.......almost done with the list. Thanks for all the e mails folks!





51) Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act

Originally written for Bette Midler, it isn’t the most brilliant comedy ever made, but Goldberg, as a third rate Lounge singer in Las Vegas who witnesses a murder and then gets hidden in a convent (run by the always magnificent Maggie Smith) is very funny here. She rises above the material and pulls the funny out of her back pocket.

Trivia: Whoopi got to use her own voice for the entire soundtrack. Also of note: Mary Wickes last movie. Great, great character actress. She needs her own post, actually.



52) Chevy Chase in Foul Play

It’s hard to nail down just one performance in this film, because I an’t speak of Chase, without talking about Dudley Moore. But again, Chase is bright, bubbly and sarcastic. But in this copper comedy, he is endearing and at his physical slapstick-y best.

Trivia: Chase was fresh off of Saturday Night Live and he needed this to work. He was very nervous on the first day of shooting, and the scene they were to rehearse that day was when he and Hawn first meet. Hawn is on a couch almost unconscious, and Chase is above her calling her name. Instead of answering Chevy as the script indicated, Hawn said very softly, and very clearly: “I’m Chevy Chase. And you’re not.” Chevy was fine through the rest of the filming.



53) Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly

I’m a fan of Jerry Lewis, and I’m fine with that. There’s something to be said (ego aside) from his contributions to the world of physical comedy. There’d be no room for Robin Williams, Carol Burnette, or even Dick Van Dyke without Lewis’s pie in the face approach. Here, as a doctor in training who’s compassion runs so deep he literally contracts whatever disease he’s diagnosing, he’s in top form. It’s really just a series of bits, but the bits are brilliant. Fine work by the always reliable Kathleen freeman as well.

Trivia: Lewis was director, star, and producer of this film. It was a huge success and guaranteed him a badly needed hit.



54) Michael Keaton in Bettlejuice

Before Keaton got serious, he was hilarious. In this dark comedy about life, death, and the after life, Keaton is so over the top he can’t see the ground. But it works. After all…he’s dead. Great Linda Blair-like voices, and a wonderful cartoon-like character that’s completely original. Also…another brilliant Catherine O’Hara performance.

Trivia: “Beatlejuice is a combination of Mike Ditka and a female truck driver I once met on the road to LA.” -Michael Keation



55) James Stewart in Harvey

There’s no one like Stewart. And Stewart can make you believe absolutely anything. There are times in this movie when you can actually see Harvey. Jimmy is that good.

Trivia: The role played so beautifully by Stewart was originally offered to James Cagney.



56) Lucillle Ball in Long Long Trailer

Unfortunately, Ball never got the break she needed in movies, and thus, we’re left with very little on film where she’s really, truly, funny. However, in this, her first film with Desi, she’s at her peak. The trials of a new marriage, buying a traveling home, and the situations that ensue are straight out of “I Love Lucy”, but it’s all right. Lucy did one thing, and she did better than anyone else in Hollywood. Great performance.

Trivia: Lucy hired her “I Love Lucy” writers to write the script for this movie. It was #1 around the country, and the biggest hit she ever had. Until “Yours, Mine, and Ours” in the late 70‘s.



57) Judy Garland in Easter Parade

I’m always amazed when people first discover that Judy Garland was funny. It wasn’t just that she did pratfalls, or made funny faces, she was an Actor that was Funny. She was also hilarious in her private life. The scene in Easter Parade where Astair asks if she can be alluring to men is brilliant. Garland’s attempts to attract the opposite sex without Fred’s knowing it, is truly classic.

Trivia: Judy was the happiest she’d been in a while during this fim. She loved the songs, she loved the script, and she and Fred Astair had a very special relationship. It shows in the movie.



58) Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy

“That’s right, we bad! We bad!” There’s nothing like great comedy teams, and Wilder and Pryor are two of the best. Though not the greatest film ever made, Richard Pryor is at his zany, uncontrolled best here.

Trivia: Pryor and Wilder went through the script before shooting began and with big red ink pens decided they would circle all the places they thought they could improvise. There wasn’t a clear space left by the time they stepped in front of the cameras.



59) Jack Lemmon in The Odd Couple

I love Jack Lemmon. There’s never a time when I don’t love Jack Lemmon. But when Jack Lemmon is with Walter Mathau, something happens. In Neil Simon’s now classic comedy of opposite attracting, Lemmon plays Felix Unger to the wheezing, sneezing hilt. He never misses a beat, and eventually, we end up loving him, and caring about these two men. A wonderful performance by a brilliant actor.

Trivia: ‘I always thought Felix had a permanent headache. It helped me to be a bit more neurotic” -Jack Lemmon







60) Marilyn Monroe in Seven Year Itch

Although Monroe never thought of herself as particularly talented, in this, her first “play on film” she is at her comedic peak. Both a child and a woman she captures The Girl so distinctively, that this play can never be done again without thoughts or comparisons to Marilyn.

Trivia: Marilyn kept her acting coach on the set during filming. She was extremely insecure about this role. In the middle of one of the scenes, her acting coach tripped over a stray wire, knocking down a major key light. She was then kicked off the set, and Marilyn never got her confidence back. You’d never know it from her performance.



61) Frances MacDormand in Fargo

Nepotism works. Husbands, wives, and when you’re talking about an underrated Oscar winner like MacDormand, you’re in safe company. This black comedy is a magnificent film, and Francis’ performance, though hilarious, is also filled with a quiet, desperate, uneasy pathos that’s generated through her meticulous work as an actor. An Oscar for her…and where the heck is she??????

Trivia: Francis did a screen test for the title role along with every other actor. This was at her insistence.



62) Will Smith in Men In Black

I liked Will Smith, a looong time ago. Like, back when he was funny and didn’t take himself quite so seriously. Though not a trained actor, he’s just naturally a funny guy. He’s got a great demeanor, and the camera seems to pick that up. This is a great Sci Fi film with some added heavy weights in for good measure. Will’s snappy one liners are fun to watch.

Trivia: Will has spoken of this experience with a lot of joy. He said “Fighting with an imaginary space alien makes me look like I’m either really crazy, or really high.”



63) Kathy Bates in Rat Race

How do you get a bunch of incredibly talented, funny actors in a movie, and then manage to make it one of the most boring things to ever ht the screen since “From Justin To Kelly”? How??? Well….that’s what happened here. However, Bates 5 second scene, selling a squirrel to unsuspecting passers by is worth fast forwarding to. She’s a marvel.

Trivia: Bates did the role as a favor. She worked for little to no money, and really just wanted to be a part of what she later called: “An homage to It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World”. Bates, by the way, is a huge Ethel Merman fan.



64) Robert Deniro in Meet The Parents

Robert DeNiro giving the polygraph? The ashes falling on the carpet? The cat? The actual wedding? DeNiro knows how to be funny and knows how to infuse any situation with truth. A wonderful, wonderful performance by a living legend.

Trivia: Ben Stiller wasn’t going to do the movie until he had DeNiro saying “yes”. Robert said yes immediately after reading the first draft.



65) Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate

Dustin’s throat modulations are some of my favorite moments of this film. If you watch it again, you’ll notice, as the tension increases, and the stakes get higher, Hoffman adopts this strange guttural hiccup/moan between breaths. I’m not sure what it is, or what it means, but it makes me howl every time. Fabulously funny.

Trivia: The plum role of Mrs Robinson was offered first to Doris Day. She turned it down.



66) Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night

At the time, this was a very racy film. Colbert, known mostly for her dramatic work, was cast as a runaway heiress to Clark Gable’s overly masculine roving reporter. Colbert’s ability to be lithe and yet supreme has never been duplicated. Even for a time that depended mostly on women having to be in the back round when they’re funny, Colbert was thrust up front, and for good reason, she gives the film it’s center. When she returns to her palatial New York abode, the scene where she looks over to the side of her bed and obviously misses Gable (I mean, who wouldn’t?) we are right there with her.

Trivia: The classic “sheet between the beds” scene was developed in rehearsal by both Gable and Colbert.



67) Greta Garbo in Ninotchka

“Garbo Laughs!” was the tagline that brought audiences in by the hundreds. If you’ve never seen this, and even if you hate old movies, I guarantee you will laugh like crazy. Garbos’ dry, machine-like soviet transplant is fall down funny. She and Douglas' exchange on the streets of New York about love and romance is brilliant. Rent it. You won’t be sorry.

Trivia: Garbo and Douglas began their affair during this movie. The love scenes are ferocious!!!!!



68) Cary Grant in His Girl Friday

There’s no one like Cary Grant. There never will be. In “Friday” he matches Rosalind Russell blow by blow and wit by wit. It’s a literal sparring contest. Although still keeping with his ability to be suave and debonair, he also has a bit of street-toughness about him. Glorious.

Trivia: Cary Grant has an ad lib in this film where he reveals his real name. Know where it is?



69) Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally

“I’m going to be Thirty!”

“When?”

“huh…..huh….huh…..SOMEDAY!”

No one cries like Meg Ryan. Well, okay, maybe Lucy, but no one else really. This is a delightful film, and wonderfully romantic comedy. Ryan is vulnerable, sweet, and yet has a definite agenda: Not to allow her character to become a walking stereotype. She and Crystal are magic together.

Trivia: Rob Reiner as director cast his Mother in one pivotal scene where she said a line that’s become part of pop culture. Do you know the line, and the scene?





70) Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday

Judy Holiday is all but forgotten nowadays. In this flick she is the dumb blonde with smarts. She falls for gorgeous, winsome William Holden (a beautiful performance) and never gives into all the pitfalls. Holiday playing gin rummy is one of the funniest 10 minutes in a movie.

Trivia: Holiday won her first and only Oscar for this film. Her competition included Gloria Swanson (Sunset Blvd.), and Bette Davis (All About Eve). It’s an upset people in Hollywood STILL talk about.



71) Joan Cusak in Working Girl

With her mile high hair, her blue eye shadow and that thick Bronx accent , Cusak is a comedic dream here. Working against Melanie Griffith, she is the perfect best friend. Never too sudsy, and never too acidic. “Coffee, tea, ME?” No one delivers that stuff with as much originality as Joan.

Trivia: Cusak was nominated for an Oscar for this performance.



73) Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein

I can’t help but name everyone in this movie as one of the funniest performances. It’s probably in the top 5 of the best comedies ever made. Leachman’s Frau Bleucher (horses please) is a revelation. “Ovaltine?”, and the way she keeps pronouncing Frankenstien as “Frahnk-en-steen” is sheer insanity. The movie keeps its’ roots firmly grounded in horror reality, and Leachman’s first entrance adds to that. It’s a wondrous film performance.

Trivia: Cloris said she found Bleucher when she was going through a book of old German history. She was thumbing through the book, glancing at pictures of the war, and in a small picture was a woman with a square jaw, holding a violin and a horse behind her. She said she saw the woman, and somehow immediately knew who Bleucher was.



74) Tom Hanks in Big

Although I tend to think some of his performances are a bit overrated, I hold a special place in my heart for this one. There’s noone better at being a complete and believable Man/Child like Hanks. He is filled with a child like sense of play and wonder throughout the entire film. You BELIEVE he is a 12 year old. No question.

Trivia: The “Heart and Soul” segment played on the piano by he and Robert Loggia was concocted by Hanks himself.





75) William Powell in My Man Godfrey

Where are the William Powells of the world? And where are the My Man Godfreys? A socially relevant, and slap stick-y parody of class and culture among the rich. Powell playing a down and out hobo who gets swept up by the presumptuous and austere Carole Lombard (in one a performance that later, Lucille Ball would copy, and do for the rest of her career). Powell is staunch, stiff, and completely hysterical as he watched in bewilderment what these upper class idiots consider real problems. Powell was at the top of his game aiding and abetting Lombard as she tripped, fell, and climbed over every piece of furniture on the set. A marvelous performance by an underrated actor.

Trivia: Powell had a terrible drinking problem (as did most every star of that time). Carole hated the smell of booze. She asked during the production, if he would mind not drinking…just for the run of filming. Powell agreed, and his performance is sharper than I’ve ever seen it. Carole seemed to have that affect on people.