAY (1936) - Harold Lloyd NOTHING SACRED (1937) - Fredric March, Carole Lombard HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) - Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING (1941) - Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas TOPPER RETURNS (1941) - Joan Blondell, Roland Young LIFE WITH FATHER (1947) - William Powell, Irene Dunne THE INSPECTOR GENERAL (1949) - Danny Kaye FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND (1951) - Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor.
These madcap movie classics boast some of the greatest directors Hollywood ever produced, including John Ford, Michael Curtiz, Howard Hawks, William Wellman, Ernst Lubitsch, and Vincente Minnelli! A delightful sampling of film comedy from the silent twenties to the fabulous fifties!
Disc One
The Gold Rush (1925) - Charlie Chaplin, Georgia Hale (Dir. Charles Chaplin) - Bittersweet Chaplin masterpiece in which The Tramp trudges off to the Klondike gold rush and falls in love. Includes the justifiably famous "eating his boot" sequence. (In reality, it was made of licorice.) 96 mins.
The General (1927) - Buster Keaton, Marion Mack (Dir. Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton) - Perhaps Keaton's greatest film, in which he plays a Confederate soldier who must rescue his lady-love - and the locomotive that the Union soldiers have hijacked. The train wreckage became a tourist attraction in an Oregon river bed for nearly 20 years. 75 mins.
Speak Easily (1932) - Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Thelma Todd (Dir. Edgar Sedgwick) - An early and underrated Keaton sound film in which he plays a nerdy professor who inherits a fortune and decides to throw caution to the wind. Durante plays his devoted but eccentric butler! 82 mins.
Disc Two
Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932) - Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Maria Alba (Dir. Eddie Sutherland) - A rare Douglas Fairbanks Sr. sound comedy in which he portrays a wealthy yachtsman who bets a friend he can survive on a desolate South Seas island with only a toothbrush. Lovely Maria Alba (from the Chandu films) is his girl, Saturday! 76 mins.
Palooka (1934) - Stu Erwin, Lupe Velez, Jimmy Durante (Dir. Benjamin Stoloff) - The popular comic strip, Joe Palooka, comes to life with Erwin in the title role of the naïve but promising prizefighter and Durante as his ambitious (and delightfully vulgar in that pre-Code way) trainer/manager. 85 mins.
Judge Priest (1934) - Will Rogers, Hattie McDaniel, Stepin Fetchit (Dir. John Ford) - Legendary humorist Will Rogers displays his renowned homespun wit as an easygoing Kentucky judge with a solid sense of fairness. Director John Ford called this "my favorite picture of all time." 81 mins.
Disc Three
My Man Godfrey (1936) - William Powell, Carole Lombard (Dir. Gregory La Cava) - Screwball classic with Lombard as a dizzy socialite who hires (and falls for) a scruffy derelict (Powell) as the new butler. He brings a healthy dose of sanity to this flaky family. Marx Brothers veteran Morrie Ryskind penned the sparkling script. 95 mins.
The Milky Way (1936) - Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou (Dir. Leo McCarey) - A rare Harold Lloyd sound comedy that is genuinely funny, due partly to the adept direction of Leo McCarey (Duck Soup, Ruggles of Red Gap, The Awful Truth). Lloyd is a mild-mannered milkman who is hoodwinked into becoming a boxer by a fast-talking promoter (Menjou). 87 mins.
Nothing Sacred (1937) - Fredric March, Carole Lombard (Dir. William Wellman) - Another classic Carole Lombard romantic comedy in which she plays a naïve, small-town girl (?!) who is talked into pretending she's dying by a handsome and persuasive reporter (March). Hecht, Wellman and March had just collaborated on A Star is Born. 73 mins.
Disc Four
His Girl Friday (1940) - Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell (Dir. Howard Hawks) - The smash-hit play The Front Page adapted into a fast-paced romantic comedy with Russell as a wisecracking star reporter and Grant as her handsome - and scheming - editor. Hawks had recently directed Grant in Bringing Up Baby and Only Angels Have Wings. 91 mins.
That Uncertain Feeling (1941) - Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Eve Arden (Dir. Ernst Lubitsch) - Ernst lends "that Lubitsch touch" to the tale of a happily married woman (Oberon) who goes to see a shrink to cure her psychosomatic hiccups and winds up losing interest in her inattentive husband (Douglas) and falling for a flamboyant concert pianist (Meredith). What could be simpler? 87 mins.
Topper Returns (1941) - Joan Blondell, Roland Young (Dir. Roy Del Ruth) - This third entry in the delightful Topper series concerns a sexy ghost (Blondell) who enlists Topper's help in tracking down her killer. Stellar supporting cast includes Billie Burke, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and horror favorite George Zucco. 88 mins.
Disc Five
Life With Father (1947) - William Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Irene Dunne (Dir. Michael Curtiz) - Broadway hit about a stern turn-of-the-century stockbroker (Powell) who mentions that he's never been baptized, sending his pragmatic wife (Dunne) and various children into a tizzy. Taylor is more luminous than a 15-year-old has a right to be. 118 mins.
The Inspector General (1949) - Danny Kaye, Elsa Lanchester (Dir. Henry Koster) - A sweet simpleton (Kaye) is mistaken for the Inspector General of a small Russian village, causing evil officials to go to great lengths to murder him. Elsa (Bride of Frankenstein) Lanchester plays the mayor's wife, who falls for Kaye. 100 mins.
Father's Little Dividend (1951) - Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett (Dir. Vincente Minnelli) - This delightful sequel to Father of the Bride stars Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett, who try to cope with the "devastating" news that they are about to become grandparents, courtesy of their newlywed daughter, Elizabeth Taylor. 81 mins.
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 1315 mins. (22 hours) More...
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