Do not jump to conclusions… despite the headline. My health is fine. The reference is rather to something attributed to Edmund Gwenn, a well-known character actor best known for his portrayal of Kris Kringle in the motion picture perennial, Miracle on 34th Street.
Gwenn was fatally ill In the late 1950s when he was visited by a friend who supposedly said something to the effect that, “this must be terribly difficult for you,” to which the actor’s last words were reported to be, “… dying is easy… comedy is hard.”
True or not, the saying is part of a show business lexicon that has endured as such for more than a half century.
All that is a long way to get me into some commentary about comedy which, admittedly, is not my bailiwick. Don’t get me wrong… personally I think I am a very amusing fellow, but… I would concede… not everyone would agree. Certainly, there is nothing in my oeuvre to indicate a penchant for dialogue or characters that might evoke gales of laughter.
All that said, I do enjoy a good laugh. They are harder to come by these days but most recently my rave review of the Netflix revival of Younger, starring Sutton Foster, stands as evidence that scarce though it may be, comedy may still be found. And that being said… especially since of late I have gone on and on about the great dramas to be seen on movie and TV screens, I thought I would bring to you… in no particular order… this drama guy’s suggestions for things to watch (or, if you will, re-watch) that should readily amuse and entertain.
First off, a disclaimer: these films are of a different era and may not suit one’s sensibilities in this time of the Me-Too Movement. Most, if not all, might not even be made in our current heightened consciousness environment regarding sexism and racism. Okay… I will give you that. But when these films were made, they were… (hell, still are) … really terrific works of art.
Starting off with some classic motion pictures in this idiom… I would begin with the Preston Sturges gem, The Lady Eve, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda (currently available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, and most streaming services). His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, and directed by Howard Hawks, is in the same league and can be found on the same venues as The Lady Eve.
Even better might well be Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, or Bringing Up Baby, another film directed by Hawks, this time with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. Those same two actors star in The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor. I would round out this primarily pre-war era with Leo McCarey’s brilliant, The Awful Truth with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and Holiday … not a knee-slapper, but one of my personal favorites. Once again, George Cukor directs Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
Getting past the black and white epoch of motion pictures, I can easily suggest, My Cousin Vinny, starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei, When Harry Met Sally, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan and directed by Rob Reiner from a Nora Ephron screenplay, Get Shorty, starring John Travolta, Danny DeVito and Gene Hackman, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, and Some Like It Hot (filmed in black and white but a lot more recently than its forbearers). Everyone knows this wonderful Billy Wilder movie stars Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis but I thought those folks should (once again) be memorialized here. Amazon Prime should be an easy place to start searching where to stream all of these.
Here are the TV shows that are every bit as worthy as the above listed motion pictures… and where to find them: Amazon features the close to perfection The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Younger (my current passion) has its seven seasons on Netflix, while slightly lesser works such as The Good Place, Seinfeld, Derry Girls, Dead to Me and Fisk can also be found adjacent to Younger on Netflix. They are all worthy of your attention.
Hulu has about as interesting a failure as you will ever see in Bunheads. It stars Sutton Foster of Younger fame. ‘Nuff said. This streaming service also has Modern Family and Boston Legal, two of the better Network TV comedy shows, with the latter being the series that proves just how good writer/producer David E. Kelly used to be. Hulu also has The Bear. Simply put, a great television series.
That brings us to MAX, which thankfully continues to put forth Hacks as well as reruns of Veep, and Barry with the acknowledgement that television simply does not get much better than these shows. They are followed quickly on the premium channel by Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Larry David Show. All terrific series and all with solid credentials for entry in the pantheon of Television’s absolute best comedies.
That’s it… the subject may be humor, but I am dead serious about these recommendations. It will be hard to top them. Finally, a query: How many of you went from watching Cory Booker give his record breaking, more than 25-hour, filibuster then immediately segued into Frank Capra’s classic motion picture, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington? To those who did not join me in this exercise, you missed something special.
It would be fun to get the numbers from the normally very secretive Amazon about the “hits” the movie got on their service… and even more interesting to speculate how many of the movie’s viewers would agree with me that the Dems should redistribute the movie as a counter punch to the growingly infamous Elon Musk and his (to- say-the-least) ham-handed political tactics.
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