I could comment on tastes in comedy then compared to now, but the truth is: the more things change...
People in Madison WI had it better, but I must explain that the event advertised below is a kind of ringer. It isn't a movie at all, but live theater -- and look at that cast!
Here are a couple of footnotes to history. This show in Madison is one of the last performances in the life of the great Thomas Mitchell, one of the most reliable character actors of the classic studio era and the one who seemed to appear in nearly every major film from the golden year of 1939. I don't actually exaggerate that much. Mitchell would continue touring with the show until his death later in 1962 at age 70. The other footnote is that the role he played in the play was Columbo -- this is the same story, elaborated from a one-hour TV anthology episode, that would be made into a full-length TV movie and form the basis for Peter Falk's famous spot on the NBC Mystery Movie and beyond. The character was conceived as a much older man than Falk was when he first took the role; Bing Crosby had to turn Columbo down before Falk got his chance. But if you suggest to me Thomas Mitchell as Columbo -- yes, I can see it ... except I can't. If only someone had filmed the play with this cast in it. But you can't rewrite the past; you can only cut and paste it.
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