Topic: Sophisticated Comedy

Direction Frank Capra

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

Synopsis 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. is dealing a monopoly in the trade of weapons, and...

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

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

Synopsis 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 of Paris, Ninotchka meets Leon, Swana's lawyer and sometime lover,...

Direction George Cukor

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

Synopsis The Philadelphia Story (1940) follows Tracy Lord, a wealthy socialite preparing for her second marriage. As her wedding approaches, her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, unexpectedly returns, complicating matters. Meanwhile, a tabloid journalist and photographer arrive to cover the event, adding...

Direction Howard Hawks

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

Synopsis Bringing Up Baby (1938) follows the chaotic misadventures of a straight-laced paleontologist, David Huxley, whose life is turned upside down when he meets the free-spirited Susan Vance. After a chance encounter, Susan becomes infatuated with David and embroils him in...

Direction Mitchell Leisen

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

Synopsis 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 city to search for employment as a nightclub chanteuse. Nobody's...

Direction George Cukor

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

Synopsis Adam's Rib (1949) is a witty courtroom comedy that explores gender dynamics and marital conflict. The story follows married lawyers Adam and Amanda Bonner, who find themselves on opposing sides of a high-profile case. Amanda defends a woman accused of...

Direction Gregory La Cava

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

Synopsis 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 family genetically engineered for screwball collisions: father Alexander (Eugene Pallette,...

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

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

Synopsis 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 love. Gaston robs aristocrat François Fileba and flees with Lily...

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Marlene Dietrich · Melvyn Douglas · Herbert Marshall · Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis Bored and neglected by her husband, the British nobleman Sir Frederick Barker, Maria angrily sets off to Paris without telling her husband. There she meets Anthony Halton, an American with whom she dines and visits the Parisian sights. But when...

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Charles Boyer · Jennifer Jones · Peter Lawford · Helen Walker

Synopsis Czech author Adam Belinski has escaped from the Nazis, taking refuge at the country home of the rich, snobbish English Carmel family. The maid is Cluny Brown, who is also a bit of a plumber. Adam and Cluny become friends....

Direction Preston Sturges

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

Synopsis 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 to the chagrin of his producers, he sets off in...

Direction Preston Sturges

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

Synopsis 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 year in the Amazon jungle. Since Pike is the wealthy...

Direction Billy Wilder

Cast Humphrey Bogart · Audrey Hepburn · William Holden · Walter Hampden

Synopsis In Sabrina (1954), a charming romantic comedy directed by Billy Wilder, Sabrina Fairchild, the daughter of a wealthy family's chauffeur, returns from Paris transformed into an elegant woman. Her childhood crush, David Larrabee, a carefree playboy, finally notices her, sparking...

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

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

Synopsis 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 tale. Ever since he was born, the wealthy Van Cleve...

Direction George Cukor

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

Synopsis 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, he rebels, wishing instead to spend the early years of...

Direction Leo McCarey

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

Synopsis 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. Lucy wins custody of the dog but Jerry secures visitation...

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

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

Synopsis 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 Loiselle, the daughter of impoverished French parents with noble origins....

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

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

Synopsis 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 men are immediately smitten by the girl, she can't make...

Direction Mitchell Leisen

Cast Jean Arthur · Edward Arnold · Ray Milland · Luis Alberni

Direction Ernst Lubitsch

Cast Ronald Colman · Irene Rich · May McAvoy · Bert Lytell

Synopsis Mrs. Erlynne, a woman of dubious reputation, summons Lord Windermere on her return to London, revealing that she is his wife's mother, believed dead, and demanding money for her silence. She also asks for an invitation to his wife's birthday...