Comedies
79 Episodes
Laugh a little! Screwball, satire, gags, pratfalls, and pranks—we’ve got it all.
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1:37:15Episode 1
My Lucky Stars
Episode 1
Directed by Sammo Hung • 1985 • Hong Kong
Starring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen BiaoLongtime friends Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao—who had worked together since childhood as part of a Beijing opera troupe—join forces for this rollicking blend of action thrills and lunatic humor, which...
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1:46:45Episode 2
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Episode 2
Directed by Mario Monicelli • 1958 • Italy
Starring Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Memmo CarotenutoAn all-star cast and jazzy score highlight this charming comedy, a deft satire of classic caper films like RIFIFI. BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET hilariously details the plight of a sad-sack grou...
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2:07:08Episode 3
Supermarket Woman
Episode 3
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1996 • Japan
Starring Masahiko Tsugawa, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ryunosuke KanedaIn this vibrant comedy, failing supermarket manager Goro (Masahiko Tsugawa) hires Hanako (Nobuko Miyamoto), an old classmate, to help him compete with the new rival grocery store in town. Soon, Han...
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2:04:21Episode 4
Monsieur Verdoux
Episode 4
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1947 • United States
Starring Charles Chaplin, Mady CorrellCharlie Chaplin plays shockingly against type in his most controversial film, a brilliant and bleak black comedy about money, marriage, and murder. Chaplin is a twentieth-century bluebeard, an enigmatic fam...
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1:35:50Episode 5
The Importance of Being Earnest
Episode 5
Directed by Anthony Asquith • 1952 • United Kingdom
Starring Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenwood, Dame Edith EvansOscar Wilde’s comic jewel sparkles in Anthony Asquith’s film adaptation of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Featuring brilliantly polished performances by Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenw...
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Speedy
Episode 6
Directed by Ted Wilde • 1928 • United States
Starring Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert WoodruffSPEEDY was the last silent feature to star Harold Lloyd—and one of his very best. The slapstick legend reprises his “Glasses Character,” this time as a good-natured but scatterbrained New Yorker who ca...
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Plácido
Episode 7
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1961 • Spain
Starring Cassen, José Luis López Vázquez, Elvira QuintilláWidely considered one of the greatest works of Spanish cinema, this relentlessly paced satire chronicles an ill-advised charity campaign sweeping across a small industrial town on Christmas...
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1:36:20Episode 8
A Slightly Pregnant Man
Episode 8
Directed by Jacques Demy • 1973 • France
Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Micheline PresleFeeling out of sorts, Marco (Marcello Mastroianni), an Italian driving instructor living in Paris, pays a visit to the doctor, who promptly diagnoses him as . . . four months pregnant. It’...
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1:16:54Episode 9
The Freshman
Episode 9
Directed by Sam Taylor and Fred Newmeyer • 1925 • United States
Starring Harold Lloyd, Jobyna RalstonHarold Lloyd’s biggest box-office hit was this silent comedy gem, featuring the befuddled everyman at his eager best as a new college student. Though he dreams of being a big man on campus, the ...
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1:19:21Episode 10
Welcome Mr. Marshall!
Episode 10
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1953 • Spain
Starring Lolita Sevilla, Manolo Morán, José IsbertA distant land shrouded in myth and rumor, America looms large in the cultural imagination of a quiet Castilian village, whose impressionable inhabitants dream of benefitting from the country’s pos...
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38:09Episode 11
Shoulder Arms
Episode 11
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1918 • United States
From the depths of a trench in war-torn France, Chaplin supplies a little levity to a stark situation as an American soldier dreams of one day becoming a WWI hero. A man can dream can't he?
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Pay Day
Episode 12
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1922 • United States
Chaplin plays a productive bricklayer who lives by the adage, "Work hard, play hard." With a stack of money burning a hole in his pocket, he bickers with his wife on the best way to allocate the payday funds.
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2:08:26Episode 13
A Taxing Woman’s Return
Episode 13
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1988 • Japan
Starring Nobuko Miyamoto, Rentaro Mikuni, Masahiko TsugawaNobuko Miyamoto returns to the role of Ryoko Itakura, the tough-as-nails government tax investigator whom you most definitely don’t want to cross, in Juzo Itami’s energetic, genre-twisting follow-up ...
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32:44Episode 14
The Idle Class
Episode 14
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1921 • United States
Idle hands are the devil's workshop; unemployed hands lead to pure mischief. Charlie Chaplin's iconic Tramp takes a "vacation" at a golf resort where he is mistaken for one of the members. The Tramp hopes to merely play through, but landing in t...
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1:58:50Episode 15
Tales of a Golden Geisha
Episode 15
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1990 • Japan
Starring Nobuko Miyamoto, Masahiko Tsugawa, Hiroshi OhkochiThis thorny sex satire stars the great Nobuko Miyamoto (star of nearly all of director Juzo Itami’s films) as Nayoko, a good-hearted geisha who brings luck to the men she sleeps with—even though mos...
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1:46:07Episode 16
Jabberwocky
Episode 16
Directed by Terry Gilliam • 1977 • United Kingdom
Starring Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Warren MitchellAmid the filth and muck of England in the Dark Ages, a fearsome dragon stalks the land, casting a shadow of terror upon the kingdom of Bruno the Questionable. Who should emerge as the only poss...
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10:56Episode 17
Nice and Friendly
Episode 17
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1922 • United States
Filmed at Pickfair, the home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, in 1922, as a wedding present for Lord and Lady Mountbatten, this short features Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, and the newlyweds. It is presented with a contemporary score by...
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41:43Episode 18
The Pilgrim
Episode 18
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1923 • United States
A prison escapee trades his state issued attire for that of a pastor, not realizing the holy calling that comes with the garb. The pilgrimage takes him to a Texas border town where he seeks redemption while on the run.
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25:49Episode 19
Bumping into Broadway
Episode 19
Directed by Hal Roach • 1919 • United States
This 1919 short is the only Harold Lloyd title other than SPEEDY set in New York City, although it was filmed entirely in Los Angeles. BUMPING INTO BROADWAY was also the first two-reeler to star Lloyd's "Glasses Character." This newly restored master ...
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1:41:56Episode 21
Plucking the Daisy
Episode 21
Directed by Marc Allégret • 1956 • France
When ultra-respectable General Dumont discovers that his nubile daughter Agnes is "A.D.", author of a scandalous under-the-counter novel, he wants her shipped to a convent; but she escapes to Paris, planning to live with her brother, ostensibly a rich ar...
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La poison
Episode 22
Directed by Sacha Guitry • 1951 • France
Starring Michel Simon, Germaine Reuver, Jean DebucourtThe writer, actor, and director Sacha Guitry emerged from the theater to become one of France’s best-known and most inventive filmmakers, and LA POISON marked his first major collaboration with anothe...
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Yoyo
Episode 23
Directed by Pierre Etaix • 1965 • France
This elaborately conceived and brilliantly mounted comedy is Pierre Etaix’s most beloved movie, as well as his personal favorite. Beginning as a clever homage to silent film, complete with intertitles, YOYO blossoms into a poignant family saga (in which E...
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10:41Episode 24
Take a Chance
Episode 24
Directed by Alfred J. Goulding • 1918 • United States
In this one-reel film from 1918, Harold Lloyd stars as a man looking to spend his last 25 cents.