The best Martin Balsam’s comedy movies

Martin Balsam

Martin Balsam

04/11/1919- 13/02/1996
Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American character actor. He is best known for a number of film roles, including detective Milton Arbogast in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Arnold Burns in A Thousand Clowns (1965), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Juror #1 in 12 Angry Men (1957), and Mr. Green in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), as well as for his role as Murray Klein in the television sitcom Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983).
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Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's
7.6/10
  • Genre: ComedyRomance
  • Release: 06/10/1961
  • Character: O.J. Berman
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.

Catch-22

Catch-22
7.1/10
A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

Little Big Man

Little Big Man
7.5/10
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.

St. Elmo's Fire

St. Elmo's Fire
6.4/10
A group of friends graduate from the halls of Georgetown University into lives that revolve around sex, paychecks, and career aspirations. Kirby waits tables to pay for law school. His roommate Kevin struggles at a D.C. newspaper as he lusts after the stylish Jules. Jules may be an object of adoration and envy, but secretly she has problems of her own. Demure Wendy is in love with Billy—a sax player and an irresponsible drunk. Alex wants it all: a career in politics and the appearance of a traditional home life. Alex's girlfriend, Leslie, is an ambitious architect who doesn't know about his infidelity, but his new allegiance to the Republican Party is already enough to put her off marriage.

La Classe américaine

La Classe américaine
7.9/10
  • Genre: ComedyTV Movie
  • Release: 31/12/1993
  • Character: Callaghan (archive footage)
George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. With his last breath, he whispers: “Shitty world.” The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery… (16 French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)

The Silence of the Hams

The Silence of the Hams
4.6/10
  • Genre: ComedyThriller
  • Release: 11/03/1994
  • Character: Det. Martin Balsam
The federal agent Joe Dee Foster is currently investigating a serial killer, helped by doctor Animal who is isolated in a maximum security jail.

After the Fox

After the Fox
6.4/10
  • Genre: ComedyCrime
  • Release: 01/01/1966
  • Character: Harry
Criminal mastermind 'The Fox' sets up a phony film production and masquerades as it's director as part of a plan to smuggle a stolen gold shipment into Italy.

Cry, Onion!

Cry, Onion!
5.4/10
  • Genre: ComedyWestern
  • Release: 25/08/1975
  • Character: Petrus Lamb
Onion Jack (Franco Nero) has bought a piece of land on which to settle, but the property is still in possession of the orphans of the original owner and is coveted by the local oil baron.

Silver Bears

Silver Bears
6/10
  • Genre: ComedyCrime
  • Release: 03/06/1977
  • Character: Joe Fiore
Financial wizard "Doc" Fletcher is sent by crime boss Joe Fiore to buy a bank in Switzerland in order to more easily launder their profits. When he arrives, Fletcher finds that the bank, acquired by his associate Prince di Siracusa, consists of some shabby offices above a restaurant. To make up for this, the Prince suggests that Fletcher invests in a silver mine owned by Shireen and Agha Firdausi. This solves one problem, but the mine also attracts the attention of some of the most powerful people in the silver business. Fletcher must pull out all his wheeler-dealing skills in order to keep hold of everything he's worked for, in the process romancing a banker's discontented wife.

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
6.1/10
Older lawman Marshal Flagg (Robert Mitchum) is struggling to transition from the Old West to the more modernized one -- so much so that Mayor Wilker (Martin Balsam) forces him into retirement. Not one to go away easily, Flagg quickly fixates on his old nemesis, McKay (George Kennedy), formerly believed to be dead, who is now back in town and up to no good. But Flagg soon discovers that McKay might be his greatest ally in a fight to prove that the old-timers aren't useless in the New West.

Me, Natalie

Me, Natalie
6.5/10
  • Genre: ComedyDrama
  • Release: 13/07/1969
  • Character: Uncle Harold
Since she was a child, Natalie Miller has always thought she was an ugly ducking. Despite her mother's encouragement that she will grow up to be pretty, Natalie has never believed it will happen. She rents a Greenwich Village apartment from an eccentric landlady and gets a job at the Topless Bottom Club. She rides a motorcycle to work, decorates her loft with a moose head, and rides up and down a dumbwaiter to get to her apartment. There Natalie meets David an artist, and the two have a love affair before she discovers he is married.

Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?

Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?
5.8/10
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Release: 25/12/1963
  • Character: Sanford Kaufman
TV star Jason Steel reluctantly becomes the sounding board for his best friends' bored wives, and must fend off their advances while managing his own fragile relationship.

There Goes The Bride

There Goes The Bride
3.4/10
  • Genre: ComedyRomance
  • Release: 07/07/1980
  • Character: Elmer Babcock
A nervous ad executive (Tom Smothers) creates havoc on his daughter's wedding day and becomes obsessed with a dream girl (Twiggy) he keeps seeing everywhere but whom he can't catch.

A Thousand Clowns

A Thousand Clowns
7.3/10
Twelve-year-old Nick lives with his Uncle Murray, a Mr.Micawber-like Dickensian character who keeps hoping something won't turn up. What turns up is a social worker, who falls in love with Murray and a bit in love with Nick. As the child welfare people try to force Murray to become a conventional man (as the price they demand for allowing him to keep Nick), the nephew, who until now has gloried in his Uncle's iconoclastic approach to life, tries to play mediator. But when he succeeds, he is alarmed by the uncle's willingness to cave in to society in order to save the relationship.

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