Topic: Screwball Comedy

Explore the top movies, series, and documentaries on Screwball Comedy. Enjoy the must-watch titles that define this topic.


You Can't Take it With You

1938 · Movie · 126 min. · United States

Direction Frank Capra

Cast James Stewart · Jean Arthur · Lionel Barrymore · Edward Arnold

Plot The stenographer Alice Sycamore is in love with her boss Tony Kirby, who is the vice-president of the powerful company owned by his greedy father Anthony P. Kirby. Kirby Sr....

8.1

8K votes

8.1

8K votes

Ninotchka

1939 · Movie · 110 min. · United States

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Greta Garbo · Melvyn Douglas · Bela Lugosi · Ina Claire

Plot Ninotchka is a stern, straightlaced Communist Party member sent to Paris to finish the sale of Grand Duchess Swana's jewels for the Soviet government. But, while studying the frivolous materialism...

8.0

15K votes

8.0

15K votes

The Philadelphia Story

1940 · Movie · 112 min. · United States

Direction George Cukor

Cast Cary Grant · Katharine Hepburn · James Stewart · Ruth Hussey

Plot Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) is a wealthy Main Line Philadelphia socialite who had divorced C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) and is about to marry nouveau riche George Kittredge (John Howard)....

8.0

26K votes

8.0

26K votes

Bringing Up Baby

1938 · Movie · 102 min. · United States

Direction Howard Hawks

Cast Katharine Hepburn · Cary Grant · Charles Ruggles · May Robson

Plot David Huxley (Grant) is an absent-minded paleontologist who needs to finish the reconstruction of a dinosaur for an exhibit that can provide good money for the museum. At a meeting...

8.0

31K votes

8.0

31K votes

His Girl Friday

1940 · Movie · 92 min. · United States

Direction Howard Hawks

Cast Cary Grant · Rosalind Russell · Ralph Bellamy · Gene Lockhart

Plot Hildy Johnson has divorced Walter Burns and visits his office to tell him that she is engaged to another man and that they are going to get married the day...

8.0

11K votes

8.0

11K votes

Ball of Fire

1941 · Movie · 112 min. · United States

Direction Howard Hawks

Cast Gary Cooper · Barbara Stanwyck · Oskar Homolka · Henry Travers

Plot 8 Professors are in the 9th year of a 12 year encyclopedia writing project. The youngest is Bertram Potts who specializes in language and grammar. When Professor Potts discovers that...

7.9

6K votes

7.9

6K votes

It Happened One Night

1934 · Movie · 105 min. · United States

Direction Frank Capra

Cast Clark Gable · Claudette Colbert · Walter Connolly · Roscoe Karns

Plot When Ellie Andrews, a millionaire's daughter, marries a man her father dislikes, the resulting family squabble sends the beautiful heiress into hiding. She travels across country by bus, a fugitive...

7.9

16K votes

7.9

16K votes

Midnight

1939 · Movie · 94 min. · United States

Direction Mitchell Leisen

Cast Claudette Colbert · Don Ameche · John Barrymore · Mary Astor

Plot Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) is an American showgirl in Paris who is out of work, money, and luck when a handsome cabbie (Don Ameche) offers to drive her around the...

7.8

2K votes

7.8

2K votes

Adam's Rib

1949 · Movie · 101 min. · United States

Direction George Cukor

Cast Katharine Hepburn · Spencer Tracy · Judy Holliday · Tom Ewell

Plot Domestic and professional tensions mount when husband Adam Bonner and his wife Amanda work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.

7.8

10K votes

7.8

10K votes

My Man Godfrey

1936 · Movie · 94 min. · United States

Direction Gregory La Cava

Cast William Powell · Carole Lombard · Gail Patrick · Alice Brady

Plot Director Gregory La Cava deftly balances satire, romance, and social comment in this 1936 classic, which echoes Frank Capra in its Depression-era subtext. The Bullocks are a well-heeled, harebrained Manhattan...

7.7

3K votes

7.7

3K votes

Trouble in Paradise

1932 · Movie · 83 min. · United States

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Herbert Marshall · Miriam Hopkins · Kay Francis · Edward Everett Horton

Plot In Venice, Lily (Miriam Hopkins), a pickpocket pretending to be a countess, meets the famous thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall), who is posing as a Baron, and they fall in...

7.7

3K votes

7.7

3K votes

Sullivan's Travels

1941 · Movie · 90 min. · United States

Direction Preston Sturges

Cast Joel McCrea · Veronica Lake · Robert Warwick · William Demarest

Plot Sullivan is a successful, spoiled, and naive director of fluff films, with a heart-o-gold, who decides he wants to make a film about the troubles of the downtrodden poor. Much...

7.6

5K votes

7.6

5K votes

The Lady Eve

1941 · Movie · 94 min. · United States

Direction Preston Sturges

Cast Barbara Stanwyck · Henry Fonda · Charles Coburn · Eugene Pallette

Plot Barbara Stanwyck stars as Jean Herrington, a sly con artist aboard a transatlantic ocean liner who happens to run across Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), a snake expert returning from a...

7.5

3K votes

7.5

3K votes

Heaven Can Wait

1943 · Movie · 112 min. · United States

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Gene Tierney · Don Ameche · Charles Coburn · Marjorie Main

Plot When he dies at 70, Henry Van Cleve goes to Hell, where he is met by His Excellency, a well-dressed gentleman who demands to know his crimes. Henry begins his...

7.5

4K votes

7.5

4K votes

Holiday

1938 · Movie · 93 min. · United States

Direction George Cukor

Cast Cary Grant · Katharine Hepburn · Lew Ayres · Doris Dolan

Plot Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire's daughter. When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle down to big business,...

7.5

3K votes

7.5

3K votes

The Awful Truth

1937 · Movie · 91 min. · United States

Direction Leo McCarey

Cast Cary Grant · Irene Dunne · Ralph Bellamy · Alexander D'Arcy

Plot Jerry and Lucy Warriner lead madcap screwball high society lives in New York City. Despite being very happy, they start to doubt each other's fidelity. Finally they decide to divorce....

7.4

2K votes

7.4

2K votes

Man's Favorite Sport?

1964 · Movie · 120 min. · United States

Direction Howard Hawks

Cast Rock Hudson · Paula Prentiss · Maria Perschy · John McGiver

Plot Roger Willoughby is considered to be a leading expert on sports fishing. He's written books on the subject and is loved by his customers in the sporting goods department at...

7.4

4K votes

7.4

4K votes

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

1938 · Movie · 80 min. · United States

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Gary Cooper · Claudette Colbert · David Niven · Edward Everett Horton

Plot Michael Brandon is a spoilt millionaire who has had seven wives, all attracted to his fortune. Visiting a shop in the Riviera, he meets and is rebuffed by Nicole de...

7.4

3K votes

7.4

3K votes

Design for Living

1933 · Movie · 90 min. · United States

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Fredric March · Gary Cooper · Miriam Hopkins · Edward Everett Horton

Plot Painter George Curtis and playwright Tom Chambers, flatmates in a Paris apartment, meet fellow American and commercial artist Gilda Farrell on a train bound for the French capital. While both...

7.3

2K votes

7.3

2K votes

Lady for a Day

1933 · Movie · 95 min. · United States

Direction Frank Capra

Cast Warren William · May Robson · Guy Kibbee · Glenda Farrell

Plot Story of a soft-hearted gangster who organizes his entire gang of thugs to help transform an elderly, rather seedy apple vendor into a perfect society lady. This treatment of a...

7.2

1K votes

7.2

1K votes