Fall is upon us.
Time to put away those bathing suits and Bermuda shorts, time to crack open that closet with all the windbreakers and sweaters. The air is sure to get frostier in the coming weeks.
So are the movies.
No more of the steady stream of bubble gum, it’s-OK-to-be-you, let’s-annihilate-everyone fare we’ve been spoon-fed over the past four months. Sure, there’ve been some tasty morsels (“The Bridges of Madison County,” “Pocahontas”) and some refreshing appetizers (“Apollo 13,” “Braveheart,” “Babe”), but for the most part, it’s been a summer of brain candy.
Now it’s time to dive into the main course, featuring most of the movies Hollywood hopes will vie for the Oscars.
Well, maybe not just yet.
Before cutting into the heavier fall season, how ’bout one last binge? How ’bout a selection of the 10 silliest movies ever made? Can you warm up to that?
OK, here it is. But remember, when you’re through, everyone out of the pool!
We’re gonna boldly pick the Silliest of the Silly Movies of All Time.
Pretty audacious, eh?
Pretty subjective, to be sure.
Some people think any flick with Jerry Lewis is silly.
Others think: Whoa! Jerry Lewis? Gimme a break. Short-term silly. Silly from 1963 to, maybe, 1965.
But June Cleaver talking jive in “Airplane”–now that’s silly. People will even think that’s silly in 2050. Just like Stan Laurel’s stupid grin is silly today, nearly 60 years after “Way Out West.”
Think of it: 2050 is closer to 1995 than 1937.
You want silly?:
“Waiter! Got any stewed prunes? . . . Give ’em some black coffee. That ought to sober ’em up.”
– Groucho Marx as Otis B. Driftwood in “A Night at the Opera”
Disheveled man with cart in plague-plagued England, oh, around 1200:
“Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!”
– “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
Blind hermit (Gene Hackman) pours hot soup into the lap of Frahkensteen’s monster (Peter Boyle), who roars in pain.
– “Young Frankenstein”
These flicks weren’t picked without your input.
Sharon Williams, 48, lives in Garden City, Mich., and saw “Young Frankenstein” when it came out 20 years ago–and she owns a video of the movie.
Williams was one of more than 100 readers who last month called us with their favorite silly movie–i.e., one that is very funny, very meaningless, very enduring, and you’d see it over and over again.
“Young Frankenstein,” Williams said, “is silly, wacky, forget your worries, forget your cares, forget decisions, forget plots, forget twists, forget it all. It’s just a kick-back movie.”
Your most frequently mentioned flicks: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and “Airplane.” No brainer, those two.
Jim Gills, 48, has seen “Airplane,” oh, six or eight times at least. “A lot of it is the dialogue, you know: `roger, Roger,’ ” said Gills, a state Department of Social Services employee in Traverse City, Mich. “Young Frankenstein” is his second favorite silly movie.
Pam Sinclair, 41, of Milan, Mich., has seen “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” about six times. And even though it’s silly, she says it helps to be anchored in medieval history. “Because there are all these very intellectual arguments people are having about social and political climates” in the movie that make the flick that much more silly because such conversations would have been nonexistent. “Back then you had the king and the pope and that was it,” said Sinclair.
You need to see the movie several times, she said, because there are things you’ll miss the first time out–like the woman using the cat to beat the rug.
One last observation before we move on to the silly list: Many of the flicks are R-rated. But if you see them on commercial TV, they’ll be cleaned up–and they’ll be just as silly.
Which makes you wonder. . . .
THE 10 SILLIEST FLICKS EVER
1. “A Night at the Opera” (1935):
Cast: Groucho, Chico, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Margaret Dumont.
Gist: Scam artist (so he thinks) Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho) plays the role of impresario to con rich woman. Another scam artist (Chico) wants to land a contract for his Italian opera tenor. They sail the Atlantic for New York and a performance at The Met.
Why silly: The reviews 60 years ago talked about anarchic comedy–no rules, no reason. Consider the scene with Groucho and Chico negotiating a contract by ripping strips of paper from the legal document. “There goes the sanity clause.” “That’s OK: Everybody knows there’s no sanity clause.”
2. “Blues Brothers” (R, 1980):
Cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Cab Calloway, Henry Gibson, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin.
Gist: Elwood and Jake Blues, misfit musicians, need to raise $5,000 to pay taxes for the orphanage where they were raised, lest it close forever. They reassemble their defunct band and give a benefit concert–all the while staying one step (or car length) ahead of the cops.
Why silly: Really stupid car chase, theme from “Rawhide,” jilted fiancee (Carrie Fisher) with M16, neo-Nazis foiled.
Added benefit: The music is terrific.
3. “Young Frankenstein” (PG, 1974):
Cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn.
Gist: Man makes monster; so does man’s girlfriend.
Why silly: In a way, the movie is a musical: “Oh, sweet mystery of life! At last, I found you,” sings Kahn after she finds the monster has all his parts. “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” sings the monster as Wilder’s Dr. Frahkensteen does a song and dance with his creation. In the end, another mad scientist experiment gives Wilder a special attribute of the monster and the monster Wilder’s smarts. There’s something silly about seeing the monster in bed, specs anchored on nose, scanning the Wall Street Journal.
4. “Airplane” (PG, 1980):
Cast: Robert Hays, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julie Hagerty.
Gist: A onetime hotshot pilot looses his nerve, but must take command of a passenger jet when the crew gets food poisoning. The pilot and the flight attendant, who happens to be his ex-girlfriend, also must keep a very eclectic group of passengers calm.
Why silly: This movie spoofs almost every disaster movie made (and there were many in the 1970s). It’s a series of one-liners and sight gags. Worn cliches are made very funny.
5. “Blazing Saddles” (R, 1973):
Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Alex Karras, Mel Brooks.
Gist: Black convict cowboy (Little) is offered reprieve if he becomes sheriff of white racist town that goes through sheriffs lickety-split. He befriends a lummox (Karras) and rallies town against bad guys. Subplots include German singer (Kahn) who sees things differently when the lights go out.
Why silly: Take your pick: “De Camptown Races” scene. Little arrests himself scene. Karras punches out a horse scene. Fourteen-year-olds love the bean-eating scene.
6. “The Producers” (1968):
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith.
Gist: Get bunch of little old ladies to stake a play, by promising each majority interest. Find a script that’s sure to flop and head to Rio with the loot when the play closes first night.
Why silly: Lots of physical comedy with Mostel and Wilder. Exaggerated characters, especially the director of the play and his secretary. But the silliest part is the idiotic performance of the play’s main musical number: “Springtime for Hitler.”
7. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (PG, 1975):
Cast: John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and lots of folks you never heard of.
Gist: Hard to say. It involves King Arthur and his knights searching for the Holy Grail.
Why silly: No horses. Knights ride by pretending to trot, a squire nearby clopping a beat on coconuts (which are tropical, therefore inspiring the spirited debate about whether they were brought to England by African or European swallows). The battle with the knight who won’t give up despite his dismemberment is at first gory, then becomes really silly (“Call it a draw!”). There is enough unpredictable behavior going on throughout the flick that you need to see it more than once to catch the dialogue.
8. “Animal House” (R, 1978):
Cast: John Belushi, Tom Hulce, Donald Sutherland, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen.
Gist: Set in 1962 at Delta House, a fraternity of mostly beer-swigging party dudes, the movie follows the frat brothers from rush week to homecoming.
Why Silly: Take the food fight (“A zit! Get it?”). Or the homecoming parade. Or how about the “Shout!” scene when the frat boys wiggle in togas to the playing of the rock hit, “Shout!”
9. “Caddyshack” (R, 1980):
Cast: Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Ted Knight.
Gist: You want plot? 99 minutes of shticks . . . loosely linked (get it–linked) to a bozo (Dangerfield) visiting a snooty golf club with a mantra-chanting member (Chase) and an obnoxious club president (Knight).
Why silly: Greenskeeper Murray trying to wax a gopher. The gopher fighting back. Dangerfield showing no respect. Fourteen-year-olds howl over the candy bar in the swimming pool scene.
10. “This is Spinal Tap” (R, 1984):
Cast: Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer.
Gist: Marty Di Bergi (Reiner) directs a documentary about an aging English heavy metal band during a particularly troublesome American tour. Cameos abound.
Why silly: Along the way, we learn some unusual tidbits about the not-so-bright lads: Their drummers keep dying violently; the guitarist’s amplifier goes to “11,” and, as Di Bergi puts it: “They’ve earned a distinguished place in rock history as one of England’s loudest bands.” Can you say Stonehenge?
Second tier silly
In alphabetical order:
– “Cat Ballou” (1965): Lee Marvin, Jane Fonda. Schoolteacher turns outlaw with help of drunken gunman.
– “Duck Soup” (1933): Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo Marx. Rufus T. Firefly becomes ruler of Freedonia.
– “Gremlins” (PG, 1984): Hoyt Axton, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold. Be careful handling mogwais.
– “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (1963): Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Jimmy Durante, Three Stooges. Lots more. Everybody is looking for the loot (“under the big `W’ “).
– “The Jerk” (R, 1979): Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jackie Mason. Fourteen-year-olds will love the name of Martin’s dog. Although if you see the movie on TV, it’s likely to be named Poophead.
– “The Naked Gun” (PG-13, 1988): Leslie Nielsen, Ricardo Montalban, Priscilla Presley, O.J. Simpson. God! Save the Queen from Lt. Drebin.
– “The Princess Bride” (PG, 1987): Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Peter Falk. Maiden and her hero take on the world.
– “Strange Brew” (PG, 1983): Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Max von Sydow. The McKenzie brothers (two dolts) battle a crazed beer maker.
