Smile

Modern Times

(1936)

If Hemingway was right that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the source of all American literature to follow (and I sorta think he is), then this is the Huck Finn of cinematic and TV comedy. From Dick Van Dyke's ottoman pratfall to the precarious ledge dancing (rollerskating here) of It's a Wonderful Life to the cocaine gag in Annie Hall (well, actually a funnier and cleverer cocaine gag, but certainly a source for that more obvious one) to the tea-fueled gastric noises of African Queen to everything funny Lucille Ball ever did, it's all here.

It's also a terrific piece of moderately lefty proselytizing, and god, it must have made people smile in the teeth of Depression. We need something this good right now, dammit!