They say that the United State Senate is the most exclusive club in America. If you are considering things in terms of how only rich people who are overwhelming white and male have been allowed in, that is probably true. If you want to consider a more egalitarian and democratic club as the most exclusive in America, look no further than the tiny little club inhabited by comedy movies that have taken home the Oscar for Best Picture. Keep in mind that the exclusivity of this club is directly related to the expansion of the definition of what makes a comedy that has taken place over the decades.
It Happened One Night
Only in Hollywood could a movie become the first to take home the four biggest awards the industry has to offer and not gain respectability for its genre. “It Happened One Night” was the first comedy to take home Best Picture at the Oscars as well as the first to also win Best Actor, Actress and Director. You would think such an accomplishment would have stimulated the rash of comedies being honored, especially when they were so clearly superior to competing dramas and epics. But no.
You Can’t Take it With You
Less than five years later, “You Can’t Take it With You” become the second comedy film to receive the highest honor at the Academy Awards. Frank Capra directed this adaptation of a hit Broadway play, but most would not even place it among his top five films. “You Can’t Take it With You” beat out a number of other dramas more well known today, proving that even when Hollywood does recognize a comedy, it still can’t spot a future classic.
Going My Way
“Going My Way” not only belongs to that category of comedies that the Oscars should not have recognized, but to that category of films that may not entirely qualify as comedy. “Going My Way” does have some humorous scenes, but overall it feels more like a warmhearted drama than an actual comedy. I have never understood the appeal of Bing Crosby and if I live to be a thousand years old, no one will ever be able to convince me that “Going My Way” deserved to beat out “Double Indemnity” for the top Oscar, regardless of whether you consider it a comedy or drama.
The Apartment
The man who wrote and directed “Double Indemnity” would, in what some misguided folk would label as as ironic, go on to be honored for comedy a few years down the line. “The Apartment” is definitely funny, but its comedic sense is brilliantly personified by its cast. Fred MacMurray, Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine were each equally capable of moving seamlessly from comedy to drama in their careers. “The Apartment” is a movie that also bounces back and forth between lightness and darkness.
Tom Jones
Maybe you had to be there. Maybe “Tom Jones” is a representative of so very many movies that were released in the 1960s that were held in much higher esteem at the time then they are now. “Tom Jones” is supposed to be a comedy and it is undeniably constructed to be a comedy, but that doesn’t mean it’s funny. It is odd to suggest that a period film could be dated as product of its time rather than a product of its setting, but that seems to be case. Fortunately for the legacy of comedies at the Oscars, “Tom Jones” was released in a pretty feeble year for drama.
Part II of this series on comedy films to win the Oscar for Best Picture will focus on how a movie about 1930s gamblers foreshadows the future of the Academy Awards honoring movies that make audiences laugh while also honoring even fewer outright comedies than ever before.
For more from the Timothy Sexton who hasn’t so far been nominated for an Oscar:
Why Are Screwball Comedies Called Screwball Comedies?
Three Great Choices for Academy Awards Hosting Duties
“Double Indemnity” v. “Sunset Blvd.”