Best Comedy Movies of 1982

When struggling, out of work actor Michael Dorsey secretly adopts a female alter ego - Dorothy Michaels - in order to land a part in a daytime drama, he unwittingly becomes a feminist icon and ends up in a romantic pickle.

A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.

Monty Python perform many of their greatest sketches at the Hollywood Bowl, including several from pre-Python days.

A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.

A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.

Set in 1959, Diner shows how five young men resist their adulthood and seek refuge in their beloved Diner. The mundane, childish, and titillating details of their lives are shared. But the golden moments pass, and the men shoulder their responsibilities, leaving the Diner behind.

Frank Drebbin leads his bungling detective squad in the comedy series that inspired the 'Naked Gun' films. This comedy classic mercilessly spoofed every detective show convention known and was the blueprint for the irreverent, 'anything might happen' formula. Full of ridiculous moments such as when the weekly special guest star is introduced during the opening title sequence - and killed as soon as their name is read, never to be seen in the episode again.

A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.

Inspired by the E.C. comics of the 1950s, George A. Romero and Stephen King bring five tales of terror to the screen.

Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.

A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.

An orphan in a facility run by the mean Miss Hannigan, Annie believes that her parents left her there by mistake. When a rich man named Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks decides to let an orphan live at his home to promote his image, Annie is selected. While Annie gets accustomed to living in Warbucks' mansion, she still longs to meet her parents. So Warbucks announces a search for them and a reward, which brings out many frauds.

A nutty inventor, his frustrated wife, a philosopher cousin, his much younger fiancée, a randy doctor, and a free-thinking nurse spend a summer weekend in and around a stunning - and possibly magical - country house.

A nebbish of a morgue attendant gets shunted back to the night shift where he is shackled with an obnoxious neophyte partner who dreams of the "one great idea" for success. His life takes a bizarre turn when a prostitute neighbor complains about the loss of her pimp. His partner, upon hearing the situation, suggests that they fill that opening themselves using the morgue at night.

A young man carrying a big basket that contains his deformed Siamese-twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.

A faulty computer causes a passenger space shuttle to head straight for the sun, and man-with-a-past, Ted Striker must save the day and get the shuttle back on track – again – all the while trying to patch up his relationship with Elaine.

The town sheriff and a madame team up to stop a television evangelist from shutting down the local whorehouse, the famed "Chicken Ranch."

On one of his bratty son Eric's annual visits, the plutocrat U.S. Bates takes him to his department store and offers him anything in it as a gift. Eric chooses a black janitor who has made him laugh with his antics. At first the man suffers many indignities as Eric's "toy", but gradually teaches the lonely boy what it is like to have and to be a friend.

In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.

During the Great Depression, a young boy leaves his family's Oklahoma farm to travel with his country musician uncle who is trying out for the Grand Ole Opry.

The friendship of a group of young friends struggling with teen sex, drugs, and work is jeopardized by a romantic interest which may turn pals into bitter rivals.

Richard Pryor's stand-up act includes his frank discussion about his freebasing addiction, as well as the infamous night on June 9, 1980 that he caught on fire.

Fledgling comic Benjy Stone can't believe his luck when his childhood hero, the swashbuckling matinee idol Alan Swann, gets booked to appear on the variety show he writes for. But when Swann arrives, he fails to live up to his silver screen image. Instead, he's a drunken womanizer who suffers from stage fright. Benjy is assigned to look after him before the show, and it's all he can do to keep his former idol from going completely off the rails.

The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau.

Two cabbies search San Francisco's Chinatown for a mysterious character who has disappeared with their $4000. Their quest leads them on a humorous, if mundane, journey which illuminates the many problems experienced by Chinese-Americans trying to assimilate into contemporary American society.

The Disciples of James Dean meet up on the anniversary of his death and mull over their lives in the present and in flashback, revealing the truth behind their complicated lives.

The young daughter of a politician runs away due to lack of attention. She hides in the car of two not too bright crooks who are slowly converted into parent figures as the police web closes down on the supposed kidnappers.

It's 1961, two years after the original Grease gang graduated, and there's a new crop of seniors and new members of the coolest cliques on campus, the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Michael Carrington is the new kid in school - but he's been branded a brainiac. Can he fix up an old motorcycle, don a leather jacket, avoid a rumble with the leader of the T-Birds, and win the heart of Pink Lady Stephanie?

A series of anecdotes and monologues by County Durham comedian Bobby Thompson. Well known throughout the North East of England his 'Little Waster' character tells tales of debt, dole and wife trouble, while 'The Old Soldier' gives a hilarious account of his Second World War relationships with King George and Field Marshall Montgomery, providing a wry look at the class divide. Also included is a documentary film shot during his final years.

A penniless thief gets involved in a scheme to obtain money and sex by using his resemblance to a wealthy family scion.

A relatively boring Los Angeles couple discover a bizarre, if not murderous way to get funding for opening a restaurant.

Stopping briefly in a small Texas town, an itinerant race car driver finds that his stock car, on a trailer behind his motor home, has just been quickly and expertly stripped. He chases down the miscreants, who turn out to be six orphan children. He has no recourse to the law, for the corrupt local sheriff takes most of the proceeds of their thievery in exchange for not putting them in an orphanage. They are charming rogues who are in turn charmed by him. Disliking their arrangement with the sheriff, they stow away with him, and he finds himself becoming a reluctant stepfather. Thanks to their enthusiasm and incredible mechanical know-how, he begins to make a name for himself on the racing circuit. But the sheriff doesn't take kindly to losing his extra income...

Karl Westover, an inexperienced farm boy, runs away after unintentionally killing a neighbor, whose family pursues him for vengeance. He meets Barbarosa, a gunman of near-mythical proportions, who is himself in danger from his father-in-law Don Braulio, a wealthy Mexican rancher. Don Braulio wants Barbarosa dead for marrying his daughter against the father's will. Barbarosa reluctantly takes the clumsy Karl on as a partner, as both of them look to survive the forces lining up against them.

Corrine Burns retreats far into plans for her band, The Fabulous Stains, after her mother's death.

A Sydney teen tries to make it as a rock singer, with help from her odd 14-year-old cousin.

Two twin brothers, Shane and Abel, attend the reading of their recently deceased uncle's will. It turns out that he has left everything to Shane and nothing to Abel. In order to claim his inheritance, the will states that Shane must perform certain odd tasks. Abel sets out to thwart Shane's efforts to follow the rules and try to claim the inheritance for himself.

Grandmother has nothing to say when Libby tells her that she is off to LA to look up Dad, a Hollywood screenwriter. Grandmother has been in a New York cemetery for six years and Dad has been out of Libby's life for 16 of her 19 years. Libby arrives in LA on a Tuesday and phones Dad the one night that Stephanie, who does Jane Fonda's hair, stays over. Stephanie is there the next morning when Libby decides she needs to tell her story face-to-face.

In 1905, after 10 years of missionary work in Africa, the Rev. Charles Fortesque is recalled to England, where his bishop gives him his new assignment - to minister to London's prostitutes.

A silent slapstick comedy depicting the travails of young couple moving into a new home, who hire an accident-prone firm of house removers, headed by Sykes. It features an all-star cast including Tommy Cooper, Bernard Cribbins, Jimmy Edwards, Irene Handl, Bob Todd and Andrew Sachs.

Taped in Toronto between August 9-24, 1982, Miss Piggy hosts her own variety show, with special guests John Ritter, George Hamilton and Tony Clifton (Andy Kaufman). Under the direction of Kermit the Frog, the Muppets work in the control room and, amidst chaos, manage to keep the show on the air. Throughout the show, a romantic triangle develops among Piggy, Ritter (who is smitten with the pig) and Hamilton (who is deeply uncomfortable with the star's romantic inclinations).

Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.

HBO Standing Room Only presentation of the 1981 stage revival. From the Neil Simon Book. New Yorkers Paul Bratter and Corie Bratter née Banks have just gotten married. He is a stuffed shirt just starting his career as a lawyer. She is an independently minded free spirit who prides herself on doing the illogical purely out of a sense of adventure

A sobering mid-life crisis fuels dissatisfaction in Philip Dimitrius, to the extent where the successful architect trades his marriage and career in for a spiritual exile on a remote Greek island where he hopes to conjure meaning into his life - trying the patience of his new girlfriend and angst-ridden teenage daughter.

Cheech and Chong are hired to drive a limo from Chicago to Las Vegas by two shady Arabs - Mr. Slyman and Prince Habib. Unbeknownst to them, five million dollars of dirty money has been stuffed throughout the car.

An IRS agent audits a Las Vegas cathouse.

After killing the crooked mayor a homicidal janitor named Abdullah goes to work for a butcher who has invented a new language for the town's planned futuristic theme park. In the butcher shop is a septic tank where scraps of meat are dumped which has produced "balonium" a radioactive fuel source sought after by space aliens. The aliens revive the mayor, who's body is hanging in the meat locker of the butcher shop, in an attempt to gain access to the balonium.

Peyton and Barney are fun loving high school students working on a science project with white mice. When one of the mice begins to move food toward itself with out touching it, Barney finds he has accidently discovered a formula for telekinetic powers. Now, how much trouble can a high school boy who can move things with just his mind get into?

The D'Oyly Carte production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Love blossoms between members of different social classes among a general lampooning of the British class system.

A broadway playwright is burning the candle at both ends. He is dealing with pressure from a production nearing premiere, a wife who is leaving him, and 5 children 4 of which belong to her.