 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Some Like It Hot is Century’s Best Comedy
Some
Like It Hot and Tootsie — films in which some of Hollywood’s
great male stars dress up as women, were named as the two funniest American
films of all time. Picking the 100 best comedies for the American Film
Institute (AFI), a blue-ribbon jury of 1,800 experts voted Billy Wilder’s
1959 cross-dressing classic, starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn
Monroe as no. 1, followed in second place by Tootsie, the 1982 film in
which Dustin Hoffman plays an actor who cannot get work as a man, but
stars as a woman. Two other transvestite tales made the top 100 —
Mrs. Doubtfire at no. 67, and Victor/Victoria at no. 76.
“I can’t figure it out. I guess with Americans in the year 2000,
transgender is no longer transgressive,” said Time magazine film
critic Richard Schickel, who was one of the writers on the three-hour
CBS TV special, in which the latest AFI list was presented.
In third place was Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War masterpiece Dr. Strangelove
Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, a film in which,
while no one dresses up as a woman, Peter Sellers does get to dress up
as a Henry Kissinger-like expert, and a well-meaning, but luckless American
president.
Woody Allen’s tale of New York Jewish angst versus the rest of the
country, Annie Hall, was in fourth place, just above the Marx Brothers’
satirical war-film Duck Soup, in which Groucho plays a prime minister.
Blazing Saddles, Mel Brook’s ground-breaking tale of a black Sheriff
trying to keep law and order in the Old West, was sixth, followed by Robert
Altman’s M*A*S*H* in seventh; It Happened One Night starring Clark
Gable in eighth; Dustin Hoffman’s The Graduate in ninth, and the
wild low-brow collection of one-liners and sight-gags Airplane! in 10th
spot.
Although not one of his films made it to the top 10, Cary Grant was the
most represented actor with eight films on the list. The Marx Brothers
and Woody Allen star in five; while Spencer Tracy, Buster Keaton, Charlie
Chaplin and Bill Murray each appear in four films. Katharine Hepburn and
Margaret Dumont share the title of most represented actress in America’s
funniest movies, each with four films.
Besides Annie Hall, four other Woody Allen films made it to the list,
making him the most represented director with such greats as George Cukor,
Charlie Chaplin and Preston Sturges in second place with four films each.
Unlike AFI’s previous lists for Best American Films and Stars, in
which some famous names seem to have missed the vote, critic Schickel
said it seems that almost all of America’s great clowns and comics
made it to the list — from Buster Keaton to W.C. Fields to Jerry
Lewis, Abbott and Costello, and even that comedian who never gets any
respect, Rodney Dangerfield.
More
Stories....
After
Man On The Moon, Carrey returns to comedy with ...Irene
Vignettes
--STONE
AGREES TO BASIC SEQUEL
Big
buzz for The Perfect Storm -- Will it sink Titanic’s record collections?
Fox
Tooning Out, Closing Phoenix Studio