Many modern Americans have a shared mental image of what the old Hollywood comedies were like. In the minds of modern audiences, early 20th-century movies—especially those released under the Hayes code—tended to be wholesome, upbeat, and reliant more on slapstick or screwball dialogue than on satirical commentary.

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However, a closer examination of Hollywood movies in the 1940s and earlier reveals that early filmmakers–even when hampered by censorship and restrictive societal norms–were willing to explore dark and complex ideas. These older films may seem clean-cut and family-friendly from the outside, but actually watching them reveals something far less naive than this popular conception would suggest.

10 The Three Stooges Mercilessly Mocked Hitler

The Three Stooges are roasted over a fire by demons, but they're playing Nazis so it's okay

Few comedians seem less likely to have anything to say about politics and current events than the Three Stooges—three man-children who spoke in silly voices and hit each other. Yet, when Hitler came to power in Germany, the Stooges were some of the first comedians to satirize the Nazis onscreen.

Before the US entered WWII, the Stooges made two short films: You Nazty Spy! and I'll Never Heil Again. In both shorts, Moe Howard played Moe Hailstone, a caricature of Hitler who alternated between shouting gibberish at his audiences and whining to his advisors. Both films were surprisingly bold in their commentary and urged action against the Nazis before doing so was status quo.

9 Arsenic and Old Lace Was A Cheerful Movie About Murder

The Brewster family meet in Arsenic and Old Lace

The 1944 film Arsenic and Old Lace is just one example of director Frank Capra subverting his own wholesome, kind-hearted image. On the one hand, it's a screwball comedy filled with silly, lovable characters and farcical situations. On the other, it's a movie about two old women who murder vagrants.

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The women in Arsenic and Old Lace are so "kind" that they think that giving homeless people a quiet, peaceful death is the nicest thing they can do. Their nephew, however, understands how criminal their actions are, and he nearly ruins his own life trying to cover up their crimes, all while avoiding his serial killing brother, Jonathan.

8 Duck Soup Satirized The Idiocy Of War

Chico, Zeppo, Groucho, and Harpo strike a pose in Duck Soup

Duck Soup starts off as fun and light as any other Marx Brothers comedy, with a light plot occasionally punctuated by classic vaudeville routines. As the movie approaches its climax, however, it builds energy and pummels the audience with rapid-fire gags. The plot also breaks down, hilariously so, and all rules of reality go out the window.

Duck Soup puts Groucho Marx in the role of Rufus T. Firefly, the new dictator of the country of Freedonia. Firefly engages in just as many absurd pranks and quips as any other Groucho character, but here, the consequence is a violent war between two countries. It's all ridiculous, but it's also a skewering of the petty disagreements that lead to war.

7 To Be Or Not To Be Is Set During WWII

to-be-or-not-to-be

Half of the 1942 Ernest Lubitsch film To Be Or Not To Be is a light farce about an egotistical actor, played by Jack Benny, who suspects his wife is cheating on him. The other half of the film is a Casablanca-style thriller about Jewish actors and resistance fighters trying to survive in Warsaw during the Nazi invasion of Poland.

To Be Or Not To Be marries its thriller elements and its farcical plotline brilliantly. Some sequences, such as one where Benny has to impersonate a German spy, are as suspenseful as they are funny. Due to its historical significance, the movie was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1996.

6 The Bullfighters Has Laurel And Hardy's Creepiest Ending

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are incompetent bullfighters in 1945's The Bullfighters

The comedy duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are iconic to this day thanks to their perfect comedic timing and wonderfully specific personas. A deep dive into their filmography, however, reveals a shockingly dark sense of humor that modern audiences might not expect from such a ridiculous team.

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A surprising number of Laurel and Hardy's shorts end with the two heroes suddenly killed off or maimed in cartoonish ways. Reportedly, Stan Laurel enjoyed these dark endings and would include them whenever he could. The most violent end comes for them in 1945's The Bullfighters, which ends with the duo skinned down to their bones by a jealous husband, leaving them as walking, talking skeletons.

5 Meet John Doe Shows How The Media Exploits The Underprivileged

Gary Cooper is persuaded not to kill himself in the Frank Capra comedy Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe has all the beats of a screwball comedy from 1941, but it is also a dark story about exploitation. The story begins with a jaded columnist writing a fake letter claiming to be from a homeless man who threatens to take his own life. The letter attracts the public's attention, and the columnist hires an actual drifter to pretend to be the "John Doe" who wrote the letter.

The movie satirized fake outrage and insincere gestures of caring towards the underprivileged, even as the tone remained breezy and chipper. "John Doe's" popularity does send an important message of kindness and community across the country, but at the expense of a man's autonomy. The man in question is nearly driven to take his own life as the entire fake story falls to pieces.

4 The Great Dictator Called For Action Against The Nazis

Charlie Chaplin plays Adenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator

In 1940, the great silent comedian Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his first sound feature, The Great Dictator. Chaplin played two roles: a Jewish barber who lives in a wartime ghetto, and Adenoid Hynkel, a stand-in for Hitler, who leads the fascist dictatorship of Tomainia.

The Great Dictator has plenty of the physical comedy that made Chaplin a legendary silent film actor, but Chaplin's script is also painfully sincere, expressing incredible anger towards the Nazis and solidarity with the persecuted Jewish people. The film ends with an impassioned speech in favor of democracy.

3 It's A Wonderful Life Is Darker Than Its Reputation Suggests

James-Stewart-Donna-Reed-Its-a-Wonderful

The most recognizable moment in It's A Wonderful Life, Frank Capra's 1946 Christmas classic, is George Bailey hugging his children and wife close to him and smiling. As famously feel-good as the end of the movie is, it's easy to forget how dark the rest of the story is.

The inspiring story of an angel who shows George Bailey what the world would be like without him only arrives in the last third of It's A Wonderful Life. Before that, Bailey's dreams are crushed over and over again, and he suffers numerous indignities at the hands of the corrupt loan shark Mr. Henry F. Potter. He is driven to take his own life and is only stopped by Clarence the angel's literal divine intervention.

2 Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein Plays Its Horror Elements Straight

abbott and costello meet frankenstein's monster, Bela Lugosi's Dracula, and Wolfman in a Universal Monster Horror Comedy

The 1948 film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is widely accepted by classic horror fans as an entry into the Universal Monsters canon. While everything in the movie that involves Bud Abbott and Lou Costello—a comedy team famous for their work in vaudeville, radio, and television—is played for laughs, the monsters who appear are actually played straight and treated with seriousness.

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Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr's Wolfman are key players in the film alongside the Frankenstein monster—played here by Glenn Strange filling in for Boris Karloff. Chaney especially commits to the serious stakes of the film, and his human alter ego Larry Talbot is genuinely tormented by the chaos his werewolf form spreads.

1 The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek Is About Unwanted Pregnancy

two characters looking out a window in the miracle of morgan's creek

In 1944, writer and director Preston Sturgess made a comedy that barely passed the rigid restriction of the Hays Code. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, through careful writing and suggestion, told the story of an unmarried woman becoming pregnant against her will.

Trudy Kockenlocker becomes pregnant after a party that she barely remembers due to blow on the head. The movie sanitizes the situation by making it clear that Trudy, while dazed, married the soldier who impregnated her on the same night. However, Sturgess was clearly telling a story meant to parallel that of a woman drugged at a party, who is then forced to bring her pregnancy to term by a prudish society. The movie was scandalous for its time, but it was also a massive box office hit that continues to resonate to this day.

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