The buddy caper 30 Minutes or Less that opens next weekend is but the latest in a long line of comedies about committing crime. Time will tell if 30 Minutes or Less is a classic like A Fish Called Wanda or a dud like Hudson Hawk, so we wanted to compile a list of other great crime comedies in case you’ve got the itch. Scratch this, suckers.
But hey… You already know you should watch A Fish Called Wanda, or Fargo, or The (original) Italian Job, or The (original) Ladykillers. So here instead is our list of some of the crime capers that don’t always make the big Top Ten lists. Here are Ten Great Crime Comedies You’ve Never Seen.
And if you have seen them, seriously, good for you. Go ahead and get smug about it. You’ve earned that right.
10. CRIME WAVE (dir. Sam Raimi, 1985)
Most people haven’t seen Crimewave (a.k.a. The XYZ Murders), Sam Raimi’s ambitious crime comedy follow-up to his first movie, The Evil Dead, co-written by The Coen Bros. There’s a good reason for that, and not because Sam Raimi disowned the fascinating-but-flawed film after losing several of his Evil Dead crew members and not being allowed to cast Bruce Campbell in the lead role. No, it’s because the damned thing hasn’t been released on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is a shame. Paul L. Smith stars as a man going to the electric chair who recounts en route how he got framed. His story introduces us to dangerous bug exterminator hitmen, a wolfish Bruce Campbell and a world so zany that it might as well be Toon Town. A lot of the jokes fall flat, but when Crimewave really gets cooking (as in the surreal chase at a door factory, above) it is truly unforgettable. Hard to find, but worth the trouble.
9. JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY (dir. Amy Heckerling, 1984)
Before the Airplane! style of comedy became a formal institution there was Johnny Dangerously, a broad, broad parody of mob movies starring Michael Keaton as a young goomba on the rise. Pretty danged funny from start to finish, from a bizarre educational video about the dangers of sex (it leads to elephantiasis of the testicles… always) to the scene-stealing Roman Moroni (Richard Dimitri) who swears like he’s already been overdubbed for television, using expressions like “you lousy cork-soakers,” “You farging ice-hole” and “I’m gonna crush your boils in a meat-grinder.” Director Amy Heckerling’s first film after her cult hit Fast Times at Ridgemont High (weird corollary to Crimewave there) is a damn sight better than Jim Abrahams similar but less funny 1998 comedy Jane Austen’s Mafia! starring Jay Mohr and Christina Applegate, but that movie’s kind of okay too.
8. JOHNNY STECCHINO (dir. Roberto Benigni, 1991)
A lot of Americans know who Roberto Benigni is, but they don’t always know that he made movies before Life is Beautiful. In Johnny Stecchino, one of his funniest comedies, writer/director Roberto Benigni plays Dante, a hapless boob with a penchant for stealing bananas who happens to look exactly like the titular mob informant with a contract on his head. Benigni’s real life wife Nicolette Braschi (whose boobs are anything but hapless) plays Stecchino’s girlfriend, Maria, tasked with seducing our poor hero and making him look and act enough like Johnny that the mob kills Dante instead. Benigni is lovably naïve in the lead role and a hilarious jerk as the villain in this wonderful Italian farce.
7. MALCOLM (dir. Nadia Tass, 1986)
The gentlest comedy on our list is easily Malcolm, an independent comedy that swept the Australian Film Institute awards in 1986. Colin Friels of Darkman and (amusingly) Dark City plays a shy young savant who brings in a lodger to help pay the bills. By the time he figures out that his new roommate is an ex-con they’re already close enough friends that Malcolm puts his mechanical genius to work committing fresh new crimes. From the two-piece getaway car to a final heist using adorable robots, Malcolm is a clever but understated comedy about friendship and larceny, and, unfortunately, a practically forgotten gem.
6. MONSIEUR VERDOUX (dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1947)
One of comedy legend Charlie Chaplin’s later comedies (and his first in seven years after the classic The Great Dictator) came from an idea by Orson Welles: Chaplin plays – surprise! – Monsieur Henri Verdoux, a gentleman who marries unsuspecting women and kills them for their money. Yes, it’s a little darker than many of his more popular films, but it’s also a strange pleasure, particularly when Verdoux meets his match in Martha Raye, playing a particularly annoying spouse who seemingly cannot be killed. Monsieur Verdoux isn’t afraid to get a little thoughtful towards the end – the final line of dialogue is highly unusual considering the era – but as movies about murderers go it’s still one of the funniest.
