The Nude Bomb (1980)
Get Smart Movie/Spy Spoof
A flop theatrical film spinoff from the Get Smart tv series with Don Adams’ Maxwell Smart trying to stop a bomb that renders people naked
Comedies
Hero at Large (1980)
Pretend Superhero
Comedy where John Ritter is an actor dressed in a superhero costume for a promotion who then starts to fight crimes for real. The first of several comedy films about superheroes who have no powers.
Simon (1980)
Fake Alien Comedy
A directorial debut from Woody Allen co-writer Marshall Brickman, an offbeat comedy where scientists hypnotise Alan Arkin into believing he is an alien
The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu (1980)
Fu Manchu Spoof
Peter Sellers’ last film and usually lambasted by his fans. Spoofing the great villain, Sellers indulges his penchant for playing multiple roles and the result is some likeable silliness
Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979)
Astronaut in King Arthur's Court/Disney Comedy
A Disney version of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court where the story of a man thrown back in time to Camelot is dragged into the era of Star Wars with the addition of space shuttles and androids
Love at First Bite (1979)
Dracula Spoof
Genial and very likeable spoof of Dracula and the vampire film that succeeds where other works have failed and is very funny. George Hamilton steps into the role of Dracula with debonair charm
The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials (1979)
Alien Visitors Slapstick Comedy
An entry in a popular series of French slapstick comedies with Louis de Funes as a comic gendarme. In this, the series sole genre entry, he goes up against alien visitors
Outer Touch (1979)
Alien Women Abduct Men/Sex Comedy
Bizarre attempt to mix the 1970s SF film with the British sex comedy as a group of people are abducted by three alien women who are ignorant about sex
Dracula Blows His Cool (1979)
Vampire Sex Comedy
Excruciating West German-made vampire sex comedy (that doesn’t feature Count Dracula despite the title). Painful and agonisingly unfunny comedy routines directed by someone who has no idea how to set them up
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Muppet Movie
The first and best of the Muppet films where Jim Henson spins them off onto the big screen with charm and sly humour
The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid (1979)
Child Alien Visitor Slapstick Comedy
The late Bud Spencer and his compatriot Terence Hill appeared in seventeen badly dubbed, slapstick comedies in the 1970s/80s … Spencer went it alone for this excruciating slapstick take on Close Encounters of the Third Kind in which that film’s kid Cary Guffey is an alien found by Spencer’s sheriff
Americathon (1979)
Future Telethon/1970s Satire
This seems like it had all the elements to be a biting satirical crosscut of the 1970s in which the US President holds a telethon to keep the country from going bankrupt but flounders in a series of unfunny skits
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
Sherlock Holmes Comedy/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes novel made as a comedy vehicle for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Given the duo’s reputations as comics, the results are fairly excruciating
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)
Genre Spoof
One of the original genre parodies, a very silly and amateurish film that also manages to be occasionally quite funny. Three sequels and an animated tv series followed
Dracula, Father and Son (1976)
Dracula Parody
Almost certainly this is the one Christopher Lee Dracula film you will never have heard about. This was a French comedy made not long after Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, spoofing the Dracula film
The Big Bus (1976)
Disaster Movie Parody
Intermittently amusing parody of the disaster movie set aboard an atomically-powered luxury bus where everything proceeds to go wrong. The better parody of the genre would have to wait for Airplane
Queen Kong (1976)
Sex-Reversed King Kong Parody
A spectacularly terrible film. Designed to exploit the 1976 remake, this offers up a sex-reversed parody of King Kong – only the Kong producers didn’t see that way and sued to stop the film being released. Robin Askwith, the star of the softcore Confessions films, engages in a romance with a female Kong amid excruciating puns
Freaky Friday (1976)
Mother-Daughter Bodyswap Comedy
The original version of the Disney live-action comedy with mother Barbara Harris and a young Jodie Foster as her daughter who swap bodies for one day. The performances are hilarious and this is filled with witty deadpan gags
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
Bumbling Police Inspector Comedy
Fourth of the Peter Sellers Pink Panther films, this lets all restraints go and becomes completely madcap
Love and Death (1975)
Russian Literature Screwball Parody
Rather funny Woody Allen film where he takes to spoofing Russian literature and does some hilarious visual gags and one-liners. Comes with minor fantasy elements including spoofing The Seventh Seal
The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
Super-Strength Cereal/Disney Comedy
The third of Disney Dexter Reilly films in which teen inventor Kurt Russell creates a super-strength cereal
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Universal Frankenstein Spoof
Mel Brooks’ finest moment, a witty stylistic homage to and spoof of the Universal Frankenstein films. A great cast are on perfect form all around.
Percy’s Progress (1974)
Last Fertile Man on Earth Comedy
Sequel to the British sex comedy Percy about the world’s first penis transplant in which the central character is now the last fertile man on Earth
Vampira (1974)
Vampire Comedy
Dismissed at the time as a copy of Young Frankenstein even though it had been made earlier, this is a none too funny vampire comedy featuring David Niven as Dracula
Tender Dracula (1974)
Comedy About a Horror Actor
An obscure French comedy in which Peter Cushing plays a vampire or more correctly plays a horror actor used to playing vampires. Assorted extremely unfunny shenanigans running around his castle ensue
The House in Nightmare Park (1973)
Old Dark House Comedy
Amidst the Anglo-horror cycle of the 1970s, there was this throwback to the 1940s styled Old Dark House comedy. Made as a vehicle for comedian Frankie Howerd, this only demonstrates how creaky the genre was
The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973)
Disney Comedy/Jungle Boy Super-Athlete
A Disney live-action comedy that puts a Tarzan character on the athletics field for some inspired nonsense
Schlock (1973)
Missing Link Comedy/Genre Parody
The very first film from John Landis, a rather amusing spoof of revived caveman films, As with many of Landis’s films, has a substantial level of playful in-joking and genre in-referencing. Mostly, it plays out with an appealingly nonsensical absurdity
Sleeper (1973)
Dystopian Future Comedy
An hilarious Woody Allen film in which he plays a contemporary man cryogenically unthawed in the 22nd century. This satirisises SF cliches and contains some side-slitting comedy sequences
Play It Again Sam (1972)
Romantic Advice from Humphrey Bogart's Ghost Comedy
Comedy based on a Woody Allen play in which Allen plays his usual hapless character who receives romantic advice from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)
Sex-Themed Skits/Genre Spoofs
Woody Allen film that takes the title of the best-selling sex manual and spins it out as the basis of a series of hilarious sex-themed skits. Contains the famous episode with the giant breast run amok
Beware! The Blob (1972)
The Blob Comedy Sequel
A sequel to The Blob, although this plays everything for comedy. The one and only film directed by actor Larry Hagman, no less than J.R. Ewing of Dallas fame
Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972)
Invisible Teen/Disney Comedy
The second of Disney’s Dexter Reilly films with Kurt Russell as a teen genius who invents an invisibility formula
The Million Dollar Duck (1971)
Golden Egg-Laying Duck/Disney Comedy
Disney live-action comedy where Dean Jones accidentally creates a duck that lays golden eggs
The Vampire Happening (1971)
Vampire Comedy
Freddie Francis was one of the finest stylists of the Anglo-horror cycle. Here he makes a comedy spoofing the vampire film that comes out feeling like Benny Hill routines running around a big castle
Percy (1971)
Penis Transplant Comedy
Popular entry among the early 1970s spate of British sex comedies featuring Hywell Bennett as the recipient of the world’s first penis transplant. Mostly this serves as an excuse to string a series of sexual encounters together.
Every Home Should Have One (1970)
Daydreamer's Naughty Fantasies
A vehicle for Marty Feldman, a peculiar comedy where he plays an advertising executive who has Walter Mitty-like sexual fantasies
Mister Superinvisible (1970)
Invisibility Comedy
Antonio Margheriti, better known for his Gothic horror and giallo films, makes an invisible man comedy
The Phantom Gunslinger (1970)
Gonzo Slapstick Western
A mind-boggling oddity – a slapstick comedy Western where there seems no limit on how nutty things are allowed to go, including characters venturing to Heaven and Hell
Watermelon Man (1970)
White Man Wakes Up as a Black Man/Satiric Comedy
From Melvin Van Peebles who made the first Blaxploitation film, a satire in which a white man wakes up to find he has turned black. This takes a savage bite out of race relations but ends up without teeth in being distracted by Godfrey Cambridge’s raucous loudmouth performance
Hercules in New York (1970)
Greek Mythological Hero in the Present/Comedy
A not terribly funny parody of the Italian-made Hercules films of the 1960s. This is mostly known for featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger (billed as Arnold Strong) in his first acting role
The Monitors (1969)
Alien Invasion Comedy
Comedy about aliens who have invaded Earth and keep broadcasting commercials to tell how wonderful life is. You feel like this should be great satire but instead the film flounders about without any plot tapping a 60s counter-culture vibe before finding it doesn’t have anything to say
Hello Down There (1969)
Underwater Habitat Comedy
Director Jack Arnold was one of the great voices of 1950s SF cinema. Here he turns to making a none-too-funny comedy set in an underwater habitat. Featuring a teenage Richard Dreyfuss
Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968)
Pirate's Ghost/Disney Comedy
Disney live-action comedy with Peter Ustinov as the ghost of a resurrected pirate who comes to the aid of an ailing collage track team
What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968)
Happiness Virus Comedy
Mary Tyler Moore stars as a beatnik in a bizarre comedy where people are infected with a virus that makes them happy
The Reluctant Astronaut (1967)
Bumbling Idiot Goes into Space
Most of the comics of the 1960s made a film dealing with the Space Race and here it is the turn of Don Knotts. Lots of bumbling slapstick ensues in this hardly inspiring entry
Ghosts – Italian Style (1967)
Haunted Villa/Italian Comedy
A lightweight Italian comedy of errors where Sophia Loren and husband move into a mansion being offered cheaply only to find it is haunted by the ghosts of the previous owners
Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon (1967)
Victorian Rocket Launch Comedy
This jumps aboard the 1960s fad for Jules Verne film adaptations but it has nothing to do with Verne and is instead a slapstick caper film about the building of a rocket during the Victorian era
The Perils of Pauline (1967)
Heroine's Campy Adventures
Pearl White was the original serial heroine in The Perils of Pauline. During the 1960s Batman craze, the serial was revived as this campy comedy
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
Vampire Hunter Comedy
Roman Polanski misfired with this vampire comedy intended as a spoof of Hammer Films. Beautifully produced but comedy is not Polanski’s forte and the film seems to consists of much slapstick running around
The Spirit is Willing (1967)
Ghost Comedy
Here gimmick master William Castle turns his attention away from the usual into making a light fantasy comedy about a family who buy a house inhabited by ghosts
Birds Do It (1966)
Weightless Man Comedy
An excruciatingly unfunny slapstick comedy with Soupy Sales as the janitor at an space laboratory who is accidentally made weightless
Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966)
Mad Scientist/Spy Spoof
Italian-made sequel to the campy Vincent Price starring Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. Directed by the usually great Mario Bava and overrun by the buffoonish clowning of Italian comics Franco and Ciccio
Way … Way Out (1966)
Space Mission Comedy
Comedy in which Jerry Lewis and Connie Stevens are forced to marry to go to The Moon. The sexual politics play out pretty embarrassingly today
Munster Go Home (1966)
Family of Monster Lookalikes/The Munsters Film
Film spinoff from tv’s The Munsters, a likeable knockabout farce featuring the original cast
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
Haunted House Comedy
Don Knotts was a popular comic of the era who specialised in a craven fearfulness. Here he plays in a haunted house comedy. Beyond Knotts’ comedic antics, the film never seems very interested in the haunted house aspect
Carry On Screaming (1966)
Spoof of Hammer Horror
Twelfth of the popular British comedy series, here the Carry On team conduct a bawdy farce on the Hammer horror film that was all the in-thing at the time
The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Space Age Comedy
Comedy where Doris Day is a NASA employee drawn into spy shenanigans. It feels as though Day has been cast in a Jerry Lewis role and the whole film is nothing more than a series of slapstick set-pieces
Who Wants to Kill Jessie? (1966)
Device Can Manifest Dreams
Zany Czech film where a scientist invents a device that can cause dream to manifest only to cause the sexy comic-book heroine her husband is dreaming about to appear
Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
Mad Scientist/Spy Spoof
Very silly AIP comedy that parodies the massively popular James Bond films of the era, as well as features Vincent Price as the villain spoofing his appearances in the studio’s Edgar Allan Poe films
The Monkey’s Uncle (1965)
Teenage Inventor/Disney Comedy
One of the wacky inventor live-action comedies Disney made in the 1960s, a sequel to The Misadventures of Merlin Jones where Tommy Kirk variously adopts a chimpanzee and tries to sleep-coach football jocks
Nasty Rabbit (1964)
Spy Comedy
A legendarily awful spy movie where assorted characters run around a ranch in ethnic disguise trying to stop a Russian who is unleashing a rabbit that contains a deadly virus
Pajama Party (1964)
Beach Party Comedy with Martian Visitor
One of the popular Beach Party comedies of the 1960s. Tommy Kirk turns up as a bumbling Martian to romance Annette Funicello
Carry On Spying (1964)
Spy Burlesque
This was the eighth of the Carry On films. The popular British comedy series turn their bawdy sights to conducting a spoof the James Bond film during the height of the spy movie fad
Mouse on the Moon (1963)
World's Smallest Country Launches a Moon Mission
Quirky and charming sequel to The Mouse That Roared in which the world’s smallest country decides to launch a mission to the Moon and accidentally end up winning the Space Race
Son of Flubber (1963)
Absent-Minded Professor Sequel
Sequel to Disney’s The Absent-Minded Professor that only unimaginatively shuffles around the same elements and lacks the inspired touch of the first film
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Personality Transformation Formula Comedy
Jerry Lewis is either a low him or hate him figure; whatever the case, one should give this, his best film, a chance … It is Lewis offering his own comedic spin on the Jekyll/Hyde story, which contains a great performance on his part as he swings between a socially inept nerd and smooth lounge singer
Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962)
Women Alien Invaders Comedy
Comedy about two idiot soldiers captured by alien women. The painfully unfunny routines, laughable vegetable monsters and attitudes to women make this one of the great unrecognised bad movies of all time
Moon Pilot (1962)
Female Alien Visitor/Disney Comedy
Disney comedy starring Tom Tyron as an astronaut caught up in comedic antics with alien visitor Dany Saval
The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962)
Idiots vs Alien Invaders
The Three Stooges join a number of other comics of this era in taking on the space race. Well they only briefly venture into orbit and mostly this can be described more as a slapstick haunted house comedy with alien invaders
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962)
Idiots Time-Travel to Ancient Greece
The Three Stooges travel through time to take on the Italian muscleman film in a never particularly funny comedy
The Temptation of Dr Antonio (1962)
Giant Anita Ekberg Steps Off a Billboard
Federico Fellini’s episode of the anthology Boccacio 70 in which a giant size Anita Ekberg steps off a billboard to tempt a moralist with lust
The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
Screwball Comedy
After a decade, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby returned for their sixth and final Road movie. Both they and the knockabout comedy are on great form with the show taking on the influence of the 60s spy movie fad and even sending them to The Moon
Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961)
Idiots Enact a Fairytale
The Three Stooges are transplanted into a retelling of the fairytale, although their slapstick inanity feels drowned out amid the maudlin banality and Cinemascope spectacle
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
Anti-Gravity Rubber/Disney Comedy
One of the inspired delights from Disney’s live-action era, a hit that became the template for their subsequent live-action films. The scenes with flying vehicles and basketball teams are entirely charming.
Cinderfella (1960)
Sex-Reversed Cinderella Comedy
The popular fairytale has the sexes reversed and is reworked as a comedy vehicle for Jerry Lewis, although the upshot of this is that we get a Cinderella who is now a near-imbecilic Beverly Hills stepchild
The Bulldog Breed (1960)
Idiot in the Navy/Rocket Launch
In the 1960s, a number of popular comics made films about the Space Race. This was a vehicle for Norman Wisdom, a minor British comic of the era, and has him enrolled in the Navy and launched into orbit
Visit to a Small Planet (1960)
Alien Visitor Comedy
A satirical Gore Vidal play is bent out of shape to become a vehicle for the slapstick nonsense of Jerry Lewis, cast as an alien visitor. Lewis is a love him or hate him actor; depending on one’s tolerance for such, this has much fast-paced silliness
The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Teenager Transforms Into a Dog/Disney Comedy
The first of Disney’s live-action comedies, a comic variant on the werewolf story with Tommy Kirk turning into a dog. Mildly amusing but later efforts would do this type of comedy better
The Mouse That Roared (1959)
The World's Smallest Country Invades the USA
Peter Sellers comedy where the smallest country in the world invades the USA and ends up accidentally winning
The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959)
Giant Woman Comedy
The one and only solo outing from Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello fame made after the duo’s split-up and just before Lou’s death. The film is essentially a comedy remake of the previous year’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in which Lou’s newlywed wife abruptly becomes a giant
Have Rocket — Will Travel (1959)
Idiots Launched Into Space Comedy
Full-length comedy from The Three Stooges where the idiots are janitors at a space centre who accidentally launch themselves into space. One of several Space Age films where popular comics where launched into space
Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Witch in Love
Charming fantasy in which James Stewart is tempted by capricious witch Kim Novak. This almost certainly served as the inspiration for tv’s Bewitched
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
Two Idiots Meet the Mummy
Abbott and Costello’s fourth and final meeting with the Famous Monsters. However, this is a desultory outing where nobody seems to be making much of an effort
Mad About Men (1954)
Mermaid Comedy
A sequel to the charming British mermaid comedy Miranda with Glynis Johns again owning the show with her flirtatiously coy sparkle as she swaps places with a lookalike relative
The Atomic Kid (1954)
Radioactive Man Comedy
Perhaps the strangest film Mickey Rooney ever made, a comedy in which he is a prospector caught in an atomic explosion and afterwards gains the ability to cause things to explode
The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954)
Idiots Meet the Monsters
The Bowery Boys were a poor man’s Abbott and Costello; here in one of their most entertaining outings they try to compete with Abbott and Costello’s monster bashes
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
Two Idiots Go to Venus
Abbott and Costello take time out from comic hijinks with the Famous Monsters to go to Venus (despite the title) and engage in various datedly sexist gags with a planetful of women
The Twonky (1953)
Possessed TV Set from the Future Comedy
Arch Oboler makes this madcap comic where milquetoast Hans Conreid’s life is turned upside down when his tv set becomes possessed by a mischief-making robot from the future
The Oracle (1953)
Greek Oracle/Predicting the Future
British quota quickie, a comedy about a man who discovers an oracle in a well that gives him tips on horse races
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1953)
Two Idiots Meet Dr Jekyll
The third of Abbott and Costello’s comedic meet ups with the Famous Monsters – in this case a series of lowjinks as they encounter Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (played by Boris Karloff)
Scared Stiff (1953)
Haunted House Comedy
Remake of the earlier Bob Hope Old Dark House comedy The Ghost Breakers now made as a vehicle for the duo of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Probably overly long and takes forever to arrive at the haunted house but has some occasionally amiable comedic moments
Meet Mr Lucifer (1953)
The Devil Stirs Mischief Via TV
One of the forgotten comedies from UK’s Ealing Studios, this rails against the evils of the then new medium of television where The Devil contrives to make people miserable by getting them to watch tv
Castle in the Air (1952)
Haunted Castle Comedy
British quota quickie that is a likeable light fantasy comedy about a haunted Scottish castle and comes peopled with a cast of eccentrics
Jack and the Beanstalk (1952)
Two Idiots Enact Fairytale
Abbott and Costello take on the fairytale as a vehicle for their usual inanities. This is the only film the two made in colour and financed it themselves, but is not one of their more inspired offerings.
Monkey Business (1952)
Formula That Causes People to Revert to Adolescence Comedy
The only film that Marilyn Monroe will be written about for on this site. A classic screwball comedy about the accidental discovery of a formula that causes all who take it to revert to adolescence. Much madcap malarkey ensues but it does get very silly
Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952)
British Comedy/Mad Scientist
One in a series of popular British drag comedies, this imports Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist for a series of frenetic and none-too-funny goings-on that make little sense
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
Two Idiots Meet the Invisible Man
The second of Abbott and Costello’s outings with Universal’s Famous Monsters. The usual numbskullery is boosted by some excellent invisibility effects
Ghost Chasers (1951)
Idiots Try to Expose a Medium Comedy
Another of the films from the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys, a prolific comedy act of the era. Here the boys set out to bust a fake medium racket during the course of which they are aided by a ghost
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Imperishable Suit Invention Comedy
Classic Ealing comedy where Alex Guinness causes social disruption when he invents a suit that never wears out or gets dirty