Three Comedy Films That Keep Me Laughing With Every Viewing

Summary: Three comedy films that lead to laughing with every viewing are Arsenic and Old Lace, Funny Farm and Larry Crowne.

English-American actor Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; Jan. 18, 1904-Nov. 29, 1986), charming and suave, excelled at comedy; 1941 publicity still from Suspicion (1941) by RKO Publicity Photographer: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Arsenic and Old Lace, Funny Farm and Larry Crowne are my top three favorite comedy films. They owe their successes to dialogue, performer and plot. They showcase these three necessary ingredients to perfection.

In the dark-humored, black-and-white Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) discovers that brother Teddy (John Alexander) buries in the basement elderly bachelors killed by aunts Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair) with arsenic-, cyanide- and strychnine-laced elderberry wine. Brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) has a corpse to hide and a face altered by plastic surgery.

Mortimer has to determine whether to inform former next-door neighbor and current bride Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) and involve the local asylum and police. He also has to fight off fears of "Insanity runs in my family!" He subsequently learns that he is really the orphan of parents who were neither married nor wealthy but who -- unlike the blue-blooded Brewster family -- were sane.

The 1988 American comedy film "Funny Farm" features a view of Downers Covered Bridge in Weathersfield, Windsor County, east central Vermont; Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, 15:28:42: Gianina Lindsey (aussiegtl), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

In Funny Farm (1988), Andy (Chevy Chase) and Elizabeth (Madolyn Smith) Farmer abandon life in New York City's fast lane for small-town Redbud, Vermont. Andy counts upon a successful writing career. He ends up preparing to get divorced and sell the house because of a corpse's unpaid funeral bills ("Whenever you buy a house, whatever's in the ground belongs to you whether it's gold or oil or Claude Musselman!"), Elizabeth's writing successes and the town's quirky inhabitants.

He ultimately looks forward to becoming a first-time parent, supporting Elizabeth's career as a successful children's author and working as the local newspaper's sportswriter.

Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in "Larry Crowne": Água com Açúcar, CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

In Larry Crowne (2007), a Navy veteran (Tom Hanks) gets fired because lack of a college education limits advancement opportunities, something that violates store-wide policy and that "UMart does not do!" according to executive Vicky Hurly (Claudia Stedelin). So Larry goes back to school, where he becomes the best and most popular community college student. He moves into an apartment over a fellow student's newly opened thrift store and successfully romances speech teacher Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts).

A film forever attests to its director's insights and styles. Three of the world's most respected directors bring packaging, performance, plot and props together in three unforgettably comedic wholes: Frank Capra (May 18, 1897–Sept. 3, 1991), with Arsenic and Old Lace; George Roy Hill (Dec. 20, 1921–Dec. 27, 2002), with Funny Farm; Tom Hanks (born July 9, 1956), with Larry Crowne.

And between all the belly laughs, chortles, chuckles, giggles and snickers, I thank them, now and forever.

Comedy has ancient roots; Thalia, muse of comedy, holds a comic mask in a detail on Muses Sarcophagus (saracophagus of the Muses) sculpted in first half of second century A.D., Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre), le 1er arrondissement de Paris (le premier; English: 1st arrondissement), la rive droite de la Seine (Right Bank of the Seine), Paris, central Île-de-France region, north central France: Jastrow, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

English-American actor Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; Jan. 18, 1904-Nov. 29, 1986), charming and suave, excelled at comedy; 1941 publicity still from Suspicion (1941) by RKO Publicity Photographer: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grant,_Cary_(Suspicion)_01.jpg

The 1988 American comedy film "Funny Farm" features a view of Downers Covered Bridge in Weathersfield, Windsor County, east central Vermont; Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, 15:28:42: Gianina Lindsey (aussiegtl): Gianina Lindsey (aussiegtl), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/57119512@N00/6793987762

Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in "Larry Crowne": Água com Açúcar, CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/46946601@N05/8388761993

Comedy has ancient roots; Thalia, muse of comedy, holds a comic mask in a detail on Muses Sarcophagus (saracophagus of the Muses) sculpted in first half of second century A.D., Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre), le 1er arrondissement de Paris (le premier; English: 1st arrondissement), la rive droite de la Seine (Right Bank of the Seine), Paris, central Île-de-France region, north central France: Jastrow, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thalia_sarcophagus_Louvre_Ma475.jpg