The Cerrito Classics series will return in September. Until then, let’s talk about classic movies. We’ll start with comedies.
Please respond to this message by telling us about your favorite classic comedy. Your response can be as simple as naming a movie, or you can write a paragraph saying what you like about it.
Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter or WordPress account can respond on cerritotheater.org (the web site of the Friends of the Cerrito Theater). Please post your responses there so that everything will be in one place.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you, and to seeing you again in September!
Friends of the Cerrito Theater in El Cerrito, California 
The Lemon Drop Kid, which is a Damon Runyon story and a classic Bob Hope film from the early 50s. It has a holiday connection, too, with “Silver Bells” being sung on the city sidewalks while his gangster cronies skim the Salvation Army pots to…well, I won’t spoil it!
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” 1951 – with Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal & Hugh Marlowe (& Gort)
Not a comedy, but still a great film. Otherwise Jerry Lewis in the Nutty Professor.
My answer might change with the phase of the moon. Today it’s Duck Soup. I’m a fan of absurdist and political humor, and this movie has both. I love the trial, the mirror scene, the “we’re going to war!” scene, the exchanges between Groucho and Margaret Dumont, Harpo’s antics. This movie is an assault on logic.
One responder asked that we post the following anonymously:
“All of the Mel Brooks movies.”
‘Trouble in Paradise’ by Ernst Lubitsch is one of the funniest movies ever, early 1930s, the essence of screwball comedy. Set in part in Venice, this is almost a perfect film. Every time I see it I notice something new. A love story, a heist film, the suave and subtle Herbert Marshall, the arch screwball actress Miriam Hopkins and a great cast of character actors including Edward Everett Horton. It’s also emotionally moving.
From someone who responded by e-mail:
“How about Mel Brooks’ SILENT MOVIE(circa 1976)?”
Bellah Zee posted the following response on Facebook. I’m taking the liberty of copying it here:
“HAROLD & MAUDE. Ruth Gordon should have run for President! A delightful story about being who you are, irrespective of what others would have you be.”
Dr. Strangelove – absurdly hilarious; Young Frankenstein – every line a gem; The Cocoanuts – Marx Bros first – it’s just nutty and brilliant! (I also agree with comment above about “all of the Mel Brooks movies”