Beer 1985  R, 83 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Pat Kelly
Cast: Loretta Swit, Rip Torn, Kenneth Mars, David Alan Grier, William Russ, Dick Shawn, Amy Wright, Saul Stein, Peter Michael Goetz, Ray O'Connor
If you have cheap beer to sell, what do you do? Well, you put on a national campaign using real hunks (who were formerly just "regular" guys) to get the word out.
|  | |
The Happy Ending 1969  PG, 112 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Richard Brooks
Cast: Jean Simmons, John Forsythe, Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Teresa Wright, Dick Shawn, Nanette Fabray, Tina Louise, Bobby Darin, Barry Cahill
Jean Simmons was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Mary Wilson, a disillusioned and bored housewife who uses pills and booze to relieve her feelings of being unloved. The film was nominated for another Academy Award: "What Are You Doing the Rest of My Life" for Best Song.
| | |
 It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World 1963  N/R, 188 min.
Genre: Comedy / Adventure / Drama
Director: Stanley Kramer
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers, Jim Backus, Carl Reiner, Jerry Lewis, Dick Shawn, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
Buried treasure is the goal of a large group of people who madly race around chasing each other in pursuit of the $350,000 prize. An all-star cast of comedians participates in the chase.
| | |
Love at First Bite 1979 PG, 96 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Stan Dragoti
Cast: George Hamilton, Susan Saint James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn, Isabel Sanford, Arte Johnson, Sherman Hemsley, Barry Gordon, Ronnie Schell, Michael Pataki
This modern-day Count Dracula (George Hamilton) is deported from Transylvania and ends up in the blood bank of New York City trying to satisfy his vampire needs. He meets and falls in love with fashion model Cindy Soundheim (Susan Saint James) much to the dismay of her boyfriend, Dr. Jeff Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin).
| | |
Maid to Order 1987  PG, 92 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Amy Holden Jones
Cast: Ally Sheedy, Beverly D'Angelo, Michael Ontkean, Valerie Perrine, Dick Shawn, Tom Skerritt, Theresa Randle, Merry Clayton, Rain Phoenix, Begonia Plaza
This is a Cinderella story in reverse. A spoiled, wealthy young girl (Ally Sheedy) is changed by her fairy godmother (Beverly D'Angelo) into an average person who is forced to find a way to make a living.
| | |
 The Producers 1968   N/R, 88 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith, Christopher Hewett, Estelle Winwood, Renee Taylor, Frank Campanella, Andreas Voutsinas, David Patch, William Hickey, Barney Martin, Shimen Ruskin, Josip Elic
Mel Brooks won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in this film about two characters, Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), who con people into investing in a non-existent Broadway show: "Springtime for Hitler." Wilder received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. 2 User Reviews
| User Reviews |
| | Parts of this are the funniest movie ever made | 1fatts 03/27/2007 | Mel Brooks is a cannon on the loose. It is his strength and his weakness. The 2000-year-old man sketches with Carl Reiner are classic for Brooks' unpredictable leaps from political humor to burlesque inuendo to bizarre non-sequitur. At his best, he can take your breath away. At his worst, he is a runaway train.
Stand-up comedy benefits most from this kind of wildness; movies suffer most. Movies need plot and structure and discipline.
Brooks' best film, as a work of cinema, is probably Young Frankenstein because Gene Wilder shared writing credit and imposed some order which Mel Brooks simply cannot supply -- see all the shotgun "sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't" humor of "Robin Hood - Men in Tights", "Spaceballs", et al.
But even in a movie that is all over the map (they pretty much run out of central joke and plot in The Producers after the play is a hit), there are a half a dozen scenes that are perhaps the funniest stuff every put on film. Brooks' writing is certainly a major factor, and the other is the casting. Only Zero Mostel was Zero Mostel. He was a life force, a stampede, a landslide. He defined this role . . . and Tevye in Fiddler . . . and Pseudolus in "Funny Thing Happened. . . " Other people may have played his roles, but they were never near the standared. His Max Biolystock is incomparable. His teaming with the young, intensely neurotic Leo Bloom (Wilder), the outrageous Hold Me Touch Me (Estelle Winwood), Kenneth Mars' Nazi, Christopher Hewitt's gay director ("Max, he's wearing a dress."), etc. are the best scenes Brooks has every directed, the funniest filmwork he has ever done.
The first twenty minutes of the film are incomparable. I forgive Brooks all the dead ends and ramblings that may go on elsewhere. I take it as the price we have to pay to be allowed into the near-perfection of the scenes that work.
You can't call youself knowledgeable in comic film if you haven't studied The Producers. |
| | Outstanding | Googleeyes 03/01/2007 | | One of Mel Brooks finest achievements, maybe the best of his achievements. |
|
| | |
Rented Lips 1988  R, 82 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Robert Downey Sr.
Cast: Martin Mull, Dick Shawn, Jennifer Tilly, Robert Downey Jr., Mel Welles, Shelley Berman, Edy Williams, June Lockhart, Kenneth Mars, Eileen Brennan
When two filmmakers (Martin Mull and Dick Shawn) find that their talents are not appreciated in the field of documentaries, they begin work on a porno movie. This film is a sleeper that continues to doze.
| | |
Wake Me When It's Over 1960 N/R, 126 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Ernie Kovacs, Dick Shawn, Jack Warden, Margo Moore, Nobu McCarthy, Don Knotts, Robert Strauss, Marvin Kaplan, Parley Baer, Ralph Dumke, Noreen Nash, Robert Emhardt, Raymond Bailey, Linda Wong, Richard Tyler
While stationed on a Pacific island off Shima, Captain Stark (Ernie Kovacs) and Gus Brubaker (Dick Shawn), who has been re-drafted after a clerical error, use Army supplies from their base to set themselves up in a thriving Pacific island hotel business. The 100 servicemen under Stark's command help build the hotel, and this work helps relieve their boredom. All goes well–until an article about the hotel is published, and an investigation is ordered.
| | |
Water 1985  PG-13, 97 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Dick Clement
Cast: Michael Caine, Valerie Perrine, Brenda Vaccaro, Leonard Rossiter, Billy Connolly, Maureen Lipman, Dennis Dugan, Fulton Mackay, Jimmie Walker, Dick Shawn
When mineral water is discovered and becomes the object of investment possibilities on a tiny Caribbean island, Governor Baxter Thwaites (Michael Caine) must deal with outside forces struggling for control of his once-peaceful island.
| | |
Way...Way Out 1966 N/R, 105 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens, Robert Morley, Dennis Weaver, Howard Morris, Brian Keith, Dick Shawn, Anita Ekberg, James Brolin
Astronauts Peter Mattemore (Jerry Lewis) and Eileen Forbes (Connie Stevens) marry so that they qualify as a team assigned to duty on the Moon. The film stinks. 2 User Reviews
| User Reviews |
| | It's all good! | Anonymous 02/22/2007 | | Jerry Lewis is always a pleasure to watch, and the supporting cast is groovy! |
| | Anonymous 02/09/2007 | | Why is it not out on DVD? |
|
| | |
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? 1966 N/R, 115 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Blake Edwards
Cast: James Coburn, Dick Shawn, Sergio Fantoni, Aldo Ray, Harry Morgan, Carroll O'Connor, Giovanna Ralli, Leon Askin, Jay Novello, Kurt Kreuger, Rico Cattani, Vito Scotti, William Bryant, Johnny Seven, Art Lewis
During the 1943 Allied invasion of Italy, American soldiers–Capt. Cash (Dick Shawn) and Lt. Christian (James Coburn)–are ordered to invade a strategic town in Italy. The Italian soldiers agree to surrender IF they can first hold the annual soccer game and wine festival. The deal is made. There is aerial reconnaissance, but those viewing from the planes see the celebration and believe it is a battle in progress. American and German soldiers arrive on the scene, and they are greeted by the drunken troops enjoying a wild party.
| | |
The Year Without a Santa Claus 1974 TV, 50 min.
Genre: Family / Musical / Fantasy
Director: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Shirley Booth, Dick Shawn, George S. Irving, Bob McFadden, Rhoda Mann, Bradley Bolke, Ron Marshall, Colin Duffy, Christine Winter
Mrs. Santa Claus (Shirley Booth) tells the story about the year when Santa (Mickey Rooney) had a bad cold and decided that he could not deliver presents to the children. Mrs. Claus sends two of Santa's elves–Jingle Bells (Bob McFadden) and Jangle Bells (Bradley Bolke)–and reindeer Vixen on a journey to find proof that the Christmas spirit still exists. Along the way, they have run-ins with villains Snow Miser (Dick Shawn) and Heat Miser (George S. Irving). Santa gets word of their problems and comes to the rescue through the Thistlewhite family (Ron Marshall and Colin Duffy) who truly believe in the Christmas spirit.
| | |
Young Warriors 1983  R, 103 min.
Genre: Action
Director: Lawrence D. Foldes
Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Richard Roundtree, Lynda Day George, James Van Patten, April Dawn, Mike Norris, Dick Shawn, Linnea Quigley, Anne Lockhart
When Tiffany Carrigan (April Dawn) is raped and murdered, her brother (James Van Patten) leads his college fraternity brothers on a hunt for the killers.
| | |
| 1. Beer (1985)
2. The Happy Ending (1969)
3. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
4. Love at First Bite (1979)
5. Maid to Order (1987)
6. The Producers (1968)
7. Rented Lips (1988)
8. Wake Me When It's Over (1960)
9. Water (1985)
10. Way...Way Out (1966)
11. What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
12. The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
13. Young Warriors (1983)
In The News
|
