Laurel and Hardy make their obligatory appearance in two fine entries from their extensive back catalogue – Hog Wild and Helpmates - both excellent shorts that are guaranteed to raise a laugh. From one comedy team to the other as the Marx Brothers crop up too with Horse Feathers with Groucho as a college professor trying to help his college win a football match. The 30s comedy continues with the 1939 Howard Hawks screwball comedy, His Girl Friday which is quite simply genius and one of the fastest talking comedies ever filmed with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell sparking quite brilliantly off each other.
The forties bring an excellent performance from Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra and a couple of decent American studio comedies with Here Comes Mr Jordan and Heaven Can Wait. From Britain came Laurence Olivier’s Henry V, doing Shakespeare and propaganda at the same time during the Second World War.
1950 brings perhaps the most charming film ever made – Harvey with James Stewart making everyone fall in love with him (yes, I’d have probably changed sexuality to marry him and we’d spend our days saying “Ah, shucks..” Anyway, I digress). Harvey is almost perfect in every way, but there are other H films to discuss. In 1952 came High Noon which is up there with my favourite Westerns, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. It was almost an anti-western, challenging the generic norm and took the genre into a new direction. Grace Kelly crops up again 4 years later in High Society opposite Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. To finish the decade off if you fancy a bit of arthouse cinema there’s Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour, though be warned - it’s not light viewing.
During the 1960s, The Hustler contained a powerful performance from Paul Newman as the pool shark, ably supported by George C Scott. Changing tones entirely there’s A Hard Day’s Night with The Beatles which is a film that seems to sum up an era (from what we’ve been told anyway – I wasn’t actually there!) There’s also the very un-politically correct comedy How to Murder Your Wife with Jack lemmon and Terry Thomas. Wouldn’t be made nowadays but still funny at times.
The cult dark comedy Harold and Maude kicks off the 1970s, charting the romance between a teenage boy and a elderly lady and full of weird charm. Clint Eastwood directs himself in the interesting Western High Plains Drifter, with more of a touch of the supernatural about it. Mel Brooks came up with the Hitchcock spoof High Anxiety in 1977, then a year later John Carpenter directed his horror masterpiece Halloween, starring a very young Jamie Lee Curtis and introducing the character of Michael Myers to the world.
The 1980s is a pretty barren time for H films (as indeed it seemed to be for films in general – yes, there are exceptions before you start!) and the only real diamond in the muck is Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters – a great ensemble piece with Mia Farrow and Michael Caine amongst others. Sir Michael picked up an Oscar for his troubles.
Into the 90s and we’ll gloss over the Home Alone films. The Hunt For Red October is a good cold war yarn and there’s juvenile humour to be had in the Hot Shot films too. The Coen brothers came up with The Hudsucker Proxy in 1994 – some say it’s one of the Coens’ lesser films, but I have a soft spot for it and could watch it over and over again. From France in ‘95 comes La Haine, a superb hard-hitting look at gang life in Paris that is very powerful. From the same year comes Michael Mann’s Heat which paired up De Niro and Pacino on opposite sides of the crime divide. We’ll round off the 90s with Todd Solonz’s independent American film, Happiness – controversial, opinion-splitting, but for me an involving and excellent movie.
From recent years comes High Fidelity with John Cusack and Jack Black starring in this adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel pretty successfully. Zhang Yimou’s Hero is well worth a mention from 2002, as is his follow up film in 2004, House of Flying Daggers – both absolutely beautiful to look at, as you’d expect from him. A History of Violence is a standout film from David Cronenberg; then there’s the award winning Hotel Rwanda and finally from 2007 there’s Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s excellent follow up to Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz which very nearly lived up to its predecessor.
You’ll notice an absence of Harry Potter in this list – that’s because it’s my favourite films, not a popularity contest!
And on to the final five
His Girl Friday – Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, direction by Howard Hawks- all the ingredients were there and they added up to one of the all time classic Hollywood comedies. Try and hang on to the light speed dialogue and just enjoy the ride.
Harvey – James Stewart is the alcoholic with a six foot invisible rabbit as a best friend. As you do. A charming comedy, with Josephine Hull winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as his frustrated aunt. The dialogue is exquisite as this seemingly crazy amiable man spreads his good-naturedness and has a profound effect on all that he meets.
High Noon – Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly are the newly marrieds about to leave town on honeymoon just as a band of criminals return after spending time in prison. Cooper, the ex-Sheriff finds himself torn between his new wife and his sense of duty to fight off the criminals whoo have returned for revenge. None of the townsfolk will help him so he has to resort to taking them on single-handedly. A classic western, essential viewing.
The Hudsucker Proxy – Ah, shucks to the critics – I love this Capra-esque offering from the Coens. Tim Robbins is the employee suddenly rising to the top through a scam by boss Paul Newman. Jennifer Jason Leigh does her best Rosalind Russell impression as the newspaperwoman investigating the new protégée.
Hot Fuzz – Bad Boys meets Midsomer Murders in this marvellous British comedy from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg is the London cop drafted into a sleepy town with zero crime rate, but all is not as it seems. Timothy Dalton and Edward Woodward also feature in a film crampacked full of visual and verbal jokes.
And the winner is…
Harvey. What else? If you’re having a bad day, sit down, get the DVD out, and put the film on for 90 minutes of topclass feel-good fare.
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