Eight Cult Comedies Still Waiting For Their Audience

As years pass, film comedy reputations rise and fall. You can't call the 1968 version of The Producers a cult film anymore; its reputation rose during the '80s and '90s, and the success of the Broadway musical sealed it. The Rocky Horror Picture Show may have started out as a cult classic, but decades of midnight shows and its successful VHS release raised its profile years later. Now it's a legitimate part of film history.

But there are still films out there, under the radar, waiting to have the spotlight shine on them again. Sometimes there are odd reasons for their "anonymity." Some are considered minor works of their director ("1941," "Serial Mom"). Others have suffered due to the reputation of their remakes ("Unfaithfully Yours").

Whatever the reason, here are eight films that have stuck with me. Maybe they're not perfect; maybe they're not the best ever made. But they deserve another look. Here, in no particular order, are eight comedies that have a soft spot in my heart:

1.  The Twelve Chairs (1970)--Mel Brooks' followup to The Producers--and it also landed with a theatrical thud. This is a brilliant slapstick comedy about a diverse group of Russians looking for the twelfth chair in a matching set: one whose cushion is stuffed with a fortune in gems. An impoverished aristocrat, an Orthodox priest, and a con-artist will stop at nothing to get the jewels. Starring Ron Moody, Dom DeLuise, and in his film debut, Frank Langella;

2. Going In Style (1979)--Three aging geezers have nothing better to do than collect Social Security, sit around the park, and feed the pigeons. So to break the monotony of old age, they decide to rob a bank. The trio is perfectly played by Art Carney, George Burns, and Lee Strasberg--and if they look old in the film it's because director Martin Brest ordered the makeup artist NOT to make them look younger. This film plays so well on a number of levels, especially as a study on how we view senior citizens. Wait for the last line of the film: it's a classic.

3.  Lord Love A Duck (1966)--An absolutely manic, out-of-control '60s comedy that satirized '60s pop culture. Roddy McDowall was in his 40s when he played high school senior Alan Musgrave, who falls for innocent but manipulative Barbara Ann Greene (the underrated Tuesday Weld). To give her everything she wants, he'll even resort to murder. A very black comedy. Weld gives off sexual sparks and hints of the controlling character she later played in Pretty Poison.

4.  Unfaithfully Yours (1948)--Preston Sturges created a number of classics (Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve), but his career never recovered from the failure of this, one of his most ambitious films. A bitterly jealous conductor thinks his wife is cheating on him. He conducts three different musical pieces--and each one is accompanied in his mind by a different plan for revenge. A pitch-perfect slapstick comedy, with an unforgettable performance by Rex Harrison as the suspicious conductor.
5.  Serial Mom (1994)--Critics were divided on this John Waters' subversive comedy--not shocking enough, perhaps? But I thought Kathleen Turner gave a bravura performance as the title character, a tightly-wound woman who'd knock you off if you wore white after Labor Day.  Another inspired John Waters' film that casts an acerbic eye on America's fascination with true crime.

6. 1941 (1979)--Steven Spielberg's sprawling period film suffered from comparisons to his previous hits--but there's a lot to recommend in this riotous comedy about the panic in Los Angeles after Pearl Harbor was attacked in December, 1941. A grand ensemble cast--everyone from John Belushi, Christopher Lee, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Robert Stack, and Ned Beatty.

7.  The Dinner Game (1998)--Compare it to the American remake, Dinner For Schmucks; you'll be surprised at the difference in comedic tone. French writer/director Frances Veber (La Cage aux Folles) scored an international hit with this comedy about a group of friends who meet every Wednesday in a competition to find who can bring the stupidest person to dinner with them. The title of the film is Le Diner de Cons, "cons" meaning dumbbell. Wickedly funnier than the U.S. version.

8.  Where's Poppa? (1970)--Carl Reiner has made a lot of hit comedies, but none quite as subversive or gasp-out-loud funny as this one. George Segal plays a hot shot lawyer whose budding relationships are always ruined because he has to care for his pain-in-the-butt mother (played to the hilt by Ruth Gordon). When mom chases away another girlfriend, maybe murder is the only way out? Shocking for 1970: Reiner took full advantage of the "let it all hang out" '70s attitude and made a film that didn't sound or look like anything he has done since.

I hope you'll be encouraged to check these films out. And feel free to comment: what underrated comedies do you think are ripe for rediscovery?
To purchase three of these comedies, click on the pics: