Film Comedy

Africa Screams is a 1949 American adventure comedy film starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, directed by Charles Barton and written by Earl Baldwin, that parodies the safari genre.

The Cocoanuts is a 1929 pre-Code musical comedy film starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo). Produced for Paramount Pictures by Walter Wanger, the film also stars Mary Eaton, Oscar Shaw, Margaret Dumont and Kay Francis. The first sound film to credit more than one director (Robert Florey and Joseph Santley), it was adapted to the screen by Morrie Ryskind from the musical play by George S. Kaufman. Five of the film's tunes were composed by Irving Berlin, including "When My Dreams Come True," sung by Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton.

The world of comedy and comedians of the last five decades. By the man the New York Times calls "a comic institution himself," the only comedian (twenty-six years in stand-up) to have made Elie Wiesel laugh, as well as having appeared on The Tonight Show (140 times, second only to Bob Hope, but...

A backstage look at the making of Nora Ephron's revered trilogy--When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, and Sleepless in Seattle--which brought romantic comedies back to the fore, and an intimate portrait of the beloved writer/director who inspired a generation of Hollywood women, from Mindy...

One of the most beloved novels from the critically acclaimed novelist Laurie Colwin, Goodbye Without Leaving explores a woman’s attempts to reconcile her rock-and-roll past with her significantly more sedate family life as a wife and mother. As a bored graduate student, Geraldine Colshares is...

When the queen of the tabloids, Juliette Cadbury, decides to film a movie in Fort Rosalie, Mississippi, local Tourist Bureau executive Mary Dell Hoskins is given the unenviable task of setting up a whirlwind inspection tour of the town's three bed-and-breakfasts - only one of which can win the...

From the best-selling coauthor of The Disaster Artist and “one of America's best and most interesting writers" (Stephen King), a new collection of stories that range from laugh-out-loud funny to disturbingly dark—unflinching portraits of women and men struggling to bridge the gap between art...

Charade is a 1963 American romantic screwball comedy mystery film, shot on location in Paris, produced and directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass and Jacques Marin. It spans three genres: suspense thriller, romance and comedy. Charade was praised by critics for its screenplay and the chemistry between Grant and Hepburn. The following is the audio track of the full feature film.

Married . . . With Children writer-producer Richard Gurman takes us behind the scenes of this boundary-breaking show to reveal how its inner workings were at times as disruptive and contentious—yet at other times, as hysterical and raunchy—as the Bundy family themselves.

India’s greatest film-maker on the art and craft of films. Exactly fifty years ago, in 1955, the release of Pather Panchali heralded the arrival of a master in the world of cinema. Over the next forty years, Satyajit Ray came to be regarded as one of the world’s finest film-makers ever...

Beat the Devil is a 1953 adventure comedy film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones and Gina Lollobrigida in her American debut.

Now a major motion picture, The Roses, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, Warren Adler’s iconic 1980s tale of a crumbling marriage―an era’s defining portrait of a macabre divorce. “Terrifying, black-humored, black-hearted and bristling.” ―Gillian Flynn, New York Times...

The 11th installment in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., ashore after a successful cruise, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the City. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionage--the...

In the shifting sands of the desert, near an unnamed metropolis, there is an institute where various fellows come to undertake projects of great significance. But when our sort-of hero, Percy Frobisher, arrives, surrounded by the simulated environment of the glass-enclosed dome of the Institute...

From Oxford lecturer in mathematics and math YouTuber Tom Crawford, a humorous, rigorous, and surprisingly profound dive into the math of popular culture How would an actuary price out the risk of Frodo Baggins’s journey to Mount Doom? How many calories must Charizard consume each day to keep...

The long-anticipated biography of Robert Redford. Among the most widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation, Redford has appeared onstage and on-screen, in front of and behind the camera, earning Academy, Golden Globe, and a multitude of other awards and nominations for acting, directing...

Die Welt scheint sich gegen Emma Corrigan verschworen zu haben. Erst versagt sie bei einem wichtigen Kunden, mit dem ihre Firma eine Kooperation entwickeln wollte, und dann gerät ihr Flugzeug in so heftige Turbulenzen, dass Emma ihr letztes Stündlein gekommen sieht. Aber vor ihrem vermeintlichen Ableben macht sie noch reinen Tisch: Jedes Geheimnis, jede kleine Notlüge, jede Heimlichkeit, derer sie sich schuldig fühlt, bricht aus ihr heraus.

From the celebrated film critic and author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film--an essential work on the preeminent, indispensable movie directors and the ways in which their work has forged, and continues to forge, the landscape of modern film. Directors operate behind the scenes, managing...

The outrageously funny, heartbreaking, and surprising story of Tracy Morgan's rise from ghetto wiseass to superstar comedian. Who is Tracy Morgan? The wildly unpredictable funnyman who rocketed to fame on Saturday Night Live? The Emmy-nominated actor behind the sly and ingenious character Tracy...

From the daughter of comedy legend Harold Ramis (and featuring a Foreword by Seth Rogen) comes a hilarious and heartwarming account of his life, work, and legacy. Most of us know Harold Ramis as the writer, director, and actor who brought warmth and humor to the big screen in classics like...