Favourite Dark/Black Comedies ?

[Gerald Lovell]

Have another one. Hope started one film in a penthouse with lightning flashing and thunder crashing all round. Hope's comment. "Looks like Bela Lugosi's giving a party"

In fact, it was Basil Rathbone's having a party. It was in The Ghost Breakers (1940).

[cassidy]

Ta Gerald, in that case he must have re-used the joke on something else, maybe a TV show as I definitely remember him using Bela's name.

In fact, it was Basil Rathbone's having a party. It was in The Ghost Breakers (1940).

[sisterluke]

Dogma (although it has a happy ending so may be not). Oh and most of the Carry On films - well, they give me black thoughts.

[cumberbatches_woman]

i agree cinemal, Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic dark comedy with the very debonair Cary Grant, by the way Dremble Wedge do u mean the 1971 film The Devils with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave ?

[sisterluke]

i agree cinemal, Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic dark comedy with the very debonair Cary Grant, by the way Dremble Wedge do u mean the 1971 film The Devils with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave ?

I've never seen it but apparently it does make a lot of people laugh

[dremble wedge]

i agree cinemal, Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic dark comedy with the very debonair Cary Grant, by the way Dremble Wedge do u mean the 1971 film The Devils with Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave ?

Indeed I do

[cumberbatches_woman]

ahh a very controversial film from what i remember, apparantly the film was banned in severel countries, and edited for release in others, and its unavailable for the home video market, and a very naughty film

[moonfleet]

Dr Strangelove/Kubrick, Lolita/Kubrick, Beat the Devil/Huston, Cul de Sac/Polanski, Goodfellas/Scorsese, Twin Peaks (the series)/Lynch, Five Fingers/Mankiewicz, All About Eve/Mankiewicz, Down by Law/Jarmusch, A Serious Man/Coen Bros, Fargo/Coen Bros, Barton Fink/Coen Bros, Miller's Crossing/Coen Bros, Drowning by Numbers/Greenaway, The Draughtman's Contract/Greenaway ...

[cinemal]

i agree cinemal, Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic dark comedy with the very debonair Cary Grant,

Cary Grant was a cousin to one of my aunts. I wonder how much success he would have had using his real name of Archibald Leach!

[cumberbatches_woman]

realy !! how lovely, i bet your aunt was the talk of the neighbours being related to such a famous man, apparantly he was told to change his name by Hollywood, and he came up with Cary Lockwood, which was a characters name he had played, eventualy Cary Grant was born, so i doubt very much he would have been the famous actor he was if he had kept his name.

[mallee59]

A Comedy of Terrors with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. Boris Karloff was Vincents father in law and Basil Rathbone the 'running gag'

[Corinne]

Nobody does black comedy like the Brits so:
Shallow Grave
Love Honour & Obey
Quite Ugly One Morning
Keeping Mum
In Bruges
Dead Clever

[moonfleet]

Bertrand Tavernier's Coup de Torchon, adapted and tranposed in french 40s colonial Africa from Jim Thompson' novel Pop. 1280

Pop. 1280 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[mallee59]

The Wrong Box
Kind Hearts and Coronets

[Nick Dando]

I have a soft spot for Buffet Froid.

Buffet Froid (1979) - IMDb

Nick

[moonfleet]

I have a soft spot for Buffet Froid.

Buffet Froid (1979) - IMDb

Nick

A great one Nick, must agree
The only film by Bertrand Blier that I like...

As we are in parisian suburb(s), don't forget Alain Corneau's masterpiece Série Noire (also adapted from Jim Thompson)

[sisterluke]

realy !! how lovely, i bet your aunt was the talk of the neighbours being related to such a famous man, apparantly he was told to change his name by Hollywood, and he came up with Cary Lockwood, which was a characters name he had played, eventualy Cary Grant was born, so i doubt very much he would have been the famous actor he was if he had kept his name.

According to Julian Fellowes, if Cary had stayed in England he would probably have ended up in music hall playing the spoons "because he had a cheeky chappy kind of charm"

[sisterluke]

ahh a very controversial film from what i remember, apparantly the film was banned in severel countries, and edited for release in others, and its unavailable for the home video market, and a very naughty film

Really! Even in these 'liberated' times. I assumed as Ken Russell is persona non grata these days, it had just disintegrated.

[GRAEME]

Two great weirdies not so far mentioned, I think:

The strange Australian film, Bad Boy Bubby - "Be Still Cat!"



The even stranger Greek film, Dogtooth - dig the family "cabaret"



Has anyone said Eraserhead? "Look at my knees!" (around 04:30) the meeting-the-girlfriend's-parents from hell!

[cumberbatches_woman]

yes sisterluke, Cary Grant had that air of cheekiness about him didnt he, i bet he would have made a damn good spoon player at that as for the Devils film, even in june 2010 Warner Bros. quietly released The Devils in a 108-minute version for purchase and rental through the iTunes Store, but the title was removed without explanation after about three days and has remained unavailable ever since.