海角大神

It has always been my particular pleasure to champion older movies that might be discoveries for some and remembered treasures for others. This is especially true when it comes to comedies. Times and tastes may change but funny is still funny.聽I can think of few comedies that are better picker-uppers than the three I鈥檓 highlighting for this week鈥檚 column: 鈥淭ootsie,鈥� 鈥淟ost in America,鈥� and 鈥淒uck Soup.鈥� From the get-go, in their own very different ways, they take you to a better place and keep you there. I鈥檝e seen these films many times and, if anything, they improve with age. What was new the first time around becomes cherishable on repeated viewings.

Editor鈥檚 note: As a public service,聽all our coronavirus coverage聽is free. No paywall.

鈥淭辞辞迟蝉颈别鈥�

Dustin Hoffman had perhaps his greatest movie role to date in 鈥淭辞辞迟蝉颈别鈥� (1982) as Michael Dorsey, a New York actor deemed so 鈥渄ifficult鈥� by his agent (played to the hilt by Sydney Pollack, the film鈥檚 director) that he鈥檚 become unemployable. In desperation, secretly dressed in drag, he auditions for a soap opera and lands the part. As 鈥淒orothy Michaels,鈥� playing a hospital administrator, he becomes the star of the show, all the while keeping his real identity under wraps.

Gender-bending complications ensue, including his attraction to one of the show鈥檚 actresses, Julie, who warms to Dorothy as a confidante. Julie is marvelously played by Jessica Lange, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for this film in the same year that she was also nominated for best actress for her harrowing and polar opposite performance as Frances Farmer in 鈥淔rances.鈥� And there鈥檚 Julie鈥檚 widowed father Les (Charles Durning), who is smitten with 鈥淒orothy.鈥�

The entire cast is tiptop, including Bill Murray as Michael鈥檚 playwright roomie, Teri Garr as Michael鈥檚 understandably frazzled girlfriend, and Dabney Coleman as the TV show鈥檚 lecherous director.

During its making, 鈥淭辞辞迟蝉颈别鈥� was notorious for production problems on the set. Hoffman and Pollack were continually at odds (despite the film鈥檚 smash success, they never worked together again), and the script was worked over by many more writers, including Elaine May and Barry Levinson, than the two who were credited, Murray Schisgal and Larry Gelbart. Given all this dissension, one might reasonably have expected a disaster, and yet not only is 鈥淭辞辞迟蝉颈别鈥� a classic comedy, but also, of all things, a seamless classic comedy.

It鈥檚 also unexpectedly touching. Michael鈥檚 disguised yearning for Julie pulls him apart. When the jig is finally up, he tries to calm her outrage by telling her, 鈥淚 was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was as a man.鈥� Hoffman gives a line that might otherwise sound sappy a deep wellspring of emotion. (Rated PG)聽

鈥淟ost in America鈥�

Albert Brooks, as performer, writer, and director, is one of the most original comic talents in the history of American show business. He came from a showbiz family, with a famous radio comedian father, Harry Einstein, who had the wit, or the chutzpah, to name his son Albert. His best movies as a director and co-writer are 鈥淩eal Life鈥� (1979), a deadpan satire about a supremely annoying documentary filmmaker who intrudes on a family鈥檚 privacy; 鈥淢odern Romance鈥� (1981), where Brooks plays a supremely annoying film editor trying to win back his girlfriend (Kathryn Harrold); and his masterpiece, 鈥淟ost in America鈥� (1985), where he plays David, a cocky Los Angeles ad executive who, denied a promotion to vice president, chucks it all, liquidates his assets, buys an RV, and with his doting, befuddled wife, Linda (Julie Hagerty), sets out on the road 鈥淓asy Rider鈥�-style.

Things, needless to say, do not go as planned. One of the funniest scenes of all time comes right after Linda has lost their life savings at a Vegas casino. David frantically tries to convince the casino owner, played with impeccable slow-burn exasperation by Garry Marshall, to give the money back to the couple as a 鈥渂old鈥� publicity gimmick. Perfection. (Rated R)

鈥淒uck Soup鈥澛�

Leo McCarey鈥檚 鈥淒uck Soup鈥� (1933) is the funniest Marx Brothers movie and also, in its own vaudeville-gone-haywire way, one of the best antiwar satires ever made. Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, the president of the embattled state of Freedonia, and Chico and Harpo play spies hired to undermine him. The brothers never worked better together, and at least one of their routines 鈥� the famous 鈥渕irror鈥� scene where Groucho and Harpo mimic each other鈥檚 movements 鈥� is unmatched. (Unrated)

These films聽are available to rent on Amazon鈥檚 Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, and iTunes.聽