I promise this won’t be a movies-only column, but movies and television have been getting me through these past few weeks. We went through our movie collection a while back and pulled about 30 movies to watch while social distancing. It’s a hearty mix of new and old. Once we get home from work, we want to lose ourselves in something fun and funny. I decided to make a right now while being stuck inside.
This is by no means a list of the all-time greatest movies, but they’re great movies to get lost in when the world is scary and intense. Many can be seen on TCM, Amazon Prime, the Criterion Channel or for rent at the library.
I would love to hear what you’re watching during the pandemic-extra points for anyone who has also found comfort in TCM and would like to talk classic films with me. Give me a call at the office!
1) Dear Heart (1964), Evie Jackson arrives in NYC for the annual Postmasters’ convention. Staying in the same hotel is salesman Harry Mork. When their paths cross, Evie is convinced Harry is the man for her. (Glenn Ford)
2) The Three Stooges/any and all pre-Curly Joe episodes. Nothing takes me back to being a kid like the Stooges. I can’t imagine the day I stop laughing at them.
3) Safety Last (1923) A boy leaves his small town to head to the big city for a job leading to many adventures. (Harold Lloyd)
4) The Gold Rush (1925): A prospector goes to the Klondike in search of gold but finds friends and love. (Charlie Chaplin)
5) Harvey (1950) A man is believed to be insane because his best friend is an invisible six-foot-tall rabbit. (Jimmy Stewart)
6) About Schmidt (2002): A recently retired man crosses Nebraska to attend his estranged daughter’s wedding. He discovers a lot about himself along the way. (Jack Nicholson)
7) African Queen (1951) In WWI Africa, an alcoholic riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to attack an enemy warship. (Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn)
8) The Awful Truth (1937) Un-founded suspicions lead a married couple to start to divorce, all while undermining each other attempts to find new love. (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne)
9) Apollo 13 (1995) NASA must help Apollo 13 get back to Earth safely after massive damage to the spacecraft. (Tom Hanks and Bill Paxton)
10) Barefoot in the Park (1967), A conservative Lawyer marries a wild woman. (Robert Redford and Jane Fonda)
11) Beetlejuice (1988): The spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by the new family who moves into their home. They hire a malicious ghost to drive them out. (Michael Keaton)
12) An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) A family of immigrant mice move west. (Jimmy Stewart, voice)
13) Sleeping Beauty (1959): A curse is placed on a princess that only a prince and three fairies can break. (Mary Costa)
14) The Big House (1930): After being convicted of manslaughter, a drunk driver is inducted into the rigors of prison life. (Chester Morris and Robert Montgomery)
15) Book Club (2018) Four friends have their lives changed by reading 50 Shades of Grey. (Diane Keaton, Mary Steenbur-gen)
16) Bridesmaids (2011) A wedding is nearly ruined by a competition between the maid of honor and bridesmaid. (Kris-ten Wiig)
17) Cold Turkey (1971): A tobacco company offers a small Iowa town $25 million to stop smoking for 30 days. (Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart)
18) D2 The Mighty Ducks (1994) A ragtag hockey team from around the country competes in the Junior Goodwill Games. (Joshua Jackson)
19) Dan in Real Life (2007): A widower finds love in the worst place. (Steve Carell)
20) Drop Dead Fred (1991): A young woman finds her life rocked by her childhood imaginary friend. (Phoebe Cates)
21) Election (1999) A high school teacher’s life is nearly ruined by working with an obsessive overachiever. (Matthew Broderick and Reese Wither-spoon)
22) Fever Pitch (2005) A man obsessed with the Boston Red Sox falls in love and must choose between the two. (Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore)
23) French Kiss (1995): A woman flies to France to confront her cheating fiance and meets a charming crook. (Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline)
24) Ghostbusters (1984): Four men provide ghost removal for NYC. (Harold Ramis and Bill Murray)
25) Ghostbusters 2 (1989) They revive their ghost removal business. (Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hud-son, and Bill Murray)
26) Holiday Affair (1949): A widower meets a sales clerk and falls in love. (Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum)
27) It Takes Two (1995) Identical strangers meet, and its never explained why they’re identical, but they get their father and guardian to fall in love. Not one person indeed questions why they are identical. If you can get past that, it’s a fun movie. (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen)
28) Bachelor Mother (1939): A woman discovers an abandoned baby and takes it in to keep her job. (Ginger Rogers)
29) License to Drive (1988): A boy fails his driver’s test but decides to go out for a night on the town anyway. (Corey Haim)
30) Roadhouse (1989): Some bad guys try to cross Dalton while he tries to tame a seedy bar. (Patrick Swayze)
31) Mr. Skeffington (1944) Fanny is forced to marry a man she doesn’t love to help her brother. (Bette Davis and Claude Rains)
32) Now Voyager (1942) A spinster undergoes therapy to become an independent woman. (Bette Davis and Paul Henreid)
33) Office Space (1999) Three employees rebel against their boss. (Ron Livings-ton)
34) Remember the Night (1940) A lawyer takes a crook home for Christmas (Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray)
35) Rushmore (1998) A kid on academic probation acts out. (Jason Schwartzman)
36) Serial Mom (1994): A seemingly sweet mother turns out to be a murderer. (Kathleen Turner)
37) Show People (1928): A lady goes to Hollywood to become a star (Marion Davies)
38) Some Like it Hot (1959) Two male musicians flee to Florida dressed as women to hide from the mob. (Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon)
39) Speedy (1928) A New Yorker saves the city’s last horse-drawn carriage from extinction. (Harold Lloyd)
40) Sunday in New York (1962): A woman leaves her small town to visit her brother and has a chance encounter with a man on a bus. (Rod Taylor)
41) Super Troopers (2001) Five Vermont state troopers play pranks and lose their jobs. (Steve Lemme)
42) Super Troopers 2 (2018) When a border dispute arises, the Super Troopers establish a High-way Patrol. (Paul Soter)
43) The Artist (2011): A silent film star tries to acclimate to the talkies. (Jean Dujardin)
44) Beerfest (2006): A group of Americans compete against the German’s in underground beer games. (Kevin Heffernan)
45) The Graduate (1967) A college graduate finds himself in an unexpected situation when Mrs. Robinson seduces him, but his fun turns complicated when Benjamin falls for the one woman Mrs. Robinson demands he stay away from, her daughter, Elaine.
46) The Jerk (1979): A simple-minded man leaves his home to live in the big city. (Steve Martin)
47) The Patsy (1928): A girl falls in love with her older sister’s boyfriend and tries to get him to notice her. (Marion Davies)
48) The Talk of the Town (1942) A wrongly accused convict hides out in a professor’s house, hoping he will help him. (Cary Grant and Jean Arthur)
49) The Women (1939): A woman gets cheated on and confides in her friends. (Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford).
50) Orange County (2002) An over-achieving high schooler doesn’t get into the college of his choice. (Colin Hanks)
51) Key Largo (1948): A man visits his buddy’s family hotel and is held hostage during a hurricane. (Humphrey Bogart)
52) Tootsie (1982): An unsuccessful actor disguises himself as a woman to land a gig. (Dustin Hoffman)
53) Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), A newly divorced writer buys a Tuscan villa. (Diane Lane)
54) Vegas Vacation (1997) The Griswold family travels to Las Vegas. (Chevy Chase)
55) Walk Don’t Run (1966) During a housing shortage in Tokyo, two men and a woman share an apartment. (Cary Grant)
56) When Harry Met Sally (1989), A man and a woman who are friends avoid a romance so it won’t ruin their friendship. (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan)
57) You Can’t Take it With You (1938): A wealthy man gets engaged to a woman from an eccentric family. (Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur)
58) Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) Two widowers with a brood of children find love. (Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda)
59) High Anxiety (1977), a psychiatrist with a fear of heights investigates the secrets of a murder at the new institution where he works. (Mel Brooks)
60) Divorce of Lady X (1938): A divorce lawyer falls for a woman he thinks is the wife of his new client. (Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon)
62) Lover Come Back (1961): A series of misunderstandings leaves an ad exec with a bogus campaign as he romances his competition. (Doris Day)
62) Pillow Talk (1959) A man and a woman who share a party line cannot stand each other, but he tricks her with his voice disguised. (Rock Hudson)
63) Roar (1981) Noel Marshall gets a visit from his family in East Africa, where he lives with several wild lions. (Tippy Hedren)
64) Tickle Me (1965): A singing rodeo rider finds himself working at a fitness spa. He falls in love with an employee threatened by a gang who wants
her late grandfather’s gold hidden in a ghost town. (Elvis)
65) The Miracle of Morgans Creek (1943) An all-night send-off for the troops leaves a small-town girl ‘in trouble.’ (Betty Hutton)
66) What’s Up Doc? (1972) An accident mix-up of bags leads to wacky situations. (Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal)
67) The Goodbye Girl (1977): An unemployed dancer and her daughter are forced to live with a struggling off-Broadway actor. (Marsha Mason)
68) Dick (1999) Two high school girls bring down the Nixon presidency. (Dan Hedaya, Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst)
69) That Thing You Do (1996) A small-town band scores a one-hit wonder. (Tom Everett Scott)
70) The Electric Horseman (1979): A rodeo star steals a horse and rides into the desert with a reporter accompanying him. (Robert Redford)
71) His Girl Friday (1940) Ex-husband and wife reporters reunite to get a story about a man on death row. (Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant)
72) It Should Happen to You (1954) A woman rents a billboard to get famous. (Judy Holliday)
73) The Philadelphia Story (1940): A woman’s ex-husband and reporters turn up before her wedding and turns her life upside down. (Katharine Hepburn)
74) The Apartment (1960) A man tries to rise in his company by offering his apartment to executives for their trysts but falls in love with one of their interests. (Jack Lemmon)
75) Cool Hand Luke (19 67) A man sentenced to two years in a rural prison refuses to conform. (Paul Newman)
76) The Man Who Should Liberty Valance (1962) A senator returns to honor an old friend and tell their story. (Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne)
77) Singin’ In The Rain (1952) A silent film company transitions to sound. (Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds)
78) The Gauntlet (1977): A rugged but mediocre cop is assigned to escort a prostitute into custody from Las Vegas to Phoenix so that she can testify in a mob trial. (Clint Eastwood)
79) It Happened One Night (1934): A spoiled heiress runs away from her father and is helped by a reporter who falls In love with her. (Clark Gable)
80) The Thin Man (1934) Detective Nick Charles and his wife investigate a murder case for the fun of it. (William Powell and Myrna Loy)
81) My Man Godfrey (1936): A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as the family butler and falls in love. (William Powell and Carole Lombard)
82) Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933): A wealthy composter rescues unemployed Broadway performers with a new play. (Dick Powell and Aline MacMahon)
83) The Naked Gun (1988) Detective Frank Drebin tries to foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.
84) Wet Hot American Summer (2001): follows a group of counselors who are each trying to complete their unfinished business before the day ends. The entire summer of pent-up sexual frustrations, unresolved post-traumatic stress, pending separations and of course, the talent show, all weigh heavily on the minds and groins of counselors and campers alike.
85) Baseketball (1998) Two friends invent a sport called BASEketball and deal with a greedy business person. (Trey Parker and Matt Stone)
86) Caddyshack (1980) A country club has to deal with a brash new member and inept staff. (Chevy Chase)
87) Take the Money and Run (1969): The life and times of Virgil Starkwell, inept bank robber. (Woody Allen)
88) You’ve Got Mail (1998) Two business rivals who hate each other fall in love online. (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan)
89) Young Frankenstein (1974), the Grandson of the famed scientist, tries to prove his grandfather wasn’t as insane as people believe. (Gene Wilder)
90) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950): A detective tries to stay on the right side of the law but can’t. (Dana Andrews)
91) Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941): A couple married for years learns their marriage isn’t valid. (Carole Lombard)
92) Slammin Salmon (2009) A restaurant owner institutes a contest to earn money to get him out of debt. (Kevin Heffernan)
93) Desk Set (1957) Two strong and smart personalities clash over the computerization of a TV network’s research department. (Spencer Tracy)
94) The Impractical Jokers Movie (2020) Four friends since high school play pranks on each other as they travel to a Paula Abdul concert.
95) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Armed men hijack a subway car in NYC and demand ransom for passengers. (Walter Matthau)
96) Grumpy Old Men (1993): A feud between friends since childhood boils over when a gorgeous woman moves next door. (Lemmon and Matthau)
97) Smokey and the Bandit (1977) The Bandit is hired to run a semi full of beer over state lines in hot pursuit by a pesky sheriff. (Burt Reynolds)
98) White Christmas (1954) Two singers join a sister act to help save their General’s business. (Bing Crosby)
99) There Was A Crooked Man (1970) A charming but ruthless criminal is sent to prison and cons his cellmates into helping him escape. (Kirk Douglas)
100) Stripes (1981) Two friends dissatisfied with their jobs join the army for fun. (Bill Murray and Harold Ramis)
