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Comedy generally doesn't age as well as most other genres, but there are still some timeless classics from the Old Hollywood era that can make modern audiences laugh in the 21st century. Many of these older comedies have been recognized as some of the funniest movies of all time, since they have stood the test of time and entertained people for decades, and they're still funnier than the majority of new comedies.

Comedy requires a mutual understanding, so older movies often have dated references that lose their relevance over time. What can be even worse is if an older comedy has some topics that are seen in a poor light by modern standards. Changing social attitudes mean that people's senses of humor also change over time. Only the funniest and most universal Old Hollywood comedies manage to be just as popular these days.

How To Steal A Million (1966) Audrey Hepburn...

William Goldman’s international conspiracy thriller provides Dustin Hoffman with an outright ‘action man’ star vehicle. The public applauded supporting star Laurence Olivier, who with just a few gestures creates a terrifying villain: “Is it safe?” William Devane and Marthe Keller co-star. We wish Roy Scheider’s character could have continued in a series of crime thrillers — he brings genuine movie star charisma. The story is by William Goldman, from his own book.

Marathon Man 4K

4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1976 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date February 28, 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Richard Bright, Marc Lawrence, Lou Gilbert, Fred Stuthman, Jacques Marin, Litti Palfi Andor, Madge Kennedy, Treat Williams.

Cinematography: Conrad Hall

Production Designer: Richard Macdonald

Art Director: Jack De Shields

Film Editor: Jim Clark

Special Makeup Consultant: Dick Smith

Original Music: Michael Small

Written by...

Welcome to 1968, and a burst of creative direction from one of the greatest film artists of the 20th century, Jack Cardiff. An attempt to make pop star Marianne Faithful into a cinematic sex symbol is an uphill struggle, even with Alain Delon playing opposite. Psychedelic effects are poured over a tale of desire that plays out in tony surroundings and out on the open road. Cardiff had a hand in the script, working for erotic effects. The American release recognized it as exploitation, and slapped on the more direct title ‘Naked Under Leather.’

The Girl on a Motorcycle

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1968 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 91 min. / Naked Under Leather / Street Date December 13, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull, Roger Mutton, Marius Goring, Jacques Marin.

Cinematography: Jack Cardiff, René Guissart Jr.

Art Directors: Jean d’Eaubonne, Russell Hagg

Film Editor: Peter Musgrave

Leather Catsuit designer: John Sutcliffe

Original Music:...

Hungry for those wet Parisian streets, the city lights, and cadavres en lambeaux in the pale moonlight? Enter three highly atmospheric, star-studded Crime Noirs, one of which is a stealth classic of Gallic Pulp. Stars Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Lino Ventura, Marcel Bozzuffi, Gérard Oury, Sandra Milo, and Annie Girardot bring the tales of à sang froid malice and mayhem to life. The films featured are Gilles Grangier’s Speaking of Murder (Le rouge est mis) and Édouard Molinaro’s Back to the Wall (Le dos au mur) and Witness in the City (Un Témoin dans la ville). Beware of French husbands when cucklolded — they show no pity. Bonne chance, victimes!

French Noir Collection

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957-59 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / 265 minutes / Street Date November 29, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 49.95

Starring: Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Lino Ventura, Marcel Bozzuffi, Gérard Oury, Sandra Milo, Annie Girardot, Paul Frankeur,...

Hubert Cornfield’s smoothly directed, moody kidnapping story is mysterious, engaging and well acted, but opts for an anti-thriller vibe with a curiously unsatisfying ending. Was this really the plan, or did the irksomely capricious Marlon Brando just not want to cooperate with the director? Brando is terrific anyway. The well-cast Rita Moreno, Richard Boone and Pamela Franklin are short-changed by directorial and editorial decisions that don’t give us enough of a purchase on the characters. The overcast weather on the French coast is a plus, but not the director’s choice of a downbeat, arty finish.

The Night of the Following Day

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date May 25, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Rita Moreno, Pamela Franklin,

Jess Hahn, Gérard Buhr, Hugues Wanner, Jacques Marin, Al Lettieri.

Cinematography: Willy Kurant

Film Editor: Gordon Pilkington

Art Direction Jean Boulet

Original...

The Train is back, now at popular prices! The fan base for John Frankenheimer’s incredibly elaborate Occupation thriller is growing exponentially. The railroad and military hardware on view is 100% real, something that CGI-jaded moviegoers appreciate more than ever. Great acting and a terrific storyline propel a tale of sabotage into the top level of suspense thriller-dom. Starring Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon, Wolfgang Preiss. A hundred tons of French steam locomotives and running stock are shot at, burned, blown up and smashed to smithereens. Oh, the movie’s about saving French art treasures, too.

The Train

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1964 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 133 min. / Street Date January 5, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon, Wolfgang Preiss, Albert Rémy, Charles Millot, Jacques Marin, Howard Vernon, Bernard Fresson.

Cinematography: Jean Tournier, Walter Wottitz

Film Editors: David Bretherton,...

Brigitte Bardot proved her mettle as a dramatic actress in H.G. Clouzot’s strikingly pro-feminist courtroom epic, that puts the modern age of ‘immoral’ permissiveness on trial. Is Bardot’s selfish, sensation-seeking young lover an oppressed victim? Clouzot makes her the author of her own problems yet doesn’t let her patriarchal inquisitors off the hook.

La vérité

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 960

1960 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 128 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 12, 2019 / 39.95

Starring: Brigitte Bardot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Sami Frey, Marie-JoséNat, Jean-Loup Reynold, André Oumansky, Claude Berri, Jacques Perrin, Jacques Marin. Fernand Ledoux.

Cinematography: Armand Thirard

Film Editor: Albert Jurgenson

Written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Simone Drieu, Michèle Perrein, Jérôme Géronimi, Christiane Rochefort, Véra Clouzot

Produced by Raoul Lévy

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

H.G. Clouzot mesmerized audiences with the political outrage of The Wages of Fear and the riveting horror-suspense of Diabolique, but his intellectual,...

Welcome to a pair of vintage mysteries with George Simenon’s popular Inspector Jules Maigret, a gumshoe who gets the tough cases. Top kick French actor Jean Gabin is the cop who keeps cool, until it’s time to rattle a recalcitrant suspect. In two separate cases, he tracks a serial killer in the heart of Paris, and travels to his hometown to unearth a murder conspiracy.

Maigret Sets a Trap

and

Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case

Blu-ray (separate releases)

Kino Classics

1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.

Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.

Cinematography: Louis Page

Film Editor: Henri Taverna

Original Music: Paul Misraki...

William Wyler’s 1960s screwball heist comedy is a squeaky-clean high fashion vehicle for stars Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole — who of course aren’t really crooks despite pulling off a major art theft. It’s lush, beautiful to look at and directed with verve by Wyler; with some funny jabs at the art world from screenwriter Harry Kurnitz.

How to Steal a Million

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1966 / Color / 1:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date April 11, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Charles Boyer, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, Fernand Gravey, Marcel Dalio, Jacques Marin. .

Cinematography: Charles Lang

Film Editor: Robert Swink

Original Music: John Williams

Production design: Alexander Trauner

Written by Harry Kurnitz story by George Bradshaw

Produced by Fred Kohlmar

Directed by William Wyler

There’s no denying that Audrey Hepburn had a fairly incredible run of hits in the 1960s: The Nun’s Story,...

Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon, Wolfgang Preiss, Albert Rémy, Charles Millot, Richard Münch, Jacques Marin, Paul Bonifas, Jean Bouchaud, Donald O’Brien, Jean-Pierre Zola, Arthur Brauss | Written by Franklin Coen, Frank Davis | Directed by John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn (uncredited)

What is more precious, art or human life? Your first reaction is probably to say human life and that would be the most logical answer, but for cultural worth the answer may not be so easy. During World War 2 precious works of art were stolen and still to this day are found and become big news. Arrow Academy’s latest Burt Lancaster release The Train creates a story loosely based on real life events, looking at the protection of French masterpieces, and the human cost of war.

In 1944 during the last gasps of Germany’s occupation of France, art lover and fanatical Nazi Colonel...

Herbie Goes Bananas

Written by Don Tait, based on the novel Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford

Directed By Vincent McEveety

USA, 1980, imdb

Listen to our Mousterpiece Cinema Herbie Goes Bananas podcast or read Josh‘s extended thoughts about the film.

*****

Some films acquire a bad reputation that sticks like a bad smell, driving potential viewers away before they ever see it. Everyone knows that Alien³ and Alien Resurrection are terrible even especially those who have never seen the film. This fate happens particularly to notorious bombs – especially to films that (temporarily) kill off franchises. There is a perverse feedback loop in place, the film bombed because no one went to see it, and since the film bombed it must be terrible, so no one wants to watch it.

But this is confusing quality with popularity. They can be linked, but films bombing may result from any number of factors...

While the future of home entertainment may be rapidly moving towards a digital streaming-led future, we can't be the only movie nerds who still love owning a physical copy of something. Sure, BluRay and DVD might be scratchable, easily lost and adorned by terrible box art, but there's something about the feeling of finding an undiscovered gem in the depths of a store, or getting a rarity in the post, that doesn't quite compare to clicking and watching something on Netflix.

As such, starting with this column, every month we're going to pick out five BluRays or DVDs new to the market that no self-respecting cinephile's shelves could do without. Some are shiny new versions of stone-cold classics, some are obscurities, some might even be brand new releases (although less often: those are covered pretty well elsewhere). Read on for more.

"Chinatown" (1974)

Why You Should Care: Simply put, it's one...