Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!
Eric Idle, being brilliant (Monty Python's Life of Brian/HandMade Films)
When you're chewing on life's gristle/Don't grumble, give a whistle/And this'll help things turn out for the best/And...Always look on the bright side of life.
Dear Wags,
We met unhappiness early in life and found refuge at the movies. Nothing that’s come down the pike since—reality TV, Instagram, Elon Musk’s diabolical platform, etc.— is a better antidote for the blues. Hollywood will break your heart, but a funny picture will help it mend. Here are just a few movies to cheer you up (our friends at the American Film Institute have more ideas).
Yours Ever,
Young Frankenstein
Wag Supremo Mel Brooks cranked out a lot of beloved comedies, but his 1974 homage to Universal horror pictures is our favorite. That’s because it takes itself so seriously—right down to the meticulous recreation of the lab from James Whale’s 1931 classic Frankenstein. One of the greatest casts ever—Gene Wilder (who wrote the screenplay), Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, and Gene Hackman delight as denizens of Transylvania. Everybody knows the bits (Would you like a roll in ze hay? Walk this way! Damn your eyes! Too late!), but after a half-century, they still work. Brooks hated the “Puttin’ on the Ritz'“number, but Wilder won a bitter argument to keep it in. As the monster, Peter Boyle is both hulking and sweet.—Frederick Bronski
The Court Jester
Remember: The pellet with the poison’s in the chalice from the palace; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true! The rapid-fire tongue twister in this 1955 comedy is one of the greatest bits in Hollywood comedy. Written, produced, and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Jester is a showcase for Danny Kaye, who stars as Hubert Hawkens, a bumbling medieval minstrel who’s also a dead ringer for a Robin Hood-like outlaw called the Fox. It’s deeply silly, with Angela Lansbury as a haughty princess, Mildred Natwick as a witch, Basil Rathbone as the heavy, and Glynis Johns (who died in January at 100) as a rebel captain.—Phil Davis
Broadcast News
You won’t believe it, but working in television news was once considered glamorous. James L. Brooks’s love letter to journalism captures what all that was like. Holly Hunter stars as neurotic producer Jane Craig, torn between sincere but sweaty reporter Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), and slick anchorman Tom Grunick (William Hurt). “Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?” says Aaron. “If ‘needy’ were a turn-on?” Hunter’s character was modeled on veteran CBS news producer Susan Zirinsky.—Edwina McDunnough
The Palm Beach Story
We could devote this entire list to screwball pictures directed by Preston Sturges. But if we have to narrow things down, we’ll start with this 1942 comedy of marriage, money, and mistaken identities. Claudette Colbert stars as a woman determined to help her penniless architect husband (Joel McCrea) by divorcing him and hooking a millionaire in Palm Beach. The misadventure is populated with oddballs, including the raucous Ale and Quail hunting club, the laconic Wienie King (Robert Dudley), eccentric tycoon John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), and his much-married sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor).—Fanny Trellis Skeffington
