The Silver Screen Oasis

A group of my friends are having a movie night next month and everyone is supposed to bring a movie or two with their favorite comedy scene. (Yes, I've been invited too.) It has to be around five minutes or less. I had a big hit with the slapping scene from "Vivacious Lady" at our previous get together.

On the off chance you can come what scene are you bringing? (The less famous the better as there are a few casual classic film fans.)

For some reason the first thing that popped into my head was the spill Myrna Loy takes when her character is introduced in The Thin Man. But several moments of repartee that follow between her and Powell would be just as good.

Nick: I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune.
Nora: I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids.
Nick: It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids.

I enjoy the opening scene of The Major and The Minor when Ginger, Rogers, as Susan Applegate, enters Robert Benchley's apartment as a trained representative of the Revigora Hair Restorer company.

Before he gets the shampoo, Benchley invites her to slip out of those "wet" things into a dry martini. (Who wouldn't love to say that line?)

Right after that she has an epiphany----with a raw egg, no less!

And how about that moment, Sue Sue, when Sue Sue walks into the dance and all the visiting young ladies are sporting a certain hairstyle?

On a thread Over There devoted to the film Bandolero! I described
my reaction to the scene after the town has emptied out, leaving James
Stewart alone. He starts to amble slowly out of town, then turns and looks around, spotting the bank. He proceeds to learn how easy it is to rob a bank under those circumstance. Roll in aisle and LOL.

There is quiter comedy in Mister Roberts when Henry Fonda and William Powell set out to mix a bottle of ersatz Scotch in order to help
Jack Lemmon in his attempt to seduce a nurse. Deadpan, dry as a biscuit,
they combine grain alcohol, Coke for color, iodine for taste, then "hair tonic to age it. Hold it." (Looks at wristwatch for two beats.) "Its ready."
Perfect deadpan comedy.

I also liked the no-money poker games among the friends and acquaintences in
Benny and Joon. The offbeat romance between the Masterson and
Depp characters is going to take an ability to cope with the odd, and it
helps to live among people who already have some practice at it. With
no disposible income for gambling, they show up for poker with the stuff
one might bring to a swap meet. They ante up:
"Box of thirty-aught-six ammo, one round missing."
"Salad Shooter."
"Soap-on-a-rope, slightly used."
-- These people already have the ability to adapt to whimsey, and these
odd lovers are going to need that.

Ayres, that is one of my all-time favorite movie moments. The first time I ever saw that movie, I remember laughing out loud at that very scene. And all the cadets comments? "The girls at Miss Shackleford's school, Ha! We use 'em for women. " And then you see Miss Shackleford!
(My mom told me that the Lake hairstyle was just that popular everywhere.)

And it still makes me shriek. As a teacher, I am well-versed in the art of imitation and how it spreads like wildfire. Nothing has changed much since The Major and The Minor was released except the fashions themselves and the price tags!

Good comments, cmvgor. I also adored that "brandy-making" scene in Mr. Roberts. I've been up at the lakehouse with friends and I've have had to improvise recipes, and all the girls doing the cooking while the guys are out fishing sometimes are left to wrestle with a poorly stocked pantry.

Chris, this is so hard. I've been thinking about a favorite scene since your first post, and I can't come up with a "favorite," because every time I do, I think of one more I've seen that tops it.

I was watching "Pat and Mike" the other day, and of several outstanding scenes, I like this very low-key one:

Tracy being menaced at a restaurant by gangsters, including Charles Bronson.

Hepburn beating up said gangsters to defend Tracy, in front of a crowd, much to Tracy's chagrin; Hepburn judo-flipping Bronson in the process.

All parties concerned, Tracy, Hepburn, wounded gangsters, and witnesses trying to explain what happened to a very calm but increasingly exasperated sheriff, played by Chuck Connors.

Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, as a restaurant busboy witness, itching to get his two cents in to the explanation.

Every time I see this sequence, I find something else funny in it.

Also, in the same movie, a plaintive Aldo Ray, as one of Tracy's boxer clients, jealous that Tracy plays more attention to Hepburn than to him: "How come he don't examine me??"


And, of course, Tracy looking at a photo of his prized racehorse, and seeing Hepburn's face superimposed. A little in-joke since early in her career Hepburn was referred to by critics as "horse-faced."

After "Desk Set," "Pat and Mike" is my favorite T&H comedy - there's a lot of very subtle humor in it.

These are great suggestions and will give me the chance to go look at some of these movies again.

The scene I did show was from "The Awful Truth" where Grant comes to apologize for his behavior at Dunne's recital. While there her European boyfriend shows up. While he's there Bellamy shows up. Grant and his rival both hididng in the bedroom get into a fight. It takes place off screen but it is serious based on the sound effects.

As a bonus I brought back the slapping scene from "Vivacious Lady." It was still a big hit.

I realize I'm late to this thread, but...I have to name three:

1. The Bank Dick, when bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington (Franklin Pangborn) comes to Lompoc and W. C. Fields "assists" him in his duties.

2. The opening to The Man on the Flying Trapeze, in which W. C. Fields nearly drives wife Kathleen Howard crazy by taking forever to get himself ready for bed. Burglars enter the house, and Fields again takes forever to get out of bed and root them out. In my opinion, that sequence is the funniest that Fields ever filmed.

3. The opera sequence near the end of A Night at the Opera, arguably the funniest sequence the Marx Brothers ever filmed.

-Stephen

I love love love Irene Dunne saying: "Go on honey...truck it!"

But even more I love the (lawyer) who tries to convince Cary & Irene NOT to get a divorce As he tries to tell them: "Marriage is a beautiful thing." he's sooo interrupted by his wife who wants him to come to dinner. You know the scene. I fall out when he apoplexically says: "...will you shut your big mouth!"

The final half hour of The Awful Truth is absolutely fantastic, and Irene Dunne absolutely takes the film away from Cary Grant. I've never seen anyone else do that.

I think my favorite comedy scene is when Katharine Hepburn loses her shoe in Bringing Up Baby and she does the whole "I was born on a side of hill" walk, completely oblivious to everything. It feels so spontaneous and natural, and it's hysterical. But that whole movie has a ton of little moments that are incredible.

These scenes are my favorites (in no particular order).

The wedding night confession in "The Lady Eve."

Mr. Muckle comes to the store in "It's a Gift."

Lou Costello tries to find how to get to Bagel Street in "In Society."

Carlo goes into his monkey act in "My Man Godfrey."

The mirror scene in "Duck Soup."

Professor Spaulding's strange interludes in "Animal Crackers."

John Barrymore does baby talk on the phone in "Midnight."

Tony Curtis does Cary Grant in "Some Like It Hot."

Hi Chris
Just came across your thread. I'd like to mention a few made me laugh out loud:
From 'Enter Laughing' the stage show where Rene Santoni can't find the door.
Chaplin in the restaurant in 'City Lights'
'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'. the wedding. .... mel

I've just come across this thread too.

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in the restuarant in Bringing Up Baby she's catching olives in her mouth but missing and causes Cary to slip. Than he stands on her gown and they have to do a quick exit marching in time

Cary Grant, again, discovering just what his aunts do with their gentleman callers in Arsenic and Old Lace

Charlie and Sydney Chaplin and little boy in The Pilgrim trying to keep naughty little boy under control whilst his mother chats, a scene that can be watched time and time again, masterful use of timing and a young boy and where does that hat go?

Jack Lemmon in the berth with Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot 'I'm a girl, I'm a girl' a big party going at full swing all taking place in the berth above where Tony Curtis is sleeping.

Buster Keaton waking up in church in Seven Chances to discover all those brides, then being chased all over town and country

Laurel and Hardy waving to the camera in Sons of the Desert not thinking that their wives might justsee the footage.

That's all for now but I'm sure I'll think of some more.

This is great. Proof that no thread is too old to add to.

Another of my favorites, the end of "Duck Soup." The whole battle. Different uniforms, ordering lunch (or two more girls.) They can't have the war end now as they have paid a month's rent on the battlefield. Well, the whole film is one great scene after another, at least for me.

"Hail Freedonia!"