The Top 10 Comedy Films of the 1980's

The 1980's was another banner decade for film comedy. Woody Allen continued his mastery of film comedy with such films as Broadway Danny Rose; Zelig and The Purple Rose of Cairo. Steve Martin and Richard Pryor continued making hit comedies, some good and some not, while Bill Murray became a superstar with Stripes and Ghostbusters. Dan Aykroyd and John Candy became successful film comics in their own right and director John Hughes struck gold as the king of classy teen comedies.

Like the 1970's there are many comedies that could be included on the list of the best including All Of Me; Back To The Future; Big; A Fish Called Wanda; Fletch; My Favorite Year; The Naked Gun; Parenthood; Risky Business; Roxanne and When Harry Met Sally.

Here are my picks as the ten best film comedies of the 1980's in alphabetical order:

AFTER HOURS (1985 - Director: Martin Scorsese) - This brilliant black comedy can be a difficult watch for some viewers as the film goes down excruciating roads with its hero, Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne). Taking place over one very long night, Paul meets a woman in a diner and is intrigued by her. She admits she has had lousy luck with men, including her husband from whom she is separated. She admits that he is a Wizard Of Oz freak and that every time they make love he screams "Surrender Dorothy" when he climaxes. Paul leaves his place for a cab trip to Soho and immediately trouble starts when his $20 bill flies out the window. After meeting the woman at her loft and deciding things aren't working out, Paul tries to head home by train only to discover the rates went up at midnight and he doesn't have enough money. This leads Paul on a bizarre odyssey where he meets everyone from a ditzy waitress who wants to bed him to a ice cream truck driver who lets him use her phone but purposely makes him forget the phone number he has called information for. Through the night Paul comes across everything from S&M clubs to a suicide to a raving maniac of a bartender to two thieves (Cheech and Chong) who seem to be robbing everything in sight. Scorsese keeps a tight grip on the story and makes Paul's nightmare so uncomfortable to the audience that they almost forget to laugh at the bizarre things before him. Repeated viewings increase the pleasure of yet another masterpiece by one of our best directors.

AIRPLANE (1980 - Directors: Jim Abrahams; David Zucker; Jerry Zucker) - The creators of the Kentucky Fried Theater make their directorial debut (after writing 1977's Kentucky Fried Movie) with this spoof of the Airport disaster movies. The film is a non-stop string of gags, most of them hitting their targets and holding up beautifully. Serious actors such as Peter Graves (as the perverted pilot), Lloyd Bridges (as the alcoholic, glue sniffing control tower boss), Robert Stack (as a pilot with a past) and Leslie Nielsen (as a doctor on the plane) ham it up beautifully in this laugh a minute film. Airplane was the sleeper hit of 1980 grossing over $40 million and spawning a 1982 sequel that has a terrific opening 15 minutes and then runs out of steam. If you watch make sure to stay through the ending credits for just one more gag from the guys who have an endless amount of them.

A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988 - Director: Charles Crichton) - Monty Python alum John Cleese wrote and stars along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin in this of a barrister (Cleese) who becomes involved with a sexy con artist (Curtis) and her dim witted lover (Kline) who are part of a jewelry heist gone wrong. Palin co-stars as one of the other's involved in the heist that is a hopeless animal lover and terrible stutterer. Cleese's script is filled with typical Pythonesque bad taste gags (the terrible fate of the witness' dogs) that offends but can either delight or repel depending on whether you are a fan. The film is filled with belly laughs that, much like with Mel Brooks, will have you laughing and covering your mouth at the same time not believing you could laugh at such a thing. Wanda was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Director; Screenplay; Supporting Actor - Kline) with Kline winning the much-deserved award as the hot tempered, macho, want to be scholar.

FUNNY FARM (1988 - Director: George Roy Hill) - In a long career of making mostly bad comedies, Chevy Chase hit gold with this comedic masterpiece about a sports writer who leaves the big city with his wife to live in the country where he can write his first novel: Four poker buddies robbing a casino for the perfect heist. From the moment they leave everything goes wrong as they move into the town of Redbud. The movers can't find the house because of Chase's poor driving directions. The phone doesn't work and the town operators refuse to believe it isn't a pay phone. Chase buys a dog that runs away the second they get home. His next dog is the polar opposite - so lazy they have to check to see if he is still breathing. A visit to a town picnic turns disastrous. The town sheriff can't drive and has to use a cab. The dead body in the back yard. It goes on and on in this hilarious comedy that keeps inventing new ways for this poor couple to suffer in the country. Chase wisely worked with a top director in George Roy (Butch Cassidy; The Sting) Hill to create a believable character and not the same old silly goof who pratfalls every five minutes for a laugh. This is an inventive and original comedy that deserves to be seen by even non-fans of Chase.

MICKI AND MAUDE (1984 - Director: Blake Edwards) - Director Edwards did the near impossible with Micki and Maude by taking a totally unbelievable premise and not only making it believable, but also making it hilarious and warm hearted. Dudley Moore stars as a newsman distraught because his wife (Ann Reinking), a D.A., is always working. He strikes up first a friendship and then an affair with a cellist (Amy Irving) and discovers, to his horror, that both women are pregnant. Not being able to reveal his secret to either woman, he struggles to maintain a normal life with both - even marrying his mistress and becoming a bigamist. The script is smart and funny by placing Moore into hopeless situations where both women are this close to discovering his secret but then allows him to worm out of it - for a time. This is another laugh out loud gem that failed to find a large audience when first released despite strong reviews.

MOONSTRUCK (1987 - Director: Norman Jewison) - One of the smartest film comedies in years was this story of an Italian family, namely a young widow (Cher) who agrees to marry an older man and then inexplicably finds herself falling in love with his younger brother. John Patrick Shanley's brilliant script is filled with an accurate look at Italian American life and bright, funny vignettes. Moonstruck was a critical and box office hit and received six Academy Award nominations (Best Picture; Director; Screenplay; Actress - Cher; Supporting Actor - Vincent Gardenia; Supporting Actress - Olympia Dukakis) and won three much deserved awards for Cher, Dukakis and one of the best original screenplays of the last 30 years.

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987 - Director: John Hughes) - The king of the teen comedy, director John (Sixteen Candles; Breakfast Club; Ferris Bueller) made his first and only foray into adult comedy and came out with the best film of his career. Steve Martin stars as a businessman in New York just before Thanksgiving and finds he can't get home due to weather problems in Chicago. As he searches in vein and meeting disaster at every turn, he meets a shower curtain salesman (John Candy), a good-hearted pest who ends up sharing the tribulations of the trip while unwittingly making things worse for him. This is a very funny look at how two people from different sides of life try to cope with dubious situations while trying to bear the presence of the other. Hughes' bright writing and sweet characterizations keep this from straying believability while injecting farce at every turn.

RAISING ARIZONA (1987 - Director: Joel Coen) - The Coen Brothers second film (following Blood Simple) is this non-stop farce about an ex-con (Nicolas Cage) and municipal employee (Holly Hunter) who fall in love due to his repeated arrests thus making them continually run into one another. They marry and soon discover she is unable to bear children leading them to kidnap one in a set of quintuplets believing the parents have too much burden as it is. On top of that two of his buddies have escaped prison and taken refuge with them and soon he has a hankering to start robbing convenience stores again. Once the film gets going it never stops for a breath and even takes some turns toward the bizarre (the motorcycle riding bounty hunter) but never stops entertaining. You may need to catch your breath when it's over but is nonetheless a very funny movie.

RUTHLESS PEOPLE (1986 - Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker) - The creators of Airplane and The Naked Gun take on this adult comedy (written by Dale Launer) about a greedy clothes designer (Danny DeVito) planning to murder his wife (Bette Midler) not knowing that she is being kidnapped at the very moment he is meeting with his mistress. The kidnappers ransom her only to discover that he has no intentions of paying it hoping they will kill her. Of course the kidnappers are a little more warm hearted then your average crooks and try to work out a plan to still get his fortune. At the same time DeVito's mistress, along with her extremely dim-witted lover, plans on scamming him by blackmail. The script is filled with multiple characters and multi-connecting plots that all come together in unexpected ways. The scene when DeVito drops off the ransom money only to have the dim-witted lover intervene is one of the funniest scenes you will ever see. The film has rough language (used to extremely funny effect as when DeVito answers his phone and it's a wrong number) that makes it for adults.

TOOTSIE (1982 - Director: Sydney Pollack) - One of the most famous of film comedies stars Dustin Hoffman as a struggling actor forced to dress in drag to land a role in a soap opera, where he becomes a star. Jessica Lange co-stars as his/her co-star who becomes her best friend and his infatuation. The impressive cast also includes Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, Charles Durning and an unbilled Bill Murray (who reportedly improvised his entire role) as Hoffman's roommate. Director Sydney Pollack also has a nice role as Hoffman's agent. This is a strong comedy that has a lot to say about the sexes and how a man finds himself being a better person as a woman. The critical and box office smash is one of the funniest films of all time and was deservedly nominated for ten Academy Awards (Best Picture; Director; Screenplay; Actor - Hoffman; Supporting Actress - Garr; Supporting Actress - Lange; Cinematography; Sound; Song; Editing) while only winning for Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Lange. Tootsie was the second highest grossing film of 1982 (behind E.T.) grossing over $96 million.