The Twenty Greatest Comedy Screenplays... According to Me

In honor of HuffPost's twenty great movie endings I have another list. My twenty favorite comedy screenplays. By favorite I mean the ones I wish I had written.

ALL ABOUT EVE - Joseph Mankiewicz. Sharpest dialogue I've ever heard. The film is 56 years old and still crackles. Saw it again recently. What a pleasure to watch, especially now during the dumbing down of America.

SOME LIKE IT HOT - Billy Wilder & IAL Diamond. Disproves its classic last lane. Somebody IS perfect.

HEARTBREAK KID - Neil Simon (although the hand of director Elaine May is clearly evident). Jewish men generally love this movie, Jewish women hate it. A young Charles Grodin gives the comic performance of his career. And Eddie Albert (yes, Eddie Albert) will make you laugh out loud. There's a remake coming soon. I shudder to think.

THE LADY EVE - Preston Sturgess, story by Monckton Hoffe & Preston Sturgess. Screwball comedy at its funniest and most sophisticated. Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda - not who you naturally think of as a comedy team but they pull it off with ease.

HIS GIRL FRIDAY - Screenplay by Charles Lederer, based on the play by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur. Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell trade quips at a pace that makes WEST WING seem slow. And every word out of their mouths is a gem.

ARTHUR -- Steve Gordon's masterpiece.

TOOTSIE - Larry Gelbart (although fifteen other writers also had a hand in it). If there seems to be a pattern in the comedies I like its men posing as women or "Eve" in the title.

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN - Woody Allen. This movie was a revelation, especially when you consider that at the time (late 60's) most "comedies" were lame Doris Day type films.

SONS OF THE DESERT -- Stan Laurel for Laurel & Hardy. Features the famous line, "Life isn't short enough."

ROXANNE -- Steve Martin. He's not just an inspired comedy writer he's also a real romantic. And as I write this he's probably on his second honeymoon? Third?

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN - Mel Brooks & Gene Wilder. "Putting on the Ritz" scene alone puts this in my top ten.

ANNIE HALL -- Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman. For my money the perfect romantic comedy. (How could the same guy write HOLLYWOOD ENDING?)

MOONSTRUCK - John Patrick Shanley. Okay, so there are two perfect romantic comedies.

CHASING AMY - Kevin Smith. Funny, real, pitch perfect, and you actually root for Ben Affleck. Now that's good writing!

AMERICAN GRAFFITI - George Lucas and Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck. A consistently funny movie that doesn't even try to be a comedy. And what a soundtrack!

DR. STRANGELOVE - Stanley Kubrick and Peter George and Terry Southern. The perfect black comedy. And there are no other perfect black comedies.

THE PRODUCERS - Mel Brooks. The movie not the movie of the musical based on the movie. That was dreadful.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES - Jean Poiret, Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro, Marcello Damon. Even the subtitles were funny.

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL -- Richard Curtis. Even Andie McDowell couldn't kill this English confection. But boy did she try.

SHOWGIRLS - Joe Eszterhas. So unspeakably terrible on every level that you can't help but laugh throughout. (Okay, so that's one I'm glad I didn't write). It's a tribute to Elizabeth Berkley's talent that after starring in this movie she still has a career.

You can read more from Ken at kenlevine.blogspot.com