Best Comedy Movies of 1953

It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.

Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone, a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.

A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop.

The short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.

Sharpshooter Calamity Jane takes it upon herself to recruit a famous actress and bring her back to the local saloon, but jealousy soon gets in the way.

Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.

Space hero Daffy battles Marvin the Martian for control of Planet X.

The final installment of the "Hunting Trilogy" once again has Elmer out hunting, while Bugs and Daffy try to con him into shooting the other.

Bugs Bunny once again making that "wrong turn at Albuquerque" burrows into a bullring, where a magnificent bull is making short work of a toreador. The bull bucks Bugs out of the arena, prompting the bunny to declare "Of course you realize, this means war!" The deft Bugs' arsenal comes plenty packed, as he uses anvils, well-placed face slaps and the bull's horns as a slingshot. The bull fights back, using his horns as a shotgun barrel. The bull's comeback is short-lived; just after Bugs makes out his will, he lures the bull out of the arena, just in time to set up a rube-like device that leads to the bull's defeat.

At the home of Viennese composer Johann Strauss lived Johann Mouse. Whenever the composer played his waltzes, the mouse would dance to the music, unable to control himself. One day, when Strauss was away, the house cat played his master's music. When word got out about a piano-playing cat and a dancing mouse, they were commanded to perform for the emperor.

When British Railways announce the closure of the Titfield to Mallingford branch line a group of local residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a monied member of the community who is attracted by the complete lack of licensing hours on trains. Unfortunately the local bus company starts to use methods that can hardly be seen as fair competition.

Two friends driving in the London to Brighton vintage car rally bet on which of them will be the first to arrive back home.

Fred and Lilli are a divorced pair of actors who are brought together by Cole Porter who has written a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. Of course, the couple seem to act a great deal like the characters they play. A fight on the opening night threatens the production, as well as two thugs who have the mistaken idea that Fred owes their boss money and insist on staying next to him all night.

Abbott and Costello, two bumbling American cops on exchange in London, hunt for Mr. Hyde—the monster that has been terrorizing the city.

John Ford weaves three "Judge Priest" stories together to form a good- natured exploration of honour and small-town politics in the South around the turn of the century. Judge William Priest is involved variously in revealing the real identity of Lucy Lake, reliving his Civil War memories, preventing the lynching of a youth and contesting the elections with Yankee Horace K. Maydew.

Washington hostess Sally Adams becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy.

Two aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.

Marjorie Winfield's engagement to Bill Sherman, who has just arrived home from fighting in World War I, serves as the backdrop for the trials and tribulations of her family.

A nightclub singer and his partner escape mobsters by fleeing to Cuba with a beautiful heiress, who has inherited a haunted castle on an isolated island. The trio hunt for a hidden treasure and encounter a ghost, a zombie, and a mysterious killer...

Struggling to retain custody of his daughter following his divorce, football coach Steve Williams finds himself embroiled in a recruiting scandal at the tiny Catholic college he is trying to bring back to football respectability.

The program was the first so-called "Television Spectacular". Ford presented the show without commercial interruption. It is believed to be the first time that Edward R. Murrow appeared on NBC in a professional capacity. Also, in 1953, it was necessary for Ford to buy time on two networks to ensure maximum coverage of US TV households - at the time, neither CBS nor NBC reached 100% of them. The famed 1953 television special celebrating the Ford Motor Company's 50th anniversary brought together two of the greatest leading ladies Broadway has ever known. The highlight of the program is Merman and Martin’s 13-minute duet medley, where they sing the songs that made them famous, plus much more. On their own, Merman sings “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Mademoiselle from Armetières” and Martin performs a brilliantly comic routine about changes in fashion over the first half of the 20th century.

A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.

Having to leave Melbourne in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals, two song-and-dance men sign on for work as divers. This takes them to an idyllic island on the way to Bali where they vie with each other for the favours of Princess Lala. The hazardous dive produces a chest of priceless jewels which arouses the less romantic interest of some shady locals.

Although the son of a skilled golfer and an outstanding player in his own right, Harvey Miller is too nervous to play in front of a gallery, so he acts as coach and caddy for Joe Anthony, his girlfriend's brother.

The true story of Ruth Gordon's early struggles on the road to stage stardom.

Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St James has things well organized - a loving and very English wife Maud in Gibraltar, and the loving if rather more hot-blooded Mistress, Nita in Tangiers. A perfect life. As long as neither woman decides to follow him to the other port.

The Stooges take care of a house while their friend is getting married. Their friend wants them to get a TV and have an antenna installed on the house. The Stooges have a great idea. They decide to install the TV themselves and save the money for a wedding present. Shemp keeps on slipping on soap and having his head dunked in a bucket of water while cleaning the house. Larry totally wrecks the wall by setting it on fire and turning it into swiss cheese with a hammer. Shemp takes apart the TV and while installing the antenna, falls and breaks it. The friend comes back, married, and when his fat wife sees the house, she leaves him.

The film plays out, with three first-season episodes edited together into a single story: "The Benefit", "Breaking the Lease", and "The Ballet", with new footage included between episodes to help transition the episodes into one coherent storyline. As the series routinely took the format of filming scenes in chronological order, this adds to the "show within a show within a show" format of the film, as viewers watch the cast perform the episodes live. The film itself ends with a "curtain call", as the cast comes out and Arnaz thanks the audience for their support.

Lester and Orville accidentally launch a rocket which is supposed to fly to Mars. Instead it goes to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. They are then forced by bank robber Mugsy and his pal Harry to fly to Venus where they find a civilization made up entirely of women, men having been banished.

Clemson Reade, a business tycoon with marriage on his mind, and Effie, a U.S. diplomat, are a modern couple. Unfortunately there seems to be too much business and not enough pleasure on the part of Effie. When Clemson meets Tarji, a princess trained in all the arts of pleasing men, he decides he wants an old fashioned girl. Princess Tarji's father is king of oil-rich Bukistan. Because of the oil situation and to maintain good political relations during the courtship between Clemson & Tarji, the State Department assigns a diplomat to maintain protocol until the wedding - Effie!

Sgt. Thorne Ryan, who once fought bravely in Korea, now serves as a hard-nosed drill instructor to new Army recruits at Fort Bliss, Texas. But is he really the man he is often described as? His fellow instructor, and friend helps him to face the ghosts of his past experiences in Korea. One night in a bar across the border in Juarez, Mexico, Sgt. Ryan meets a lady who begins to turn his life around. Will this be enough to help him deal with the past? Or will he continue to be so hard on his troops?

A drunken stork delivers a baby mouse to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester Cat. Sylvester is about to eat the little rodent when it calls him Daddy. Touched, Sylvester adopts the mouse as his son - which, distressingly, attracts every hungry cat in the neighborhood to his door!

A baby elephant rolls off the circus train and right into Tom's bed. He quickly allies himself with Jerry, and with a rolled-up trunk and some paint, passes himself off as a giant mouse. The two then keep trading places to the bafflement of Tom.

Spike explains to his son the rules of being a dog: 1: be man's best friend (begging, lying at feet); 2: bury bones; 3: chase cats. Just then, Tom (and Jerry) run by, offering the perfect practice subject. Spike lectures Tom to be scared by the pup or else; Jerry overhears, and is soon doing his best dog impersonation, while Tom works on various strategies to neutralize Tyke

Southern Fried Rabbit is a Looney Tunes cartoon by Warner Bros. starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Directed by Friz Freleng and produced in 1952, the animated short was first released on May 2, 1953. In it, Bugs Bunny attempts to shake off Yosemite Sam (here, cast as a Civil War-era colonel), who is preventing him from crossing the Mason-Dixon Line.

The Kettles are in Paris along with their daughter-in-law's parents the Parkers. Pa tries to buy racy postcards. He also gets in big trouble when he is given a letter to deliver to Adolph Wade, a spy who gets killed by spies Inez and Cyrus Kraft.

In this variation on "The Three Little Pigs", Droopy and his brothers, Snoopy and Loopy, repeatedly outwit the big bad wolf, a dogcatcher who tries to find a way to get the pooches out of their house of bricks.

A squirrel in a downtown park lugs a giant coconut back home, but nothing he does can seem to crack it open.

Marc Antony must convince his owner that Pussyfoot is a great mouser to keep him in the house.

After being punched in the nose, Sach finds out that he has the ability to read minds. Slip and the gang start up a detective agency try to cash in on Sach's new powers.

The Bide-a-wee Mouse Home sends two orphans over for a hike with Scoutmaster Jerry. Trouble is, the orphans, dressed as Indians, want to shoot arrows and tomahawk-chop everything in sight, and especially Tom, who quickly gets scalped and has the end of his tail chopped off. He captures Jerry; this, of course, means war, for which the tots paint dozens of badminton shuttlecocks as a fake army. They also paint a fierce face on the sleeping dog. Ultimately, they get Tom to leave a trail of gunpowder, which they light, destroying the garage. Tom signals a truce, and they all smoke a peace pipe, but the smoke comes out of Tom's ears instead of his mouth.

A revisionist version of American history as a small mouse comes to live with Benjamin Franklin and turns out to be responsible for many of his ideas; including the beginning of the Declaration of Independance!

Jerry is raiding the fridge while, nearby, a watchful Tom chases Jerry causing him to crash into a wall which, in turn, causes a bottle of white shoe polish to pour on Jerry. It is at this time when Tom hears on the radio that a dangerous white mouse, having swallowed an explosive formula, has escaped from a lab and that the slightest jar will cause an explosion and destroy a city. Tom then notices the now white Jerry and does whatever he can to stop Jerry from doing dangerous things to himself.

Jerry Mouse befriends a newly hatched duckling who can't swim and ends up protecting him against his feline nemesis, Tom.

Granny is Tweety Bird's mistress on a farm. She assigns a bulldog named Hector to take care of Tweety while she's away. Sylvester Cat disguises himself as a scarecrow to sneak up on Tweety. Tweety runs into a chicken coop and is protected by a mother hen and an aggressive rooster. Hector, seeing that Tweety is gone and fearing Granny's wrath, paints Sylvester yellow and puts him in Tweety's cage to fool Granny. Tweety returns and makes like a cat since turnabout is fair play.

The stooges are willed a lot of dough from a rich uncle, but the executor of the estate, Icabob Slipp, is a crook who absconds with the money. The stooges trail him to a a theater where they engage in a wild chase and ultimately recover their inheritance.

An aging actress has a hard time admitting she is too old to play the ingenue role anymore.

Based on The Hand and the Flower, a novel by Jerrard Tickell, A Day to Remember stars Stanley Holloway as Charley Porter, captain of London darts team. When the team travels to the French town of Boulogne for the annual darts tournament, a good time is had by all--and more besides. Jim Carver one of the team's members, is reunited with a little French girl he'd befriended during the war, who has now developed into a beautiful young woman. And Fred Collins makes a poignant journey to the hotel where he'd honeymooned with his late wife. The film works best as a low-key comedy-drama; it is least successful when it ventures into O. Henry territory and strains for "surprise" story twists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bugs Bunny stumbles on the carrot patch of Paul Bunyan, but doesn't realize that it is guarded by a 124-foot, 4,600-ton dog named Smidgen.