Francis (1950)
Talking Mule Comedy
This was the first in a series of excruciating comedies that pairs hapless Donald O’Connor with Francis, a talking mule. Six sequels followed
Comedies
Passport to Pimlico (1949)
London Suburb Becomes a Foreign Country Comedy
Charming post-War Ealing Studios comedy where the London suburb of Pimlico declares themselves a separate country
The Perfect Woman (1949)
Android Woman Comedy
One of the first depictions of an android on film, a madcap British comedy of manners about the creation of an android woman
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
Modern Man Time Travels Back to Camelot
Adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic about a modern man thrown back to the time of King Arthur. This has been made as a vehicle for Bing Crosby and makes for fairly excruciating viewing today
It Happens Every Spring (1949)
Eccentric Scientist Becomes a Baseball Star
A comedy in which Ray Milland is cast as a chemistry professor who becomes a baseball star after inventing a wood-repelling chemical
Mr Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)
Mermaid Comedy
A Hollywood copy of the British mermaid film Miranda in which dull middle-aged William Powell fishes up capricious mermaid Ann Blyth. This has an amiable charm
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Two Idiots Meet the Monsters
The most well remembered of Abbott and Costello’s films. Universal had shuffled their Famous Monsters through several team-ups and here decided to play them for outright laughs. Undeniably likeable
Miranda (1948)
Mermaid Comedy
The very first mermaid film, a wonderfully droll comedy in which a capricious Glynis Johns innocently wreaks havoc on all the men around her
Who Killed Doc Robbin (1948)
Old Dark House Comedy
Typical Old Dark House comedy of the 1940s, which has been welded to the formula of the Our Gang comedies with a bunch of kids engaged in a comedic antics in a scary mansion peopled by apes, dead bodies and a sinister scientist
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
Daydreamer's Fantasies
A light whimsical short story about a daydreamer is turned into a bloated and ponderous vehicle for the musical and comedy set-pieces of the perpetually wet-eared Danny Kaye
The Time of Their Lives (1946)
Ghost Comedy
An Abbott and Costello comedy. Not one of their monster bashes but a variant on the light comedy that had been popular in the last decade with Lou as an 18th Century ghost haunting Bud Abbott in the present. Can’t say I am a big fan of their humour, most of the slapstick that seems dated today
Blithe Spirit (1945)
Ghost Drawing Room Comedy
An early David Lean film, an adaptation of a Noel Coward play, a drawing room comedy in which a medium conjures a man’s late wife amid much malarkey and mayhem
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Ghost Comedy
Amiable comedy adapted from an Oscar Wllde story with Charles Laughton as a ghost condemned to walks the family castle for his cowardice. Contains much Wartime comedy about the clash between British and American cultures
Wonder Man (1944)
Ghost Twin Brother/Screwball Comedy
Madcap screwball comedy with Danny Kaye required to pose as his dead twin brother who is then taken over by his ghost during a trial
It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Newspaper That Predicts Tomorrow’s Headlines Comedy
A classic screwball comedy with Dick Powell as a journalist who becomes recipient of newspapers that predict tomorrow’s headlines. The same premise has appeared in a number of other works since.
Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
Idiots in a Sinister House
Comedy where the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys encounter Bela Lugosi running a Nazi fifth column operation from a haunted house, although the ghosts part eventually proves misleading
I Married a Witch (1942)
Mischievous Witch in Love
Charming and delightful film starring Veronica Lake as a witch burned at the stake who returns to life in the present to make life miserable for her judge’s descendant Frederic March
The Horn Blows at Midnight (1942)
Last Trumpeter Screwball Comedy
A screwball comedy with Jack Benny as a trumpeter send down from Heaven to Earth to blow the Last Trumpet who ends up getting distracted by a series of comic mishaps
Road to Morocco (1942)
Screwball Comedy
Road to Morocco was the third of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road films and takes them on a parody of the Arabian Nights adventure
The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)
Mad Scientist Screwball Comedy
Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre make an unexpectedly great comic pairing in this mad scientist screwball comedy that comes with an exhaustingly madcap pace
Topper Returns (1941)
Ghost Screwball Comedy
Second sequel to Topper , the screwball light fantasy comedy about a dull man who is driven crazy by ghosts only he can see. This throws everything into an Old Dark House setting but proves there is still a good deal of droll, nonsensical humour to be found in the formula
Hold That Ghost (1941)
Two Idiots in a Haunted House
The fourth of Abbott and Costello’s films, a knockoff of the then recent hit of the Bob Hope remake of The Cat and the Canary involving much comedic running around a supposedly haunted mansion
Spooks Run Wild (1941)
Old Dark House Comedy
The East Side Kids, a popular comedy group during the 1940s/50s, conduct a variant on the Old Dark House film featuring a sinisterly lurking Bela Lugosi … The East Side Kids’ films were made on impoverished budgets – this one of their better but still aimlessly circles around creaky and dated gags
Turnabout (1940)
Husband-Wife Bodyswap Screwball Comedy
A madcap screwball comedy in which a husband and wife swap bodies. The very first bodyswap film. From director Hal Roach who discovered Laurel and Hardy
You’ll Find Out (1940)
Old Dark House Comedy
Old Dark House comedy set around the antics of big band leader Kay Kyser. Starring several horror names of the day – Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Old Dark House Comedy
The 1939 Bob Hope comedy remake of The Cat and the Canary was a big hit; here he and Paulette Goddard are put through the same in what is all but a sequel. Hope is on top form again
The Invisible Woman (1940)
Universal Invisible Man Sequel
Third entry in Universal’s Invisible Man series. Though less recognised, The Invisible Man series had a level of creativity higher than Universal’s other monster series. This one plays everything for broad comedy
The Cat and the Canary (1939)
Old Dark House Comedy
The classic Bob Hope comedy version of the Old Dark House play. Probably overrated, this has a creaky affected atmosphere and laughs but fails to hold a candle to the far superior and more stylish silent version
The Gorilla (1939)
Old Dark House Comedy-Thriller
The Old Dark House film hit a peak in the late 1930s. This was a comedy variant featuring the entirely forgotten comedy act The Ritz Brothers stumbling around an old mansion
Q Planes (1939)
British Air Hero Comedy-Thriller
British air adventure story with Ralph Richardson trying to stop an enemy armed with a raygun and all played with an appealingly eccentric comic tone
Topper (1937)
Ghost Screwball Comedy
A deliriously frothy screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett as two socialites killed in a crash who then haunt the car’s new owner. Several sequels followed.
The Ghost Goes West (1935)
Haunted Castle Comedy
A light fantasy comedy with Lucas Donat as the inheritor of a Scottish castle that is haunted by a ghost and the problems faced when the castle is sold to be shipped to America
Night Life of the Gods (1935)
Petrification Ray/Greek Gods Come to Life Comedy
A 1930s screwball comedy about the invention of a ray that can petrify people that is then used to bring statues of Greek gods to life
International House (1933)
Screwball Comedy/TV Invention
W.C. Fields starring screwball comedy set at a hotel around a series of variety sketches and featuring an early prediction of television
Just Imagine (1930)
Future New York Musical-Comedy
This was one of the first US films to depict the future. It is essentially Metropolis having been remade as a Broadway musical with an emphasis on comedy
Wizard of Oz (1925)
Silent Slapstick Adaptation
An earlier silent version of The Wizard of Oz, which twists the story considerably out of shape as a vehicle for the slapstick comedy of star Larry Semon who plays The Scarecrow