Comedies from the 1960s


   

The laughDB database is dedicated to the funniest comedy movies, stand-up comedy and TV series.

This section is for comedies from the 1960s. By default they are presented starting with the ones ranking highest on the laugh-o-meter, but you can also sort them by year, title or IMDB rating.


Movies from the 1960s sorted by Laugh-o-meter (descending) / page 2 of 4


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Gendarme in New York DVDThe Gendarme in New York (Le Gendarme à New York)
      1965 | France | Laughs: 5.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.5
      wikipedia | who was involved?

This first sequel to The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez has its moments, and is nearly guaranteed to trigger a laugh or two. It's always fun to see the French poke fun at themselves, something that they somehow manage to do even better than all the other people who poke fun at the French. But the plot is just not very engaging, despite the honorable efforts of the two top actors, who do manage to keep you entertained. Definitely worth watching once, but I probably won't want to watch it again. (Last viewed: October 2011)

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The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming DVDThe Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
      1966 | USA | Laughs: 5.1 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.1
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

The crew of a Russian submarine stranded on a small island off the coast meets the villagers. You probably won't laugh (hasn't our sense of humor changed since 1966), but you might still find the movie irresistibly cute. Personal theory: Alan Arkin's Lieutnant Rozanof inspired the personage of Borat. (Last viewed: June 2010)

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I Love You ALice B Toklas DVDI Love You ALice B Toklas
      1968 | USA | Laughs: 5.0 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.3
      wikipedia | who was involved?

I have loved this movie for a long time. It doesn't really make me laugh anymore (and I don't recall whether it ever did), but it makes me grin to the point where my jaw muscles are a bit sore. Intrigued by his brother's hippie girlfriend, a Los Angeles lawyer abandons his pinned-up lifestyle for long hair and groovy clothes. But leaving the "square world" doesn't mean you don't have to compete—are you as hip as the next guy? In some ways, this is more a documentary than a work of fiction. One of Peter Sellers' better roles, and that's saying a lot. (Last viewed: Mar 2008 October 2012)

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The Apartment DVDThe Apartment
      1960 | USA | Laughs: 4.4 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 8.3
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

One of those movies where the charaters' dress and manner of speech are so obsolete that it's nearly impossible to identify. Had not laughed after half an hour, gave up. Oh, the plot: a man in a large accounting firm makes his apartment available to the company higher ups who need a bachelor pad for an evening. Painful. (Last viewed: July 2010)

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Cactus Flower DVDCactus Flower
      1969 | USA | Laughs: 3.9 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

When a dentist decides to marry his girlfriend, the girlfriend wants to meet the wife he's supposed to divorce… but he had lied about being married, so he recruits his assistant to play the "fake wife". I'm sure this was a funny movie in 1969, but times change, and in 2012 it is not easy to identify to some of the characters. You may enjoy a bit of sharp dialogue and a few clever lines, but overall this is an easy movie to skip. The modern version with Adam Sandler (Just Go with It) is about twenty times funnier. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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Rob the Bank DVDRob the Bank (Faites Sauter la Banque)
      1964 | France | Laughs: 3.2 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Talked by the owner of the bank across the street into making a ruinous investment, the owner of a hunting shop enlists his wife, son and two daughters to dig a tunnel from their cellar to the bank's vault. Few black-and-white comedies from over fifty years ago are still pleasant to watch, I find, but this is one of them. This charming movie from another time probably won't make you laugh, but it may leave you with a smile. (Last viewed: September 2012)

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The Big Restaurant DVDThe Big Restaurant (Le Grand Restaurant)
      1966 | France | Laughs: 3.2 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.8
      wikipedia | who was involved?

The owner of a top Parisian restaurant gets embroiled in the kidnapping of a foreign head of State. The first ten minutes are pretty funny, but the rest of the movie has humor in first gear. Nevertheless, it's cute, though a bit long. The film's best feature may well be the scenes of Paris before the explosion of global retail turned it into a suburb of Chicago. The streets are almost empty—at the time Europe's population must have been about half what it is now. It's eerie. There's also a cute scene at the snow. It must have been sweet to be an adult in those years, though that would have meant living through the war. (Last viewed: September 2012)

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Les Barbouzes DVDLes Barbouzes
      1964 | France | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.0
      who was involved?

Five spies compete for the attention of the heiress to a portfolio of patents about weapon technologies. This black-and-white film is still watchable if you have an interest in old movies, but I don't feel I would have missed much if I hadn't seen it. (Last viewed: January 2013)

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The White Lady posterThe White Lady (Bílá paní)
      1965 | Czechoslovakia | Laughs: 2.8 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.4
      who was involved?

In the old castle of a country town, a lady steps out of a painting at full moon to grant people their wishes, causing headaches for the authorities, committed as they are to a purely material, non-spiritual viewpoint. Although I didn't laugh, I enjoyed this funny movie that probably does a good job of capturing something of the bureaucracy behind the iron curtain in the mid 1960s. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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One, Two, Three DVDOne, Two, Three
      1961 | USA | Laughs: 2.5 (Just Awful) | imdb: 7.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

During the Cold War, the head of Coca-Cola in West Berlin must host the big boss's 17-year-old daughter, who falls in love with a handsome party member from East-Berlin. This movie is from a time when it was considered good acting to yell for the entire length of a movie. That's what the main character does, and it's really hard on the ear. There's also that awful, never-ending circus music that's been used in a million films since sound was introduced to the cinema. If you forgive that and the smug cold-war American propaganda, you're left with a fairly amusing farce—but no laughs. The story would have gone down a lot better if everyone had been more chilled out. This is Hollywood at its worst. (Last viewed: October 2012)

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Les Tontons Flingueurs DVDCrooks in Clover (Les Tontons Flingueurs)
      1963 | France | Laughs: 2.1 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

When his old friend dies, a retired gangster inherits a capricious "niece", a handful of shady businesses (casino, brothel, distillery) and a crew of managers who are unready to bow to a new king. This was recommended to me as a very funny movie by someone who saw it when it first came out. Very funny it no longer is. If you like old black-and-white movies, this is a pleasant one. Otherwise, you can safely skip it. (Last viewed: December 2012)

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The Firemen's BallThe Firemen's Ball (a.k.a The Fireman's Ball) (Hoří, má panenko)
      1967 | Czechoslovakia | Laughs: 2.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.5
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A light comedy about a ball given by a small town's fire brigade in honor of their former chairman. Probably nothing to make you break into a laugh, but the movie scores points for the cultural experience it provides—a trip back in time to a country that no longer exists, and to a film tradition far removed from present-day Hollywood. (Last viewed: April 2013)

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El Verdugo posterThe Executioner (El Verdugo)
      1963 | Spain | Laughs: 2.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 8.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A handsome undertaker who has a hard time attracting ladies marries someone who faced a similar problem: an executioner's daughter. Soon he inherits the job of his father in law so the family can remain entitled to a spacious flat, but is terribly afraid of ever having to execute anyone.

Even though I didn't laugh out loud, I smiled a lot and found this movie delightful. The editing is surprising—I can't recall a movie that moves you forward so aggressively in time without using captions warning you that what you are seeing is now "three months later".

This movie made me regret not being fluent in Spanish. On the other hand language didn't seem to be a problem for Nino Manfredi, the lead character and Italian cinema superstar. I probably missed three quarters of the movie as the dialog is extremely fast and I was having a hard time keeping up with the subtitles while stealing glances at the images. In spite of that, it still felt like a unique piece and a worthwhile watch.

Edit: In case you'd like to read more about it, I suggest this review, which I found excellent. (Last viewed: February 2017)

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Il SorpassoThe Easy Life (Il Sorpasso)
      1962 | Italy | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 8.3
      wikipedia | who was involved?

This light-hearted movie is not the kind that makes you roar with laughter, but it is charming and funny, and had be smiling throughout. By and large, a character study of two men thrown together for a Summer weekend—one an introvert, the other an extrovert and a seducer. The characters are terrific, and so are the various settings, from villages to bourgeois interiors and beach parties. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? posterWill Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa? (Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa?)
      1968 | Italy | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A high-flying businessman travels to the heart of Africa in search of his brother-in-law who has disappeared some time earlier. This lighthearted movie belongs to the once-popular genre of long rambling productions, and may have been a pleasure to watch on the big screen (which allows the landscapes to breathe) when it came out. I'm not sure how much it has to offer to modern viewers in their living rooms. There's nothing wrong with the story, but it's not enthralling either. Nor is the movie particularly funny. On the other hand, the scenes of Africa before AIDS, cell phones and the omnipresence of plastic have some documentary value. Just don't watch this movie to laugh or because of its catchy title. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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