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Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Tired of churning out crowd-pleasing comedies such as Ants in Your Plants of 1939, director John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) vows to make an important movie about economic injustice and class struggle. Unfortunately for him, his only brush with poverty is the first of every month when he mails an alimony check to his ex-wife. So he and a down-on-her-luck Veronica Lake set off on a cross-country adventure to learn what's-what. The result is the best comedy of Preston Sturges's illustrious career.
"What do they know in Pittsburgh?"
"They know what they like."
"If they knew what they liked, they wouldn’t live in Pittsburgh."
8½ (1963)
Everyone is ready for Guido (Marcello Mastroanni) to direct another hit movie — the cast, the crew, the press, the studio, his wife, his mistress, his other mistress. Everyone except Guido, that is. He thinks and thinks, and hasn't got an idea left in his overstuffed head. My favorite Fellini film, chock full of those crazy visuals (a man floating through the sky like a balloon, anyone?) that make Fellini so much nutty fun.
"I don't understand. He meets a girl that can give him a new life and he pushes her away?"
"Because he no longer believes in it."
"Because he doesn't know how to love."
"Because it isn't true that a woman can change a man."
"Because he doesn't know how to love."
"And above all because I don't feel like telling another pile of lies."
"Because he doesn't know how to love."
Stardust Memories (1980)
By 1980, Woody Allen was sick of making funny movies, sick of a public that only liked funny movies, and above all, sick of a universe that only makes sense as the punchline of some sort of decidedly-unfunny, existential joke — so, of course, he made a comedy about it. The critics blasted Stardust Memories in its initial release but its stature has grown over the years. Or anyway, I like it, which is all that really counts, right?
"But shouldn't I stop making movies and do something that counts, like-like helping blind people or becoming a missionary or something?"
"Let me tell you, you're not the missionary type. You'd never last. And-and incidentally, you're also not Superman; you're a comedian. You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes."
The Simpsons "Krusty Gets Busted" (Season One, Episode 12) (1990)
Laughs are all well and good but what about poetry, what about literature, what about not getting another pie thrown in your face? Sideshow Bob (the voice of Kelsey Grammer) is fed up and he frames his boss Krusty the Clown, takes over the show and talks to the kids about feelings and philosophy and crap like that. Probably the best episode of The Simpsons first season, way back when the show was actually funny.
"Yes I admit it, I hated him. His hackneyed shenanigans robbed me of my dignity for years. I played the buffoon, while he squandered a fortune on his vulgar appetites. That's why I framed Krusty. I would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for these meddling kids."
"Take him away boys."
"Treat kids like equals, they're people too. They're smarter than what you think! They were smart enough to catch me!"
Top Five (2014)
Comedian Andre Allen (Chris Rock) doesn't feel funny anymore, and who can blame him — his movie's a flop, his love life is a TV show, his relatives have their hands out, and his fans just want him to put the bear costume back on. But, hey, at least his day can't get any worse. Right? Raunchy, hilarious and a pretty biting send-up of modern culture, Top Five was last year's most overlooked comedy.
"You coming to the party right?"
"Some people got to work. I'll tell you what — I'll come to your next bachelor party."
"That's not funny, man."
"Tell me somethin' — your next wife, she gonna be white or she gonna be Asian?"
"It's still not funny, man."
"Oh, it's only funny when you say mean shit. Right?"
"Who was that?"
"My father."
My good and great friend, Mister Muleboy, often says that anything becomes funny if you repeat it 400 times—and he's right—but God help you through the first 399.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, directed by the usually pious Stanley Kramer, is the cinematic equivalent of hoarding, piling up so many gags that it quickly wears out its welcome—and then piles up so many more that the sheer chutzpah of the effort makes you giddy.
It's not the best comedy of the year, but it is the funniest. For the effort of juggling the entire insane endeavor and bringing it home in one improbable piece, I've awarded Stanley Kramer the Katie Award for best director (comedy/musical) of 1963.
PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The Great Escape (prod. John Sturges)
nominees: The Birds (prod. Alfred Hitchcock); From Russia With Love (prod. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman); The Haunting (prod. Robert Wise); How The West Was Won (prod. Bernard Smith); Hud (prod. Irving Ravetch and Martin Ritt); Jason and the Argonauts (prod. Charles H. Schneer); The Servant (prod. Joseph Losey and Norman Priggen); Shock Corridor (prod. Samuel Fuller)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Charade (prod. Stanley Donen)
nominees: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (prod. Stanley Kramer); The Nutty Professor (prod. Ernest D. Glucksman); The Pink Panther (prod. Martin Jurow); The Sword in the Stone (prod. Walt Disney); Tom Jones (prod. Tony Richardson)
PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: 8½ (prod. Angelo Rizzoli)
nominees: Il gattopardo (The Leopard) (prod. Goffredo Lombardo); Le Mépris (Contempt) (prod. Georges de Beauregard and Carlo Ponti); Nattvardsgästerna (Winter Light) (prod. Allan Ekelund); Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low) (prod. Ryûzô Kikushima and Tomoyuki Tanaka); Tystnaden (The Silence) (prod. Allan Ekelund); El verdugo (The Executioner) (prod. Nazario Belmar)
ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Marcello Mastroianni (8½)
nominees: Dirk Bogarde (The Servant); Richard Harris (This Sporting Life); Rex Harrison (Cleopatra); Burt Lancaster (The Leopard); Dean Martin (Toys in the Attic); Steve McQueen (The Great Escape); Toshirô Mifune (Tengoku to jigoku a.k.a. High And Low); Paul Newman (Hud); Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor)
nominees: Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar); Albert Finney (Tom Jones); Glenn Ford (The Courtship of Eddie's Father); Cary Grant (Charade); David Niven (The Pink Panther); Mickey Rooney (It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World); John Wayne (Donovan's Reef and McClintock!)
ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Julie Harris (The Haunting)
nominees: Leslie Caron (The L-Shaped Room); Jeanne Moreau (La baie des anges a.k.a. Bay of Angels); Rachel Roberts (This Sporting Life); Delphine Seyrig (Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour a.k.a Muriel or The Time of Return); Ingrid Thulin (Nattvardsgästerna a.k.a. Winter Light and Tystnaden a.k.a. The Silence)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Ann-Margret (Bye Bye Birdie)
nominees: Doris Day (The Thrill Of It All and Move Over, Darling); Audrey Hepburn (Charade); Shirley MacLaine (Irma La Douce); Maureen O'Hara (McClintock!); Margaret Rutherford (Murder at the Gallop); Natalie Wood (Love with the Proper Stranger); Susannah York (Tom Jones)
DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Federico Fellini (8½)
nominees: Ingmar Bergman (Nattvardsgästerna a.k.a. Winter Light and Tystnaden a.k.a. The Silence); Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds); Akira Kurosawa (Tengoku to jigoku a.k.a. High and Low); Martin Ritt (Hud); John Sturges (The Great Escape); Luchino Visconti (Il gattopardo a.k.a. The Leopard); Robert Wise (The Haunting)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Stanley Kramer (It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World)
nominees: Stanley Donen (Charade); Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor); Tony Richardson (Tom Jones)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Melvyn Douglas (Hud)
nominees: Hugh Griffith (Tom Jones); Paul Lynde (Bye Bye Birdie); Walter Matthau (Charade); Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape); Peter Sellers (The Pink Panther)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Patricia Neal (Hud)
nominees: Edie Adams (Love with the Proper Stranger); Anouk Aimee (8½); Claire Bloom (The Haunting); Edith Evans (Tom Jones); Ethel Merman (It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World); Sandra Milo (8½); Margaret Rutherford (The V.I.P.s)
SCREENPLAY
winner: Peter Stone; story by Peter Stone and Marc Behm (Charade)
nominees: Nelson Gidding, from the novel by Shirley Jackson (The Haunting); Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., from the novel by Larry McMurtry (Hud); John Osborne, from the novel by Henry Fielding (Tom Jones)
SPECIAL AWARDS
Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts) (Special Effects); Elmer Bernstein (The Great Escape) (Score)
All the first round polls are now up and running. Don't forget to vote in the other brackets if you haven't already.
Ingmar Bergman
Born: July 14, 1918 (Uppsala, Uppsala län, Sweden)
Directorial Debut: (Crisis (1946)
Academy Awards: 9 nominations (including 3 for direction)
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (for direction): 1 win—The Seventh Seal (1957) (Drama)
Three More To See: Wild Strawberries, Persona and Scenes From A Marriage
Stanley Kubrick
Born: July 26, 1928 (New York, New York)
Directorial Debut: Flying Padre (documentary short) (1951)
Academy Awards: 13 nominations (including 4 for direction), 1 win—2001: A Space Odyssey (Visual Effects)
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (for direction): 1 win—2001: A Space Odyssey (Drama)
Three More To See: The Killing, Paths Of Glory and Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Akira Kurosawa
Born: March 23, 1910 (Tokyo, Japan)
Directorial Debut: Uma (some scenes) (uncredited) (1941)
Academy Awards: 1 nomination, honorary Oscar
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (for direction): 3 wins—Rashômon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954) and Ran (1985) (all for Drama)
Three More To See: Ikiru, The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo
Federico Fellini
Born: January 20, 1920 (Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy)
Directorial Debut: Luci del varietà (Variety Lights) (1950)
Academy Awards: 12 nominations, honorary Oscar (1993)
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (for direction): 8½ (1963) (Drama)
Three More To See: La Strada, Nights of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita
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