Best Comedy Movies of 1944

In the year before the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.

Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy. After being appointed to a run-down New York parish, O'Malley's worldly knowledge helps him connect with a gang of boys looking for direction, eventually winning over the aging, conventional Parish priest.

On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

Spike the bulldog, grateful to Jerry for getting him out of the dogcatcher's van, offers to help the little mouse any time he whistles. Tom, Jerry's feline tormentor, seeks to overcome this new disadvantage.

Tom's new book on "how to catch a mouse" doesn't prove too helpful against Jerry; actually, Jerry seems to make better use of it than Tom.

Jerry runs into a dog pound (and right on top of a napping Spike) to escape a rather mangy-looking Tom. To avoid being ripped to shreds, Tom borrows the head of a nearby dog statue. This easily fools the dogs, but not Jerry, and Tom keeps losing his newfound head...

Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.

Elmer wonders if he'll ever catch the rabbit; the voice of God takes him through a flash-forward to the year 2000. Elmer is equipped with a rocket-launcher rifle, but he's no smarter. He shoots Bugs, who shows him a photo album with baby pictures. We see a sequence of Bugs and Elmer as babies. Elderly Bugs digs his own grave and tricks Elmer into getting in.

Bugs, the Wolf and bobby-soxer Red chase each other around while Grandma is off working at Lockheed aircraft.

A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember.

In 1919, Frank Gibbons returns home from army duty and moves into a middle-class row house, bringing with him wife Ethel, carping mother-in-law Mrs. Flint, sister-in-law Sylvia and three children. Years pass, with the daily routine of family infighting and reconciliation occasionally broken by a strike or a festival.

Three modern day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town on the way to Canterbury.

Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.

The bears tempt Goldilocks with carrot soup, the scent of which brings Bugs on the scene. Bugs romances Mama bear and she becomes infatuated with him.

Tom's advances on a young jive-talking girl cat get nowhere; nowhere, that is, until Tom gets a zoot suit. Armed with his miles of fabric and a new cool lingo, Tom still has to deal with the tricks of his nemesis, Jerry.

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.

The descendent of a ghost imprisoned for cowardice hopes to free the spirit by displaying courage when under duress.

Princess Margaret is travelling incognito to elope with her true love instead of marrying the man her father has betrothed her to. On the high seas, her ship is attacked by pirates who know her identity and plan to kidnap her and hold her for a king's ransom.

A crazy squirrel provokes a dog into trying to catch him throughout the picture.

A nightclub dancer makes it big in modeling, leaving her dancer boyfriend behind.

Hypochondriac Danny Weems gets drafted and accidentally smuggles his girlfriend aboard his Pacific-bound troopship.

Chinese detective Charlie Chan solves a murder linked to the occult. This movie had an alternative title: Meeting at Midnight.

After breaking up with her fiancé, a gym teacher returns to work at a women's college, but a legal loophole allows him to enroll as one of her students.

Two bumbling plumbers are hired by a socialite to fix a leak. A case of mistaken identity gets the pair an invitation to a fancy party and an entree into high society. As expected, things don't go too smoothly

To solve the murder of a man shot in a locked room, Chan must wade through a Fun House, the writings of an unscrupulous author, and chess pieces.

The singing/dancing Angel sisters, Nancy, Bobby, Josie, and Patti, aren't interested in performing together, and this plays havoc with the plans of Pop Angel to buy a soy bean farm. They do accept an offer of ten dollars to sing at a dubious night club on the edge of town where a band led by Happy Marshall is playing.

Cass Brown is about to marry for the second time; his first marriage, to Isabel was annulled. But when he discovers that Isabel just had their baby, Cass kidnaps the infant to keep her from being adopted. Isabel's parents hunt for the child and discover that Cass and Isabel are still hopelessly in love.

The biography of Dr. W.T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia, in the form of ether, accepted by the public and the medical and dental establishment.

During World War II Stan and Ollie find themselves as improbable bodyguards to an eccentric inventor and his strategically important new bomb.

George Gribble is tea-boy at Tangleton town council, he gets ravelled up in the councillors money-grubbing machinations concerning compiling and then cooking the results of a government sponsored housing survey.

That wascawwy wabbit is chased into a theatre by Elmer Fudd, and ends up having to perform to save himself, as well as convince Elmer to act himself. The vaudeville industry was never this wacky!

Broadway producer Jerry Flynn is anxious to recapture the magic and reclaim the crowds after a set of costly flops. Outside his theater one night, Flynn meets a young boy who just might save the day. Inside a small box the boy shows Flynn his pride and joy: a caterpillar named Curly that dances to Yes Sir, That's My Baby. Word quickly spreads about the amazingly talented hoofer, and the caterpillar becomes a symbol of hope for wartime America. Soon, offers are pouring in to capitalize on this sensational insect.

Two bumbling magicians help a Middle Eastern prince regain his rightful throne from his despotic uncle.

Its suspected that a society matron, Mrs. Van Bustle, will marry the exotic Prince Shaam. To get the story, reporters Curly, Larry and Moe take jobs in her mansion as a cook and two butlers. The parrot climbing into the turkey scene is a Stooge classic. This was the last of many Stooge appearances by supporting actor Bud Jamison, who passed away in September, 1944, at the age of 50. First appearance by Stooge supporting actress Judy Malcom.

In 1923, two young ladies depart unescorted for a tour of Europe, meeting two eligible men aboard ship. Their great naïvité and efforts to seem grown-up lead them into many comic misadventures.

Charlie Chan is an agent of the US government working in Washington DC and he is assigned to investigate the murder of the inventor of a highly advanced torpedo. Aiding Chan is his overeager but dull-witted son Tommy and his daughter Iris.

Two British soldiers and a WREN take refuge at Stonehenge during a thunderstorm, they are struck by lightning and transported back to ancient Rome.

The stooges are dressed as Japanese soldiers for their job as magazine models. On their lunch break they go into a restaurant with their Japanese uniforms on causing the proprietor to mistake them for the real thing, and a chase ensues. The boys fall through a trap door, and into a nest of Nazi spies where they are mistaken for "Naki", "Saki" and "Waki", three Japanese saboteurs. The stooges try to act the part, including demonstrating acrobatics and jiu-jitsu to their hosts. When the real "Naki", "Saki" and "Waki" show up, the boys are exposed and impostors, but after a wild fight manage to capture all the Axis spies.

Granny lets Bugs Bunny come in from the cold, but her dog Sylvester will have none of it.

Two wealthy Victorian widows are courted tentatively by two impoverished British aristocrats. When one of the dowagers suggests that her beau go away with her for a month to see if they are compatible, the fireworks begin.

As Adolf Hitler personally flies a bomber on a mission to the Soviet Union, the gremlins from the Kremlin set about to stop him.

Red Hot Ryder is sent to catch the Masked Marauder (Bugs Bunny) who is terrorizing a small Western town.

Daffy Duck is a message courier bird delivering a military secret that a femme fatale Nazi spy is determined to get.

The staggeringly wealthy Norah Hunter, a shipyard owner, too often finds herself the romantic target of gold-digging men. To attract a suitor whose main interest is not money, she changes places with her secretary, Sylvia Lockwood, and assumes the role of a young working woman. However, she then falls for recuperating fighter pilot Anthony Travis, who, in turn, is madly in love with Sylvia -- or, perhaps, with the millions he thinks she has.

The Merry Monahans is one of the higher-budgeted Universal musicals of the 1940s, even though the storyline is strictly grade-B material. During the first two decades of the 20th century the film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan (Jack Oakie). Because of his love affair with the bottle, Pete manages to get himself and his family blacklisted from every major vaude house in the country. Though Pete's kids Jimmy (Donald O'Connor) and Patsy (Peggy Ryan) love their dad, they're forced to break away from the act and go off on their own to survive. Eventually, the whole gang is reunited in a shamelessly lachrymose musical finale. Producer-scripters Michael Fessier and Ernest Pagano, whose other works include such offbeat comedies as San Diego I Love You, Frontier Gal and That's the Spirit, manage to keep the proceedings relatively cliché-free, though it's an uphill climb.

A "Rosie the Riveter" type is in need of a baby-sitter for her awful child. The only person available is a clueless Porky Pig. His only instructions are to use a book of child psychology. After fruitless attempts to control the brat, his mother returns to show Porky how to use the book - as a paddle on his little behind.

Bugs is chased into a lake by a French Poodle who speaks with a thick French accent; the rest of the story unfolds under water.

Cupid (Elmer Fudd) is on the prowl around the farm. With his ever-accurate arrows, he spreads love to sometimes unwilling recipients. But when he sets his sights on Daffy, the duck wants no part of it. When Elm...erm...Cupid fires the largest arrow at his disposal at the hapless duck, Daffy falls for the nearest hen...who happens to be the main squeeze of the cock of the walk...

Tweety is set upon by a fat, jowly cat, who winds up with, among other things, a dozen eggs and a gallon of gasoline in his mouth instead of the little bird.