Customer Reviews

Comedy Classics 100 Movie Pack

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MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT's COMEDY CLASSICS 100 Movie Pack is primarily a repackaging of their COMEDY KINGS 50 Movie Pack and COMEDY CLASSICS 50 Movie Pack. Exceptions are "Ghost Parade" and "La Cucaracha," which don't appear on either set. Also, the groups of shorts that were once called "Festivals" (Buster Keaton, Keystone Kops, Stan Laurel, Fatty Arbuckle and Our Gang) are here detailed as individual movies, thus bringing the total film count up to 116.

Transfer quality of MCE's public domain movies is uniformly good. Their dual-side recorded discs usually contain two titles per side and are housed in gloss-coated heavy paper sleeves. Easy access storage boxes are sturdy and remarkably compact. A small percentage of these are obviously dubbed from broadcast TV, thus you may see the "In Stereo Where Available" logo at a movie's outset or notice brief black spaces which once represented commercial breaks.


Details of all 116 titles can be found on COMMENT #1 (see link below). Included are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings, country of origin (if other than USA), years of release and best-known actors for each film.

Honestly not all these comedies are actual "classics". Some have not held up too well over the years and the humor is more than a bit creaky. But some have held up rather well and others are just so unusual or unlike the comedies that are produced today that they're just plain interesting and fun to watch. Overall this is a good set. Here are a few of the highlights.

GHOST PARADE: A very quick(18 minutes) little comedy about strange and inexpilcable goings-on at a haunted mansion. It's directed by Max sennet and while not a hidden gem it's fun and fast.

MILLION DOLLAR KID: This is a Bowery boy's movie that puts more emphasis on the laughs. The boys befriend a millionaire after saving him from a mugging, but later they suspect that his no-good son was involved in the robbery. The boys decide to "wise him up". It's quick, energetic and fun

MY MAN GODFREY: A ditzy but warm hearted socialite hires a homeless man to work as her eccentric family's butler during the Great Depression. But is there more to the new butler than meets the eye? A genuine comedy classic that pairs William Powell and Carole Lombard.

LOVE, SPEED AND THRILLS: Mack Swain stars as a jealous husband who takes in a wounded hunter, only to become outraged at the hunter's advances on his wife. Before long a chase is underway, and soon after that the Keystone Cops join in. The plot is just an excuse for a pretty funny, extended chase scene. It's a silent film from 1915.

NOTHING SACRED: Possibly the best film in this set, this comedy is sharp, smart and funny. In order to improve his paper's circulation a reporter writes a fake sob story about a woman dying of radium poisoning. He then gets Carol Lombard to play the part of the woman. Things seem to work out until an Austrian doctor discovers Carol is faking. It's breezy, chatty and loose and stands up as a great comedy in any generation.

ROAD TO BALI: Another genuine comedy classic. This is one of the great "Road" movies of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. The guys have to scram out of Australia to avoid a shotgun marriage and end up working as divers on a Pacific island, competing for Dorothy Lamour and with crooked treasure hunters.

SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH: A real "sleeper" this is a British comedy about a young couple that inherits a rundown little movie theater and the eccentric staff that works there. It's leisurely paced, witty and character based comedy and stars Peter Sellers as the drunken projectionist.

CLANCY STREET BOYS: More fun with the Bowery Boys, this one is pretty much a straight out comedy. Mugs gets the gang to pose as his brothers and sister (poor Glimpy) in order to impress his Uncle Pete, visiting from Texas. It's not what you'd call witty, urbane or even smart, but it is a lot of fun.

ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER: Paul Muni is a hard-boiled gangster who literally goes to hell. Claude Raines is a smooth Devil who will cut Muni a deal if he goes back to Earth and ruins the name of a good and upright man. Ann Baxter is the monkey wrench. Sounds like a drama and it is, but it's kind of a "comedy-noir". It's also a great romantic comedy.

THREE GUYS NAMED MIKE: Jane Wyman plays a breezy stewardess who is pursued by....three guys named Mike. It's a 50's romantic comedy that is fairly funny but is most interesting as a look at what 50's air travel was like.

THE STOLEN JOOLS: Believe it or not, this unique all-star comedy short was financed by a tobacco-producing company in aid of a tuberculosis charity! Half of Hollywood circa 1931 puts in an appearance here during its mildly enjoyable but thoroughly fascinating 18-minute run. There's a jewelry store robbery that ends up involving such stars as Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy(as a team of detectives), Edward G. Robinson, Wallace Beery, several of the Little Rascals,Hedda Hopper, Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Gabby Hayes and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to name a few.

THE FRONT PAGE: Hildy Johnson is an ace reporter who wants to retire from the news game and marry his sweetie. Walter burns is the shrewd, manipulative editor who needs Hildy to help break the scoop of the century, It's a funny and also biting critique of politics, reporting and society and it still holds up well today. It's fast-paced, quick witted, very smart and a contender for best movie in the set.

You wont' stop laughing with this set and a great value for the price. Packaging was excellent and the DVD picture quality is fine.

For the most part, the movies in this set were B movies, i.e., movies a theater owner had to rent if he wanted to show a movie from the A list.
The plot lines are improbable, the acting is amateurish, the production values are simple or virtually non-existant. Of course, some of the stars of the era are here, but not in their prime or in their best movie.

Still, the titles are sometimes interesting despite the flaws. Virtually all actors and many an actress were smokers and used lighting up as a bit of stage business. Look up their bios in IMDb and you'll discover that more than a few died of cancer. I especially liked the shots of the old cars, not taken from storage warehouses of props but the real things. And of course there is something amusing and sometimes deplorable in what was the conventional wisdom of the times. For example, black Americans said "I is" etc., were stupid and were afraid of ghosts, cemeteries, and corpses. They were generally figures of fun, of such falseness as to make a rational person cringe today.

If you like good movies, however, you won't find many here.

while the actual product was acceptable, the state leaves much to be desired. The box the dvds were packaged in showed u pretty torn and crumpled. will, I purchase from that seller again? I really dont think so. Unfortunate, but live and learn