Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)

• a fast-paced, mistaken-identity tale and screwball comedy from satirist writer/director Preston Sturges
• the character of medically-excused and humiliated Marines reject Woodrow Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) (for hay fever), who was urged to return to his hometown - to his mother (Georgia Caine) and his ex-girlfriend Libby (Ella Raines) (who was engaged to marry wealthy 4-F reject Forrest Noble (Bill Edwards), the son of the town's mayor); he would arrive with the fabricated story that he was wounded in battle and honorably discharged; in San Diego, he met up with a group of veteran Marines just returned from Guadalcanal, led by conniving Sgt. Julius Heffelfinger (William Demarest), who were supportive and accompanied him on the train to his home, providing him with a uniform and medals to wear
• Woodrow's frenzied homecoming arrival in Oakridge, California, where he was embarrassed to be met with a patriotic hero's welcome (with a statue to be erected in the town square to immortalize his service), with four marching brass bands (led by an exasperated Reception Committee Chairman (Franklin Pangborn)), and Mayor Noble (Raymond Walburn), Judge Dennis (Jimmy Conlin), and ex-mayoral candidate Doc Bissell (Harry Hayden) there to greet him
• the burning of Woodrow's mother's mortgage note by the Reverend Upperman (Arthur Hoyt)
• Woodrow's pleadings that he didn't deserve the accolades and was not a hero, interpreted by the townsfolk as humility
• Woodrow's concluding heartfelt speech - the best scene in the film - when he confessed to the deceptions ("If I could reach as high as my father's shoestrings, my whole life would be justified - and I would stand here before you proudly instead of as the thief and the coward that I am"); he was ready to leave (when it was discovered that he was a fraud and was discharged a year earlier), but was bolstered by a new effort to have him run as Mayor in an upcoming election because of his courageous honesty ("WIN WITH WOODROW")

Half Baked (1998)

• the 'Munchie Run' scene of kindergarten teacher Kenny Davis (Harland Williams) who was commissioned to go buy lots of junk food at a grocery store by his stoned roommates - Brian (Jim Breuer) instructed: "Get some sour cream and onion chips with some dip, man, some beef jerky, some peanut butter. Get some Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars, a whole lot, make sure chocolate, gotta have chocolate, man. Some popcorn, red popcorn, graham crackers, graham crackers with marshmallows, the little marshmallows and little chocolate bars and we can make s'mores, man....Also, celery, grape jelly, uh, Cap'n Crunch with the little Crunch berries, pizzas. We need two big pizzas, man, everything on 'em, with water, whole lotta water, and Funyons"; Thurgood Jenkins (Dave Chappelle) added: "Get me a box of condoms, and, uhm, what's that stuff? We used to eat it all the time back in the day? Pussy, that's right"
• after his shopping expedition, Kenny was carrying two large grocery bags of junk food and two pizza boxes; he spoke to an NYPD cop's tired, diabetic horse tied up outside the store: "Hey, girl! Ya hungry?" - but a black, overweight passerby (Jenni Burke) misinterpreted that he was speaking to her and felt insulted: "F--k you, nigger!"; he responded: "Hey, I'm sorry! I was talkin' to the horse here"

The Hangover (2009)

• director Todd Phillips' vulgar, obscenity-filled, absurdist quasi-comedy/bromance caper was the first of an eventual trilogy, including The Hangover Part II (2011), and The Hangover Part III (2013)
• the first installment told about the outlandish adventures of four guys in "Sin City" Las Vegas in mid-October of 2009 during two nights of a debauched bachelor party and its aftermath, to celebrate the imminent wedding of one of them:
  • Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis), the bride's socially-awkward, perverted and bearded brother suffering from ADHD, brother of the fiancee Tracy
  • Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), a married schoolteacher, the "Wolfpack" leader
  • Doug Billings (Justin Bartha), the bridegroom, soon to be married to Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese), daughter of wealthy Sid Garner (Jeffery Tambor)
  • Stu Price (Ed Helms), a nervous and anxious Jewish dentist (Divine Dentistry), in a three-year relationship with a mean, controlling, bitchy and abusive live-in girlfriend Melissa (Rachael Harris)

"The Wolfpack"
Alan Garner	Doug Billings
Phil Wenneck	Stu Price

• before the film's opening title credits, the film actually began with a phone call placed in the Mohave Desert from Phil to Doug's fiancee Tracy only five hours before her wedding, with the confession about their screwed-up bachelor party in Vegas: "We f--ked up...Things got out of control and, uh, we lost Doug....We can't find Doug!"; given the circumstances, Phil predicted that the wedding couldn't possibly take place: "That's not gonna happen"
• in a flashback to two days earlier, the foursome assembled together and drove to Vegas in Tracy's father's borrowed, silver 1965 Mercedes 220SE convertible for a 48 hour bacchanalia; they booked a spacious, luxury hotel "Villa" at Caesars Palace for $4,200 dollars a night; they began the night by celebrating with a rooftop toast with shots of Jägermeister beer; Alan (with a "satchel" or "manpurse" strapped across his shoulder) announced their new nickname - the "Wolfpack" - "Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast!"; to their shock, Alan cut his hand with a knife to become "blood brothers," but the others refused to follow suit; Phil spoke about their collective memory - and stressed that they must keep completely mum about their time together: "Forget everything....OK, good or bad. We don't remember so we got nothing to talk about. Nothing, guys, nothing!"; he toasted: "To a night we'll never remember, but the four of us will never forget"
• the following dawn after a fast-forward, Phil's words rang somewhat true - they awoke in their spacious, now-wrecked and upended hotel villa, with severe hangovers and no memory of what had occurred the night before; their suite was completely littered and trashed; in view was a smoldering chair, champagne bottles set up like bowling pins at the end of a hallway, a clucking chicken, Stu with a slightly bloodied shirt, and a growling tiger in the bathroom; a female appeared to sneak out of the room without disturbing any sleeping occupants; when he was awakened, Phil asked: "What the f--k happened last night?"

		Stu's Missing Tooth
Bengal Tiger in the Bathroom

• Stu realized he was now missing a front tooth (found shortly later in Alan's pocket), and both Doug and his mattress was missing from the room; and then they heard a crying baby in a closet that Alan named Carlos; the threesome began a search for the missing Doug; they remembered the rooftop toasts, dinner at the Palm at about 10 PM, and craps at the Hard Rock, but then everything went blank for about 12 hours; Stu had an ATM receipt from the Bellagio Hotel Casino at 11:05 PM for an $800 withdrawal, and Alan had a Caesar's valet parking stub (stamped 5:15 AM), while Phil realized he was wearing a hospital arm-band or bracelet; as they waited for the delivery of their valet car, they saw Doug's mattress impaled outside on the arm of a Caesars Palace statue; and when the valet service brought their car, the Mercedes had been swapped with a stolen Las Vegas Metro Police cruiser
• the threesome first retraced their steps to the hospital at about noon-time where they questioned the doctor who remembered that the foursome had arrived at 2:45 AM without a baby; Phil was treated for a non-life threatening head concussion and bruised ribs, and a blood work test revealed he had a large amount of Ruphylin (or Rohypnol) (aka "roofies" or the "date-rape" drug) in his system
• the doctor suggested that they visit Vegas' THE BEST LITTLE CHAPEL because they had talked about a wedding; the chapel's wedding organizer Eddie (Bryan Callen) warmly greeted them and with official photos of the ceremony to prove it, he told how Stu had been married and hitched up with a stripper/escort named Jade (Heather Graham) who was the single mother of baby Tyler found in their suite's closet
• as they were leaving the parking lot, they were violently assaulted by two Asian thugs who demanded the return of some person ("Where the hell is he?"), smashed the windshield, and accidentally wounded Eddie with gunfire; they sped off in the cruiser to Jade's apartment where she was happy to see Stu and her baby again; after her late night work at the strip club, she had been in the "Villa" with them in the early morning when they were all passed out, but after leaving for coffee, she returned and they had vacated the room; Stu became perturbed when he noticed that he had given Jade a ring to wear - his grandmother's 'Holocaust' ring; Alan wondered: "I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

Jade Happily Reunited With Stu and Her Baby Tyler

• the group was interrupted by two arresting police officers who barged into the apartment with guns drawn and took them in handcuffs to a police station; with his one phone call, Phil called Tracy and lied that they had been 'comped' an extra night and would be staying two nights at the hotel, although the wedding was the next day; they were told by Officer Franklin (Rob Riggle) that their impounded Mercedes vehicle had been found in the middle of Las Vegas Blvd at 5:00 AM; to avoid being jailed until a hearing before a judge on Monday morning (after the wedding), they agreed to volunteer to be tasered by stun-guns as test subjects for a touring group of schoolchildren, to demonstrate how the police subdued suspects (the sadistic Officer after Phil was felled: "Right in the nuts! That was beautiful")
• as they drove back to the hotel in their released Mercedes from the impound yard, they were again attacked by a strange, naked, feisty and gay Asian gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) who was discovered locked in their Mercedes' trunk; he jumped out and began beating them up with a crowbar; as the naked guy (with a small penis hidden in massive amounts of pubic hair) wielded the weapon and threatened Alan, Alan shouted out: "Nobody's gonna f--k on you! I'm on your side! I hate Godzilla! I hate him too! I hate him! He destroys cities! Please! This isn't your fault. I'll get you some pants"; Alan was also struck with the crowbar before Chow ran off
• feeling guilty, Alan admitted how he had drugged the rooftop drinks with "Good Morning, Cinderella" - what he thought was Ecstasy that he had bought at a liquor store - but it was a strong drug known as Ruphylin that had completely wiped their memories; Stu was upset at the results the drugs had brought for him: "I lost a tooth, I married a whore"
• back at the hotel, they were confronted by legendary boxer Mike Tyson (Himself) and his bodyguard; the boxer first encouraged them to briefly join him in a sing-along to Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight, but suddenly punched out Alan; the angry bodyguard demanded that they return Tyson's pet Bengal tiger (in their bathroom) that had been stolen from Tyson's mansion - within 40 minutes time
• by nightfall, the tiger was tranquilized with a raw steak (spiked with 5 roofies) and driven in the backseat of the Mercedes to Tyson's home, but during the trip, the animal awakened and clawed Phil's neck before the three managed to scramble out of the car after some fender-benders; as they pushed the car to Tyson's home a mile away, the tiger completely ripped apart the car's interior; security camera footage confirmed that the foursome (including Doug) had kidnapped the leashed animal at 3:30 AM and put it in their stolen police cruiser; Tyson approved of the theft: "Nice, high-five that one"
• on their return trip to the hotel, the now-clothed Chow with some Asian gang members broad-sided their vehicle with their SUV; he demanded: "I want my purse back, assholes" - referring to $80,000 dollars of stolen Bellagio casino poker chips (eventually discovered in Doug's purse); he then accused the group of kidnapping him and putting him in the car trunk; the gangsters revealed that they had a head-covered hostage in the SUV (the guys wrongly assumed it was Doug!), and gave a deadline of sunrise to return the money to Big Rock in the Mojave Desert, in exchange for the hostage
• that night Alan cheated at blackjack (by counting cards, but evaded being caught for illegally gambling) to win the $82,400 that was to be used for the exchange in the desert, but when the hood was removed from the hostage's head, it wasn't Doug (Alan: "The Doug we're looking for is a white"), but an African-American who was called: "Black Doug" (Mike Epps) - he was the drug-dealer in the liquor store who had sold Alan the bad "roofies" advertised as Ecstasy, and he had hung out with the group shooting craps at the Bellagio
• --- the flashback ENDED!! -- the scene returned to the frantic phone call to Tracy about the missing Doug
• as they raced back to their hotel room, Stu surmised that Doug - on the rooftop - had tried to signal his whereabouts by throwing his mattress onto a statue below; he had to have been on the roof, since the windows were inoperable in any of the rooms; they discovered that Doug was severely sunburned and trapped for a day and a half on the roof of Caesar's Palace; Stu remembered that Doug had originally been moved there as a practical joke
• they checked out of the hotel, and before leaving Stu made plans to meet up with Jade for a dinner date the following weekend; the group drove the beaten-up, ruined Mercedes back home to Los Angeles in only three and a half hours, during which time Doug found the $80,000 in chips in his pocket; on the freeway, they were tossed wrapped-up packages with phone-ordered tuxs from The Tux Shop before arriving late, but just in time for Doug to marry Tracy
• during the outdoor celebratory reception, it was long overdue for Stu to drop his demanding girlfriend Melissa in front of a large audience, when he admitted he had joined his friends in Vegas: ("I think, in a healthy relationship, sometimes a guy should be able to do what he wants to do...You're such a bad person! Like, all the way through to your core!"), and that he knew she had cheated on him with a bartender during last June's cruise; after the wedding, Doug was pleasingly shocked and relieved when told that his new bride's father had gifted him the Mercedes (not knowing it was destroyed)
• Stu's discarded digital camera found by Alan in the back seat of the car revealed what had happened during the previous night - ("Some of it's even worse than we thought") - the group decided to view the pictures together only one time - "and then we delete the evidence"
• there were hilarious out-takes in the final credits sequence (to the tune of Flo Rida's and Kesha's Right Round); the images included Alan passed out next to a topless female, enjoying a lap dance and also having his fat belly pierced; Stu and Phil also cavorted with strippers and lap dancers, and Stu had pulled out one of his front teeth with a pair of pliers as part of a dare from Alan; the group played craps at the Bellagio casino and brought Phil to the hospital with a concussion

Stu with Strippers	Stu with Jade	Stu's Pulled Out Tooth With Pliers
Gambling at the Craps Table	Alan's Piercing At a Tattoo Parlor	Phil in the Hospital

Happy Gilmore (1996)

• the opening credits sequence of Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) in a lengthy voice-over explaining why he was destined to play hockey: "My name is Happy Gilmore. Ever since I was old enough to skate, I loved hockey. I wasn't really the greatest skater though. But that didn't stop my dad from teaching me the secret of smacking the greatest slap shot. My dad worshipped hockey, my mom didn't. That's why she moved to Egypt, where there's not a hockey rink within 1500 miles. Dad always took me to games to cheer for our favorite player, Terry O'Reilly, the Tasmanian Devil. He wasn't the biggest guy in the league, but he feared nobody, just like me. Handsome fella, huh? He always said that when I grew up, I could be anything I wanted to be, but I never wanted to be anything but a hockey player. Yeah, my childhood was goin' great, but life is full of surprises. After the funeral, I was sent to live with my grandma in Waterbury. I was kinda nervous since I really didn't know her that well, but she dressed like Gene Simmons from KISS to cheer me up. She's the sweetest person in the world. See after my dad died, I developed kinda a short fuse. That kid right there just stole my party blower, and instead of askin' for it back, I felt I had to belt him in the head a bunch of times with a hammer. Look at me go. But most of the time, I was quick to say I was sorry. During high school, I played junior hockey and still hold two league records; most time spent in the penalty box, and I was the only guy to ever take off his skate and try to stab somebody. After I graduated, I had a lot of different jobs; I was a road worker, a janitor, a security guard, a gas station attendant, and a plumber. Lately, I've been workin' construction. It's not a bad racket. I'm a pretty good shot with a nail gun, but, uh, one day my boss, Mr. Larson, uh, got in the way. Apparently he also has a short fuse. Look at that monster. He got a few lucky punches in there, but I still feel I won the fight. Anyways, those jobs weren't for me. I was put on this planet for one reason - to play hockey"

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)

• in this comedy about two stoners driving to a White Castle, the scene of Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) picking up hitchhiking, high-on-ecstasy, very horny Neil Patrick Harris (as Himself but out of character), and Kumar's question about his role as Doogie Howser M.D. on TV: "So, I gotta ask you Neil, did you ever get it on with Wanda off the set?" - he replied: "Dude, I humped every piece of ass ever on that show" except then he clarified that he didn't go all the way with the "hot nurse"
• Harris offered a suggestion: "Dude, I don't even know where the f--k I am right now. I was at this party earlier tonight and some guy hooked me up with this incredible "X" - next thing I know, I'm being thrown out of a moving car. I've been trippin' balls ever since...Forget White Castle, let's go get some pussy!...It's a f--king sausage fest in here, bros. Let's get some poontang, then we'll go to White Castle...I've been craving burgers, too. Furburgers. Come on, dudes, let's pick up some trim at a strip club. The Doogie line always works on strippers. (singing) Lapdance..."

Harold and Maude (1971)

• the character of troubled and morbid 20 year-old introverted rich kid Harold (Bud Cort) who staged many very realistic, elaborately-faked suicides (hanging by a noose, cut wrists and throat, immolation, shooting, stabbing, drowning, etc.) for his desperate, widowed, socialite domineering mother Mrs. Chasen's (Vivian Pickles) (Vivian Pickles) 'benefit' (and her typical reaction: "I suppose you think that's very funny") - often in front of dates arranged by her
• his pretending to chop off his own left hand at the wrist with a meat cleaver during a dry, boring brunch with her and Edith Phern (Shari Summers), and his later, deadly and precisely-asked question: "Do you.. like ...knives?"
• the funny scene in which Harold's over-bearing, match-making mother filled out his computer dating service questionnaire for him: ("Did you enjoy life when you were a child?" -- "Oh yes, you were a wonderful baby, Harold"), while he calmly loaded a revolver to commit fake suicide, and her continual efforts to set up Harold on blind dates after "bride interviews"
• Harold's unlikely love affair with 79 year old funeral-loving, free-spirited Maude (Ruth Gordon) - a concentration-camp survivor that he first met at a stranger's funeral service -- Harold drove a hearse
• Harold's response to his ineffectual and detached psychiatrist's query about what he did for fun and enjoyment: "I go to funerals" - with eccentric and free-spirited 79 year-old soulmate Maude
• the scenes of Maude stealing a car and evading a motorcycle cop
• Harold's talk with hawkish, crazed, one-armed Uncle Victor (Charles Tyner), "General MacArthur's right-hand man," who recommended that he sign up for Army boot camp immediately, to "take on a man's job": "Now, that's what this country needs - more Nathan Hales"
• the incredible scene when Harold performed harakiri in front of his drama student date Sunshine Doré (Ellen Geer) who also unwittingly acted out the tragic scene from Romeo and Juliet with her dagger finding its sheath in her chest
• Harold's growing admiration for Maude: (Harold: "You sure have a way with people." Maude: "Well, they're my species!")
• the scene of a priest's (Eric Christmas) impassioned warning to Harold about having sex with an elderly person: ("I would be remiss in my duty if I did not tell you that the idea of intercourse: and the fact of your firm, young body co-mingling with the withered flesh, sagging breasts and flabby buttocks, makes me want to vomit")

Harvey (1950)

• the film's entire premise: eccentric and cheerful, often inebriated and 42 year-old dipsomaniac Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) had an invisible friend (identified as a "pooka" or mischievous Celtic-Irish spirit of mythology - "a fairy spirit in animal form") - a giant 6 foot three-and-a-half-inch rabbit named Harvey that accompanied him everywhere; he was oblivious that he was an embarrassment to his family and that others couldn't see his furry white friend

Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) (with Harvey) in Front of His Estate

(l to r): Elwood's Older Sister Veta (Josephine Hull) and Her Unmarried Daughter Myrtle (Victoria Horne), Elwood's Niece

• Elwood had obviously become an embarrassment to his family, including Elwood's eccentric older sister Mrs. Veta Louise Dowd Simmons (Josephine Hull), and Veta's unmarried daughter Myrtle Mae Simmons (Victoria Horne) - Elwood's niece; Elwood was being accused of continually driving people away due to his lunacy, and causing his family members to feel "disgraced" and become social outcasts, while preventing Myrtle from meeting eligible young men
• as Elwood walked about town, he carefully guided Harvey across a busy street, causing befuddlement amongst townfolk who saw him talking presumably to himself (they couldn't see his large furry white friend); he often spent time drinking in Charlie's Bar, where he ushered Harvey to a seat at the bar; the bartender Mr. Cracker (Dick Wessel) humored Elwood by acknowledging his friend and accepting his strange behavior

Elwood Entering Charlie's Bar with Harvey

Elwood with Harvey Inside Charlie's Bar

• although Veta questioned Elwood's sanity, she surprisingly and ironically occasionally could see Harvey and acknowledged his presence
• Veta led efforts to get Elwood committed to an insane asylum, Chumley's Rest, run by Dr. William Chumley (Cecil Kellaway); she convinced Elwood to join her in a drive to the front of the gated institution; while sitting in the backseat next to Harvey in a taxi driven by Henry Riley (Norman Leavitt), the delusionally-lunatic Elwood caused confusion when he spoke to Harvey: - Elwood "Charming place, isn't it, Harvey?" - Henry: "Name's Henry." - Elwood: "It's Henry, Harvey." - Henry: "No, just plain Henry."
• at the sanitarium, the frazzled Veta spoke to Nurse Miss Ruth Kelly (Peggy Dow), and to attending young assistant physician Dr. Lyman Sanderson (Charles Drake) in his office; Veta insisted: "I want him committed out here permanently because I cannot stand another day of that Harvey!"; due to her absurd insinuations about her brother and a rabbit, she ashamedly admitted: "Every once in a while, I see this big white rabbit myself! Now, isn't that terrible! And what's more, he's every bit as big as Elwood says he is!"; thinking that she was a mental case herself, Dr. Sanderson decided to immediately admit Veta for treatment instead of Elwood; white-coated orderly Marvin Wilson (Jesse White) was ordered to seize her, and he forcibly carried her over his shoulder to the upstairs ward
• shortly later, Dr. Chumley realized that Dowd was actually the insane one, so a town-wide search commenced for Elwood to return him to Chumley's; four hours later, Elwood was eventually tracked down to Charlie's Bar but found alone; he asserted to Dr. Sanderson: "Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor. And I'm happy to state I finally won out over it"; he claimed that he had spoken with Dr. Chumley, but the doctor had wandered off with Harvey after several rounds of martinis to another joint; the pleasant and sane-sounding Dowd recalled how he seemed to be able to magically convince Dr. Chumley of Harvey's existence ("At first, Dr. Chumley seemed a little frightened of Harvey, but that gave way to admiration as the evening wore on")
• Wilson arrived with a policeman and they grabbed Elwood to take him back to the sanitarium; back at the hospital, a disheveled, frazzled and slightly paranoid Dr. Chumley (who feared that he was being followed by the invisible presence of Harvey) arrived on foot, entered, and was there to meet privately with "crackpot" Dowd in his office
• Chumley had obviously taken a liking to Harvey, and requested that Harvey be allowed to stay with him for a while (presumably so he could experience a fanciful dream trip to Ohio); Dowd had told him about Harvey's miraculous powers - he could stop time and miraculously send anyone to a destination: "Did I tell you he could stop clocks?... Well, you've heard the expression 'His face would stop a clock'? Well, Harvey can look at your clock and stop it. And you can go anywhere you like, with anyone you like, and stay as long as you like. And when you get back, not one minute will have ticked by....You see, science has overcome time and space. Well, Harvey has overcome not only time and space, but any objections"
• Dr. Chumley described his own perfect, therapeutic two-week destination: Akron, OH, to visit a "cottage camp" in a beautiful grove of maple trees, accompanied by cold beer and a pretty, strange, but quiet woman - who after listening to his deepest, locked-up secrets would call him a "poor, poor thing"
• as the film concluded, Veta at first complained that Dowd had refused a cure for his rabbit-hallucinations (by an injection of a serum known as "Formula 977"): "I don't think I'd care for it") over Veta's objections ("I wish there might never be another tomorrow! Not if Myrtle Mae and I have to go on living with that rabbit! Our friends never come to see us anymore. We have no social life whatever! We've no life at all. We're both perfectly miserable"; but then to please his older sister, Dowd politely agreed to take the treatment in Dr. Sanderson's office
• when Veta clearly realized that Dowd's cure would be worse than his ailment (he would negatively change and revert back to "a perfectly normal human being, and you know what stinkers they are"), she intervened to stop the injection
• Harvey briefly remained behind with Dr. Chumley (who asked: "Have you ever been to Akron?"), but after an instantaneous trip of two weeks to Akron, Harvey rejoined Elwood as he walked out of the hospital's gates toward the bus stop; the two followed behind Veta and Myrtle as they headed into the sunrise, as Elwood responded to Harvey: "Well, thank you, Harvey. I prefer you too"

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

• an updated version of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
• a story about Los Angeles Rams quarterback Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) who returned to earth (after a premature death due to an error by heavenly escort (Buck Henry)) in the body of a recently-murdered and eccentric billionaire Leo Farnsworth
• his dilemma: faced with his chief assistant Tony (Charles Grodin) and Leo's scheming wife Julia (Dyan Cannon) - lovers who were plotting to murder him!

High Anxiety (1977)

In Mel Brooks' hilarious comedy - a satirical parody of famous moments and scenes from various Hitchcock films - and his fourth spoof film after Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and Silent Movie (1976):

• the lead starring role of Richard H. Thorndyke (Brooks himself) as a Hitchcock prototype (a wrongly-accused innocent man on the run) - a psychiatrist with acrophobia, and the newly-appointed head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous
• the scene of Thorndyke's airport arrival, when an overly aggressive, screaming woman (Pearl Shear) rushed at him, but she was only greeting her husband Harry, and Thorndyke's assessment of everything highlighted by strident orchestral music: "What a dramatic airport!"
• Thorndyke's photography-obsessed chauffeur Brophy (Ron Carey) ("I love to take pictures. I'm very photogenic"), who during their drive on an LA freeway, revealed the reason for the death of Thorndyke's predecessor: "I think Dr. Ashley was the victim of - foul play" - with a swelling of dramatic music on the soundtrack, accompanied by the anachronistic view of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra playing on a bus next to them (the gag revealed the difference between a non-diegetic scoring cue and a diegetic one - one heard by the characters)
• the devious character of Nurse Charlotte Diesel (Cloris Leachman) and her pointy-breasted white uniform and manly mustache (introduced by Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman) as "my right-hand man, woman"), who had strict rules: "Those who are tardy (to dinner) do not get fruit cup" - she doubled as a sadistic, Neo-Nazi dominatrix, with whom Montague later had a closet spanking session: (Montague: "I know you better than you know yourself. You live for bondage and discipline. Too much bondage, not enough discipline")
• Thorndyke's own tooth-brushing tutorial delivered to his own mirror image as he brushed his teeth: ("Up and down. Up and down. Side, side, side, side, side. In and out. In and out. Side, side, side, side, side (repeated)")
• the psychiatrist's explanation for Thorndyke's high anxiety over acrophobia - with a flashback to his infancy and his abusive parents, and his insight in an epiphany: "It's not height I'm afraid of. It's parents!"
• the classic spoof scenes: an attack in a shower (stabbed by an angry bellhop (Barry Levinson) with a rolled-up newspaper and newspaper ink - not blood - running down the drain, and Thorndyke's quip: "That boy gets no tip"), a scatalogical scene involving a massive horde of pigeons on a park's jungle-jim that chased (and pooped) on Thorndyke
• Thorndyke's awkward speech to a psychiatric convention in San Francisco, when asked about his use of the term "Penis envy"; with two young children in the audience, he had to modify his terms, using "pee-pee envy", "balloons" (for breasts), "number one or cocky-doody" (terms related to toilet training), and the "woo-woo" (for the "female erogenous zone" or womb): "As I was saying, in a world of predominantly male-oriented psychology, it was only natural to arrive at the term, pee - Pee, 'Peepee envy'"
• the copy-catting of Hitchcock's filming style or camera angles - a through-the-door tracking shot into a dining room that crashed through the windowed doors, a low-angle shot looking up through a glass coffee table, but obstructed by a carafe, saucers, etc., an overhead shot in a padded cell (with all the actors suddenly looking up at the camera), and another backwards-moving traveling shot in the final honeymoon scene that literally broke through the wall
• the obscene phone call scene, when Thorndyke was placing a phone booth call to his love interest Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn), a patient's wealthy daughter, and he was attacked from behind by assassin "Braces" (Rudy DeLuca) (a take-off on Bond's "Jaws"); with the cord wrapped around his throat to strangle him, all he could utter was "Ahhh," "Oooh," and "Uuhh" - after resisting a little, Victoria interpreted his words as kinky sex talk from an anonymous caller and responded: "How did you, uhm, get my room number...What are you wearing?...You're wearing jeans? I'll bet they're tight...Oh my God. You are an animal"; after he killed the attacker, he was able to speak to her, when she backtracked: "I knew it was you all the time. I just went along with it"
• the climactic tower scene (a replicated and parodied amalgam of Vertigo and Spellbound) with Thorndyke and Victoria caught on a crumbling staircase

His Girl Friday (1940)

• a classic comedy - and one of the most fast-paced ever made, with numerous quips and wisecracks
• the frantic, overlapping whirlwind nature of the sophisticated, fast-talking battle of the sexes dialogue (and duel of wits) in the opening scene (and throughout the entire film) between big-city newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) and his ex-reporter/ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell); his main goal was to keep Hildy from getting remarried to a country bumpkin fiancee named Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy)
• Walter's first meeting with Bruce Baldwin, but at first mistaking an older Mr. Davis in the office as Bruce
• classic one-liners such as Hildy's description to Bruce of Walter's charm: "Well, he comes by it naturally. His grandfather was a snake"
• the hilarious restaurant-luncheon scene with Walter and Hildy's fiancee - the staid, dull, but devoted insurance salesman Bruce, when Walter deliberately sat between the two of them, and his unending conniving to find a way to dislodge Hildy from her imminent marriage and stop the couple's impending move to Albany to live in Bruce's mother's house; his words dripped in irony as he amusedly commented: Walter (sarcastically): "Oh, you're gonna live with your mother?...Oh, that will be nice! Yes, yes, a home with mother - in Albany too!"

Home Alone (1990)

• the scene of 8 year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) slapping too much after-shave to his cheeks - and screaming

Horse Feathers (1932)

• the opening scene of Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff's (Groucho Marx) address to Huxley College faculty members and students: ("... As I look over your eager faces, I can readily understand why this college is flat on its back. The last college I presided over, things were slightly different. I was flat on my back. Things kept going from bad to worse but we all put our shoulders to the wheel and it wasn't long before I was flat on my back again")
• Wagstaff's opening musical number: "I'm Against It"
• the sequence at a speakeasy where Wagstaff attempted to guess doorman Baravelli's (Chico Marx) secret password ("swordfish")
• Pinky (Harpo Marx) providing a hot cup of coffee from the inside of his coat for a bum on the street
• Pinky's scene with his horse blocking traffic and a cop who wrote him a ticket
• the classic Biology classroom scene that degenerated into a peashooter fight between Wagstaff and two unruly students
• Wagstaff's romancing and serenading of flirtatious "college widow" Connie Bailey (Thelma Todd) with "Everyone Says I Love You" - and their scene in a canoe on a duck pond - and his response to her baby talk: "If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all her teef wight down her thwoat"
• the scene of the attempted kidnap of the two star Darwin College athletes
• the climactic zany Huxley-Darwin football game (partly inspired by the silent Harold Lloyd classic The Freshman (1925)) involving audible football signals, banana peels, an elastic band, and a chariot

Hot Rod (2007)

• the character of inept, goofy, wanna-be moped-riding stuntman Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) - with a fake mustache and daredevil costume in his quest to be Evel Knievel - who was in a forest setting (his "quiet place") dancing to the tune of Moving Pictures' Never; in the big extended stunt scene while doing several impressive flips, trampoline jumps, cartwheels, pummel-horse gymnastics moves, and punch-dance routines, he careened over a huge log and suddenly, he began tumbling down the steep mountain grade - FOREVER
• the scene of Rod and his half-brother Kevin Powell (Jorma Taccone) discussing the proper pronunciation of his safe word: 'whiskey'
• the bizarre "Cool Beans" pseudo rap-song when Rod and Kevin together sang the words 'cool beans'
• the scene of Rod's hallucinatory "profound out-of-body experience" (after a momentous crash during a jump over 15 school buses) of a grilled cheese sandwich battling against a taco in a heavenly setting; earlier, he had asked love interest Denise (Isla Fisher) who would win such a contest and she answered: 'Grilled cheese, but only in a fair fight. If it's prison rules, I'd take the taco" - he noted: "Wow, that's pretty racist, but correct"; now, when he came to consciousness, he told Denise: "Denise, you were right, the taco won"

Howard the Duck (1986)

• the clever opening credits sequence set in Howard T. Duck's Marshington DC apartment (3636 Lakeside Dr.) located on a "duck" version of Earth (Duckworld), with duck-versions of everything ("Rolling Egg" Magazine, a film poster for "Breeders of the Lost Stork" with Indiana Drake, Mae Nest and W.C. Fowls in a My Little Chickadee film poster, Playduck Magazine, etc.)
• the sudden expulsion of Howard in his armchair into outer space (and his landing in Cleveland)
• the scene of the interstellar duck Howard saving the life of Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), a musician in a struggling punk rock band known as Cherry Bomb, by declaring: ("That's it, no more Mr. Nice Duck"), and fighting off mean street thugs with strange martial arts: ("Let the female creature go! Every duck's got his limit, and you scum have pushed me over the line...No one laughs at a master of quack-fu")
• the sequence of Howard the Duck having a "brewski" at Beverly's apartment, and admitting that he was having an identity crisis: ("What I don't know is what the hell I'm doing here! It's like a bad trip. I mean, talk about an identity crisis"), and then when he fell asleep, Beverly's peek into his wallet, where she found his ID, photos, credit cards (MallardCard and Bloomingducks), cash bills with a duck President, and a condom!
• the hilarious scene in the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services where Howard was advised about finding a job by a large and outspoken counselor named Cora Mae (Virginia Capers) - warning that she didn't like dealing with a "slacker" or "misfit" like him: ("They think that by trapsing in here and looking outlandish, they are not gonna be able to find work....Do you think that by looking controversial, you is never gonna find a job and just go on coIlecting unemployment and living happy on the public dole. Well, dude, you've got another thing coming! Because Cora Mae always places her interviewee. I'm gonna find your ass a job that'll wipe that snarl right off your face, little - whatever you is. In fact, I think I got just the position for you! I got a feeling you're gonna take to this job like a duck to water")
• the strange seduction scene in Beverly's apartment when Howard complimented her figure: ("I have developed a greater appreciation for the female version of the human anatomy"); he joined her in bed to watch David Letterman on television, as he suggestively remarked: ("Maybe it's not a man you should be looking for"); she wondered: ("Do you think I might find happiness in the animal kingdom, duckie?") and he proposed: ("Like they say, doll, love's strange. We could always give it a try. Hmm?"); she called his bluff and began unbuttoning the front of Howard's shirt - as the feathers in the middle of his head flared up: ("OK, let's go for it, Mr. Macho...It's just that you're so incredibly soft and cuddly...I just can't resist your intense animal magnetism"); he expressed his worry: ("Anyway, where will it all lead? Marriage? Kids? A house in the suburbs?"), and as she began to remove her blouse: ("Let's just face it, it's fate"), he shied away from intimacy - but they shared a few short kisses, seen in silhouette
• the long extended scenes (about getting Howard back home with a reversed cosmic ray) involving multiple chase scenes and lots of explosions, including Howard and scientist/janitor Phil's (Tim Robbins) ride in an ultralight aircraft
• the character of researcher Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) becoming possessed while driving: ("Listen, an evil has landed. The world is in great danger...It feels like something inside me gnawing at my guts! What's wrong with me?..The pain. It's like I'm transforming inside. I'm afraid I'm about to become something else...Something's growing inside me...It's replicating and superceding all my internal organs!...That monster's shape I saw...It's inside my body...The end of the world is coming, and I will be the cause of it...I'm not Jenning any more. The transformation is complete. I am now someone else")
• the scene in Joe Roma's Cajun Sushi restaurant, when the waitress asked the possessed Dr. Jenning about his food order: ("What do you think he'd like to eat?"), with his reply: ("I no longer need human food...You are about to witness the end of the old world and the birth of the new"); then he explained his transformation into the Dark Overlord: ("I told you, bird brain, I am not Jenning any more! I am now one of the Dark Overlords of the universe... Tonight the laser beam hit the Nexus of Sominus...It lies beyond the planets. It is a region of demons to which we Dark Overlords were exiled eons ago...Just as you were brought down here accidentally. Tonight, the laser beam released me from that region of demons and pulled me down into that lab...During the explosion, I entered Jenning's body. So, I have disguised my true form which would be considered hideous and revoIting here...This will mean the extinction of all existing life forms...My powers are growing"); he then showed them the code-key - that he would soon use that night to activate the laser spectra scope to bring down the other Dark Overlords; he ended with the threat: ("Soon the Dark Overlords will engulf the Earth - Nothing human will remain here") - and he soon destroyed much of the diner: ("If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen")
• and the scene of the possessed Dr. Jenning driving a truck with Beverly as his hostage - and at one point - using his extended tongue to extract power from the vehicle's dashboard cigarette lighter; he then entered an Exhaust Emissions Testing area, where he used a laser-beam blast from his eyes to obliterate other cars - and then joked: "Smog inspection!"
• the sequence of the Dark Overlord of the Universe (created by George Lucas' special effects division) transforming into a monstrous scorpion-like creature
• Howard's coming to the saving rescue and defeating the monstrous creature by blowing it to smithereens with an experimental "neutron disintegrator" laser
• the film's conclusion with Howard (strumming a red electric guitar) and Beverly on-stage and singing together: "Howard the Duck"

I'm No Angel (1933)

• the film's opening - one-ring circus and sideshow carnival barker's (Russell Hopton) tempting of a crowded audience, and his introduction of carnival queen and dazzling international small-time, vamp circus star performer Tira (Mae West) in a sequined, tight-fitting gown: ("Over there, Tira, the beautiful Tira, dancing, singing, marvel of the age, supreme flower of feminine pulchritude, the girl who discovered you don't have to have feet to be a dancer")
• Tira's sauntering entrance on the catwalk and her purring to spectators to follow her behind the curtain: ("A penny for your thoughts....Get the idea, boys....Ya follow me?")
• the final courtroom scene (Tira was wearing a floor-length black gown and fur wrap), when she sued lover Jack Clayton (Cary Grant) for breach of promise; she flirted with the judge, and asserted her right to have lots of male acquaintances to her own lawyer: "Why shouldn't I know guys? I've been around. I travel from coast to coast. A dame like me can't make trips like that without meetin' some of the male population"
• her self-defense when she acted as her own lawyer, and at one point quipped: ("How'm I doin'?"); with her hands on her hips, she sashayed in front of the male jury, and cross-examined many male witnesses before having the case dismissed
• the courtroom scene ended with a risque one-liner and memorable quip when she was asked why she knew so many men in her life: "Well, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men"

The In-Laws (1979)

• a light-hearted, odd-couple comedy with the funny and unpredictable teaming of the title's in-laws: respected, mildly neurotic NYC dentist Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin) and lunatic but wily CIA agent Vince Ricardo (Peter Falk)
• all of Vince's wild tales, especially his one about being in the Guatemalan jungle bush for nine months in the mid-1950s on a consulting trip - with tse-tse flies the size of eagles that carried off native children: "They have tsetse flies down there the size of eagles....Really. In the evening, I would stand in front of my hut and watch in horror as these giant flies would pick children off the ground and carry them away....Oh, it was an incredible sight. Peasants screaming, chasing these flies down the road, waving brooms. You can imagine the pathetic quality of this. Waving these crudely fashioned brooms at these enormous flies as they carried their children off to almost certain death...Flies - natives had a name for 'em. Jos Grecos de Muertos. 'Flamenco dancers of death.'...The enormous flies flapping slowly away into the sunset. Small brown babies clutched in their beaks...A sight I'll never forget. I was stunned. Appalled...Sadly, there is very little you can do because of the tremendous red tape in the bush....Enormous red tape, Sheldon. These flies, for example. They're protected against pilferage under the provisions of the Guacamole Act of 1917"
• the wild adventure taken by them from Manhattan to a Central American dictatorship (the fictional Latin American republic of Tijada) where they were greeted by Senator Jesus Braunschweiger (Eduardo Noriega), as Vince noted: ("They're all crooks down here. At least this one don't make any bones about it"); suddenly the Senator was shot dead by snipers, and Sheldon asked: "Is he dead?" Vince replied: "If he's alive, he's puttin' on a hell of an act, ain't he?"; as they fled from the random gunfire to escape, Vince yelled out that they should not run in a straight line, but use a serpentine weaving pattern, while retrieving the car keys from the dead man's pocket: "Serpentine Shelly. Serpentine!"
• Tijada's leader: counterfeiter General Garcia's (Richard Libertini) who proposed a new national flag - a portrait of himself alongside a topless local native village prostitute, with his complaint: "If it was not for the church, this flag would already today be flying at the U.N. But no, they stand in the way, THEY STAND IN THE WAY!"
• the firing squad scene (with a chorus of sharpshooting executioners), when Vince and Shelly demanded blindfolds and cigarettes, and Shelly's dismay: "Oh, oh, am I shot, am I shot?" - when gunfire was heard from a rescue team of CIA agents
• the concluding scene at the wedding, when the two in-laws were confronted by Vince's fellow CIA agent Barry Lutz (Ed Begley, Jr.), who hadn't been formally invited; Shelly apologized: "It's simple. We counted wrong, Bar...We just made a mistake....In the counting of the invitations." And then Barry said that he was only "ribbing" them, and presented them with a $50 savings bond from the agency, as the ceremony began - and a bi-plane trailing a "HAPPY WEDDING" sign dropped balloons

The Interview (2014)

• the conversation between talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen), his show producer:
  - Aaron: "What is there to be jealous of?"
  - Dave: "F--kers hate us 'cause they ain't us!"
  - Aaron: "They hate us 'cause we anus? What the f--k does an anus have to do with this?"
  - Dave: "They hate us 'cause they AIN'T us!"
  - Aaron: "That's not what it is!"

It Happened One Night (1934)

• the pursuit of spoiled runaway heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) by recently-fired, scheming and cocky newspaperman Peter Warne (Clark Gable) - a tale of two mismatched individuals
• the "Walls of Jericho" scene when the two were separated in their shared twin bedroom in an autocamp by a clothesline and a blanket: (Peter: "Well, I like privacy when I retire. Yes, I'm very delicate in that respect. Prying eyes annoy me. Behold the walls of Jericho! Uh, maybe not as thick as the ones that Joshua blew down with his trumpet, but a lot safer. You see, uh, I have no trumpet"); she fled to her side when he later warned: ("...you got nothin' to worry about. The walls of Jericho will protect you from the big bad wolf")
• Peter also provided a lesson on how men undress, and bared his chest without an undershirt: "You know, it's a funny thing about that. Quite a study in psychology. No two men do it alike. You know, I once knew a man who kept his hat on until he was completely undressed. Now he made a picture. Years later, his secret came out. He wore a toupee. Yeah. I have a method all my own. If you notice, the coat came first, then the tie, then the shirt. Now, uh, according to Hoyle, after that, the, uh, pants should be next. There's where I'm different..."
• and later, Peter's breakfast lesson on how to dunk donuts and how real folks eat: ("Dunking's an art. Don't let it soak so long. A dip and (he stuffed the donut in his mouth) plop, in your mouth. Let it hang there too long, it'll get soft and fall off. It's all a matter of timing. Aw, I oughta write a book about it")
• the scene of their deception of two nosy private investigators by impersonating a make-believe, quarreling married couple - he berated her for flirting with a "big Swede" on the Elks' dance floor and then insulted her: ("You're just like your old man. Once a plumber's daughter, always a plumber's daughter. There's not an ounce of brains in your whole family"); when the flabbergasted detectives left, the auto-camp manager commented: "I told you they were a perfectly nice married couple"
• the thumb vs. show-some-leg hitchhiking technique scene at the side of the road; Peter condescendingly lectured Ellie: ("It's all in that ol' thumb, see?...that ol' thumb never fails. It's all a matter of how you do it, though"); after a detailed lecture on the three proper and correct ways that common people hail passing cars while thumb hitchhiking, he failed miserably and she suggested her method: ("Oh, you're such a smart alec. Nobody knows anything but you. I'll stop a car and I won't use my thumb...It's a system all my own") - she provocatively raised her skirt above the knee, exposing a shapely, stockinged leg and garter - an immediately effective technique - the next car screeched to a halt; she joked: ("Well, I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb"); he quipped back: ("Why didn't you take off all your clothes? You could have stopped forty cars")

It's a Gift (1934)

In director Norman Z. McLeod's very funny comedy:

• the hilarious grocery store sequences (with a number of slapstick segments and sight gags) involving bumbling New Jersey store owner Harold Bissonette (W. C. Fields) and his incompetent store clerk Everett Ricks (Tammany Young)
• Bissonette's eccentric patrons included a disruptive and grumpy Mr. Jasper Fitchmueller (Morgan Wallace) who kept requesting "ten pounds of kumquats - and I'm in a hurry", a cantankerous, blind/deaf and destructive Mr. Muckle (Charles Sellon) - a house-detective wearing sunglasses and wielding a cane, and Baby Ellwood Dunk (Baby LeRoy) spreading molasses all over the floor; all the while, Harold rushed around responding to an increasingly-exasperated Mr. Fitchmueller, promising: "Coming, coming..."
• as Muckle approached the store, Bissonette screamed out to Everett: "Open the door for Mr. Muckle" - knowing that full-scale destruction of the store was about to happen; unable to get to the closed front door in time to open it, the irrascible old Muckle smashed its plate glass window with his wildly waving cane, shouting out: "You got that door closed again!"
• with an ear trumpet, the hard-of hearing Muckle only purchased a stick of chewing gum after a prolonged, difficult conversation with Harold - and then proceeded to destroy a display of light bulbs that exploded as they dropped to the floor; when leaving the store after demanding the delivery of the gum, Muckle successfully smashed the other front door's window on his way out, cheerfully adding: "Well, you got that door closed again!"
• a later tour-de-force episode: the funny sequence of the bedeviled Harold's continued attempts to peacefully sleep on his faulty back porch swing while bothered by a milkman and his rattling glass milk bottles (Harold requested: "Please stop playing with those sleigh bells, will ya?"), a coconut noisily bouncing down the steps, an insurance salesman (T. Roy Barnes) looking for Carl LaFong, by Baby Dunk dropping grapes on him ("Right on the proboscis!" and his exclamation: "Shades of Bacchus!"), a chattering, sing-song repartee-conversation between young Miss Abby Dunk (Diana Lewis) and her mother about whether she should buy ipecac or syrup of squill for Baby Dunk, a squeaky clothesline, and a noisy vegetable/fruit vendor (Jerry Mandy)
• Harold's conversation with the salesman was priceless:
  - Salesman: Carl LaFong, Capital L, small a, capital F, small o, small n, small g. LaFong. Carl LaFong.
  - Harold: No. I don't know Carl LaFong - Capital L, small a, Capital F, small o, small n, small g. And if I did know Carl LaFong, I wouldn't admit it!
• the entire California trip sequence - Bissonette's dreamland where he imagined owning an orange grove - including their family picnic scene (not at a camp or picnic grounds, but on the private lawn of an exclusive mansion) where they littered everything with garbage and pillow feathers
• their arrival at Harold's property - located in a disaster area - a dessicated section of sunbaked desert land with a "Tobacco Road" ramshackle shack on it - although due to good fortune, the worthless land was immediately purchased by a developer for a race-track and grandstand for a windfall amount of $44,000!- in the final scene, a triumphant, vindicated and relaxed Harold was on the porch of his new prosperous property: "Bissonette's Blue Bird Oranges" where he was mixing screwdriver cocktails and lazily reaching out and effortlessly plucking an orange from a nearby lush tree

It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

• an epic-length road-trip comedy known for its all-star cast and its many quick-cut cameo performances, including Jack Benny, the Three Stooges, Sterling Holloway, Andy Devine, Joe E. Brown, Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts, Buster Keaton, Arnold Stang, Zasu Pitts, and Carl Reiner among many others
• the film's premise: the mad-cap dash for $350,000 allegedly buried in Santa Rosita State Park near the Mexican border under "The Big W" - the cash was stolen from a tuna factory 15 years earlier by ex-convict "Smiler" Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who literally "kicked the bucket" after a car crash, but was able to reveal the treasure's location during his last words: "Look, there's this dough, see? There's all this dough, $350 Gs! Do you hear what I'm sayin'? $350 Gs! In the park, in Rosita, Rosita Beach State Park just south of Dago in Santa Rosita. It's in this box buried under this...buried under this big W. You'll see it. You'll see it under this, under this big W. Ya can't miss it, a big, a big W. And it's been there, and it's been layin' there for 15 years....You just drive down and dig it up. Dig it all up. And then, and then ya fix yourselves all up. Fix yourselves all up. Walk down the street like a king, back to the old neighborhood. See the fellas, the dames, the dames, all with a big hello, a big hello for old Smiler. Good old Smiler - everybody's friend"
• by plane, car, and other modes of transportation, the various individuals and groups recklessly struggled to get to Santa Rosita Park - for example, truck driver Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters) was stranded on a road with only a little girl's bike to ride; there were multiple car crashes and chase sequences, plane mishaps, the destruction of a gas station and hardware store, and one car sank crossing a river
• the many unusual characters, including dim-witted, life-guard son Sylvester Marcus (Dick Shawn), a mama's boy (with his hip-swiveling, laconic girlfriend (Barrie Chase) to the song "31 Flavors" - referring to kissing - performed by the Shirelles) who promised to race to his loud-mouthed mother Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman) instead of toward the treasure ("You stay right there, because I'm coming, Mom. I'm coming to get you right now, Mom") - she called him "a big, stupid, muscle-headed moron!" for not listening to her
• the conversation between businessman J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle) and Britisher J. Algernon Hawthorne (Terry-Thomas), who spoke out against America and its preoccupation with breasts: "I should be positively astounded to hear of anything that could be said for it. Why, the whole bloody place is the most unspeakable matriarchy in the whole history of civilization! Look at yourself, and the way your wife and her strumpet of a mother push you through the hoop! As far as I can see, American men have been totally emasculated. They're like slaves! They die like flies from coronary thrombosis, while their women sit under hairdryers, eating chocolates and arranging for every second Tuesday to be some sort of Mother's Day! And this positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all my time in this wretched, God-forsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this preposterous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize that they have become the dominant theme in American culture, in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything? I'll wager you anything you like. If American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight"
• the discovery of the meaning of "The Big W" - four palm trees forming the letter W, and the digging up of the treasure, soon stolen by Police Captain T.G. Culpeper (Spencer Tracy) of Santa Rosita, culminating in many of the treasure-seekers becoming stranded on a fire-escape of a condemned building during the frenzied chase (and the people below were showered with the cash), and individuals were flung in various directions during a death-defying attempt to rescue them with a fire-truck's extension ladder
• the hospital finale, where the injured and bandaged (many in traction) talked about their fate; Culpeper told them that everyone didn't have to worry because he would be getting the harshest punishment: ("My wife is divorcing me. My mother-in-law is suing me for damages. My daughter is applying to the courts to have her name changed. My pension has been revoked. And the only reason that you ten idiots will very likely get off lightly, is because the judge will have me up there to throw the book at!...I'd like to think that sometime, maybe 10 or 20 years from now, there'd be something I could laugh at... Anything"); and then, Mrs. Marcus marched into the hospital wing and slipped on a banana peel, causing everyone to laugh uncontrollably, painfully, and hysterically at the sight - even Culpeper joined in