Last Updated on October 6, 2021 by
No entertainment is better than really good comedies. If you are bored or need encouragement, you do not have to look further than the movies we have listed below. Here, we have listed 59 of our favorite comedies. Here you will find everything from old and underrated movies to recent and modern comedies.
There are real gold nuggets throughout the list, from a forgotten classic like To Love in Italian, to a hysterically screwed up comedy like Hellzapoppin and Billy Wilder’s black The Fortune Cookie. Then beloved characters like Danny Kaye and Helan and Halvan also glimpse the periphery. Although the thorns of the age sometimes become noticeable, it still feels surprisingly fresh.
There are incredibly very good comedies made around the 1940s that should not be underestimated. Overall, the 1940s and 1935-1945 time period feel like the real golden age of comedies, with smart, well-written, well-played and overall fast-paced films.
1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Angry and Learned to Love the Bomb (1964)
Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece with Peter Sellers in several roles in a black satire about the Cold War.
2. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis as an unbeatable trio in Billy Wilder’s rap and smart comedy, which is played during the gang ban. Read more about the film here in FM
3. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Sophisticated salon humor with brilliant acting by Cary Grant, Cathrine Hepburn and James Stewart, some of Hollywood’s absolute best actresses of the time.
4. The Apartment (1960)
Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” won the Oscar for best film. With Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine. Lemmon rents out his apartment to his superiors who bring his mistresses here.
5. City Lights (1931)
Charlie Chaplin’s somewhat black comedy about the poor man trying to help a blind girl selling flowers on the street.
6. To Be or Not To Be (1942)
Ernst Lubitsch made this brilliant comedy set during WW2. About a theater troupe, jealousy and an actor who is convinced that he can fool everyone that he is Hitler.
7. The General (1926)
Counted as Keaton’s most classic movie. It has everything, from a good story to some of film history’s most incomparable stunts. Tip: Read Roger Ebert text about Keaton and The General.
8. Trouble in Paradise (1932)
One of the earlier and most classic “screwball comedies” – fast, quick with many confusions.
9. The Lady Killers (1955)
Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers in the classic comedy about a bunch of bank robbers whose worries are to kill an old aunt. (much worse and pointless remake was made of).
10. Amarcord (1973)
Beautifully sultry and small burlesque childhood nostalgia can be found in Fellini’s most pure comedy.
11. Modern Times (1936)
Chaplin’s epic about industrialization. See the classic scene with the food machine at the film media
12. Born yesterday (1950)
Terribly well-played “Pygmalion” saga with a journalist hired to publicize a stupid gangster bride.
13. Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life (1983)
In my opinion, the best movie of the Python gang. Every sequence is not only fun, but bold, thoughtful, well-made and fascinating.
14. Life is beautiful (1946)
Superb well done feel-good movie, albeit a little well-spoken. It’s Frank Capra’s movie, the one that is aired every other Christmas with a man who is about to commit suicide and an angel who wants to earn back his wings you know.
15. The Lady Eve (1941)
Little scammers who deceive each other become the beginning of a smart love story.
16. Build the sauvé des eaux
Bookstore rescues rude bum Boudu after a clumsy attempt to drown himself. He is anything but grateful. One of Jean Renoir’s best.
17. Divorzio all’italiana (1961)
If you, like Marciello Mastroanni, do not have the legal right to divorce, what else can you do to kill your wife? Divorce in Italian is a real golden grain.
18. My Man Godfrey (1936)
Superteam with William Powell and Carole Lombard in a movie about smart Butler who is hired by a wealthy family with their own little problems.
19. Cluny Brown (1946)
Plumbing daughters find it difficult to find themselves fit as a service girl in rich family and end up in a triangle drama between a Czech refugee and a stiff shop owner.
20. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Classic “screwball” with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, a tiger and a bone from a dinosaur skeleton.