Screwball Comedies
by smith-23042 | created - 05 Mar 2019 | updated - 2 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The Lady Eve (1941)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A trio of classy card sharks targets a socially awkward brewery heir, until one of them falls in love with him.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette
Votes: 23,390
2. My Man Godfrey (1936)
Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick
Votes: 26,464
3. It's Love I'm After (1937)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy
An actor of the stage finds himself pursued by a lovestruck fan while trying to patch up a tempestuous relationship with his actress lover.
Director: Archie Mayo | Stars: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles
Votes: 2,656
4. Private Lives (1931)
Passed | 84 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Divorced couple unexpectedly meet each other during their honeymoon and rekindle their love.
Director: Sidney Franklin | Stars: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Reginald Denny, Una Merkel
Votes: 1,359
5. Bombshell (1933)
Passed | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, Franchot Tone
Votes: 3,149
6. Our Betters (1933)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Although the British upper class may be thought our betters in society, but they are certainly not our betters, and perhaps our equals, in morality.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Constance Bennett, Violet Kemble Cooper, Phoebe Foster, Grant Mitchell
Votes: 855
7. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Votes: 66,129
8. Idiot's Delight (1939)
Approved | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A group of disparate travelers are caught and thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the beginning of World War II.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn
Votes: 1,713
9. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,894
10. Easy Living (1937)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
When a wealthy banker throws his wife's expensive fur coat off a roof and it lands on the head of a stenographer, everyone assumes she is his mistress and has access to his millions.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Luis Alberni
Votes: 4,171
11. The Thin Man (1934)
TV-PG | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 32,560
12. His Girl Friday (1940)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 63,204 | Gross: $0.30M
13. Holiday (1938)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres
Votes: 18,256
14. After the Thin Man (1936)
Passed | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Private detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora are back home at last and hoping for a quiet New Year when there is a murder. The obvious suspect is his wife, Nora's cousin, Selma.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Elissa Landi
Votes: 12,127 | Gross: $4.34M
15. Libeled Lady (1936)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
When a socialite sues a big paper for libel, the editor responsible calls in the help of his ignored fiancée and a former employee to frame her and make the false story seem true.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
Votes: 8,923
16. Platinum Blonde (1931)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Romance
A young woman from a very rich family impulsively marries a reporter, but each assumes the other is the one whose lifestyle must change.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, Robert Williams, Halliwell Hobbes
Votes: 3,455
17. Midnight (1939)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A chorus girl stranded in Paris is set up by a millionaire to break up his wife's affair with another man, while being romantically pursued by a cab driver.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer
Votes: 5,607
18. Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 16,204 | Gross: $1.04M
19. Merrily We Live (1938)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
Dizzy society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome "tramp" who shows up at her doorstep and soon ends up in a ... See full summary »
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Alan Mowbray, Billie Burke
Votes: 2,270
20. It Happened One Night (1934)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns
Votes: 112,346 | Gross: $4.36M
21. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,919 | Gross: $4.66M
22. Dinner at Eight (1933)
Passed | 111 min | Drama
Affluent Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner for a handful of wealthy and/or well-born acquaintances, each of whom has much to reveal.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow
Votes: 9,021 | Gross: $4.58M
23. Star of Midnight (1935)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Mystery, Romance
When a dancer disappears from a theater, her former lover asks lawyer Clay Dalzell to investigate, leading him on a trail of murder and deception.
Director: Stephen Roberts | Stars: William Powell, Ginger Rogers, Paul Kelly, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 1,788
24. Ninotchka (1939)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Romance
A stern Soviet woman sent to Paris to supervise the sale of jewels seized from Russian nobles finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 22,911 | Gross: $1.19M
25. The Awful Truth (1937)
Passed | 90 min | Comedy, Romance
A married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it harder to let go of each other than they initially thought.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy
Votes: 21,386
26. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
A New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 12,884 | Gross: $0.44M
27. Love Crazy (1941)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
A wife suspecting infidelity starts divorce proceedings, so the husband pretends to be insane in order to delay the divorce and clear up the misunderstanding.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick, Jack Carson
Votes: 3,437
28. High Pressure (1932)
Passed | 73 min | Comedy
Gar Evans is a "high pressure" promoter who tends to be unrealistically optimistic about his projects and exaggerates the chance of success. He sets up the "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber ... See full summary »
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: William Powell, Evelyn Brent, George Sidney, John Wray
Votes: 681
29. Jewel Robbery (1932)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a jewellers.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson, Hardie Albright
Votes: 2,580
30. The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two English aristocrats pursue a rich American widow who may not be quite the person she claims to be.
Directors: Richard Boleslawski, Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice | Stars: Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Frank Morgan
Votes: 1,642
31. Double Wedding (1937)
Passed | 87 min | Comedy, Romance
Two sisters of differing temperaments, the younger's milquetoast fiancé, and a free-spirited artist in an auto trailer are all experiencing romantic complications.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice, John Beal
Votes: 2,526
32. Fashions of 1934 (1934)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap and fashion designer Lynn Mason to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert
Votes: 2,016 | Gross: $0.86M
33. Another Thin Man (1939)
Passed | 103 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
An explosives manufacturer suspects a young man is out to kill him. He calls in new parents Nick and Nora to sort things out.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger
Votes: 8,168 | Gross: $3.32M
34. I'm No Angel (1933)
Passed | 87 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Circus performer Tira seeks a better life pursuing the company of wealthy New York men with improbable comic complications along the way.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Mae West, Cary Grant, Gregory Ratoff, Edward Arnold
Votes: 3,984 | Gross: $6.21M
35. The Baroness and the Butler (1938)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A butler gets elected to the Hungarian parliament where he opposes his master's government.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: William Powell, Annabella, Helen Westley, Henry Stephenson
Votes: 693
36. She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Passed | 66 min | Comedy, Drama, History
In the Gay Nineties, a seductive nightclub singer contends with several suitors, including a jealous escaped convict and a handsome temperance league member.
Director: Lowell Sherman | Stars: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland
Votes: 7,044 | Gross: $4.80M
37. No More Ladies (1935)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Romance
A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.
Directors: Edward H. Griffith, George Cukor | Stars: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Charles Ruggles, Franchot Tone
Votes: 921 | Gross: $1.12M
38. I Love You Again (1940)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh, Edmund Lowe
Votes: 3,806
39. Fast Life (1932)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
Two sailors are leaving the US Navy after 10 years. In their spare time, one of them (Haines) invents a carburetor that should increase the speed that powered boats will run, but all that ... See full summary »
Directors: Harry A. Pollard, Sam Wood | Stars: William Haines, Madge Evans, Conrad Nagel, Arthur Byron
Votes: 557
40. Hands Across the Table (1935)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Romance
A loafer and a manicurist, both planning to marry money, meet and form an uneasy alliance.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Astrid Allwyn
Votes: 2,152
41. That Uncertain Feeling (1941)
Passed | 84 min | Comedy
A psychoanalyst causes a woman to doubt her happy marriage.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Alan Mowbray
Votes: 2,991
42. Front Page Woman (1935)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Romance
A woman reporter tries to prove she's just as good as any man, but runs into trouble along the way.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bette Davis, George Brent, Roscoe Karns, Wini Shaw
Votes: 1,724
43. Love Is News (1937)
Approved | 77 min | Comedy, Romance
A financier's daughter spars with a newspaper reporter: he by writing about her, she by announcing their engagement.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche, Slim Summerville
Votes: 937
44. It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
Passed | 116 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
Two homeless men move into a mansion while its owners are wintering in the South.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore
Votes: 6,300
45. Me and My Gal (1932)
Passed | 79 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Young New York cop Dan falls in love with waterfront waitress Helen. Helen's sister Kate falls for gangster Duke. Dan must do in Duke.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Marion Burns, George Walsh
Votes: 1,394
46. Biography of a Bachelor Girl (1935)
Approved | 82 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Everyweek Newsmagazine editor Richard Kurt pursues psuedo-portait artist Marion Forsythe on her arrival from Europe after painting (and possibly being involved with) notables all over the ... See full summary »
Director: Edward H. Griffith | Stars: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Edward Everett Horton, Edward Arnold
Votes: 444
47. The Rules of the Game (1939)
Not Rated | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Marcel Dalio, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Mila Parély
Votes: 31,345
48. Storm in a Teacup (1937)
Approved | 87 min | Comedy, Romance
A local politician in Scotland tries to break the reporter who wrote a negative story about him, and who is also in love with his daughter.
Directors: Ian Dalrymple, Victor Saville | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Cecil Parker, Sara Allgood
Votes: 1,118
Tell Your Friends