10 Unforgettable Steve Martin Films, Ranked

What is it about Steve Martin’s films that make them so endearing, funny, and infinitely rewatchable?

Granted, not every entry in his filmography has the wonderful chemistry and charm of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, or the sardonic charisma of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, or absurdist humour of The Jerk or The Man with Two Brains.

But they each have Martin’s singular knack for offbeat pathos that attracts our sympathies despite not always portraying the conventional “nice guy”.

“The new phone book’s here… I’m a somebody now.”

Steve Martin got his first taste of showbusiness as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the 1960s before gaining attention as a frequent host of Saturday Night Live. He became known for his outlandish comic energy and offbeat humour, regularly performing sold-out stand-up shows around the US.

Steve Martin and Michael Caine meet for the first time in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Stepping away from stand-up comedy to concentrate on acting, Martin is responsible for some of American cinema’s greatest comedies of the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in films such as The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Three Amigos (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), the Father of the Bride films (1991 & 1995) and Bowfinger (1999).

Steve Martin’s Best Films

10. The Jerk

Dir. Reiner (1979)

The Jerk marked the debut of Steve Martin as a feature-length movie writer and actor, displaying the former jobbing stand-up at his unrestricted best. The film doesn’t concern itself with plot – a childlike adult struggles through life until one day he’s made rich by a strange invention – so much as it hangs a series of sketches and gags on a loosely cobbled together story. The film was voted highly in several “best-of” comedy lists and featured in the AFI’s 100 Years/100 Laughs compilation.

9. Three Amigos

Dir. Landis (1986)

The Three Amigos is notable for the teaming of Saturday Night Live stars Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. They play three silent movie stars who are fired by their studio for demanding higher wages. In a case of mistaken identity, the showbiz gunslingers head to a Mexican village for what they believe to be a live performance.

However, the villagers believe them to be real life heroes, their movies being newsreels in their eyes, tasking them to repel a group of bandits. Martin is definitely the star of the show with director John Landis allowing the actors the freedom to play around with their characters. Randy Newman wrote original songs for the film and these are brilliantly performed by Martin and Short.

8. Leap Of Faith

Dir. Pearce (1992)

Leap Of Faith is a bit of an oddity in the career of Steve Martin. It isn’t a typical Martin film (less comedy, more satirical drama), and it isn’t a typical Martin character (he plays a con artist who’s self-obsessed and unforgiving). But it does feature one hell of a performance.

He plays Jonas Nightengale, travelling the country with his Christian ministry selling the idea of faith and the power of god to bring good health and prosperity to those who come to his show. He uses all the tricks in the book – from cameras and recording equipment, to insiders, stooges, special stage effects, and showmanship – to bring miracles to his hoodwinked audience.

He owns the stage every time he’s on it, prancing around with arms pointing to heaven, the power of God sweeping through his veins. He brilliantly portrays the showman tactics of unsavoury faith healers, from the way he works the crowd with his words of wisdom to his physical attributes in enacting God’s power. This is one of Martin’s most unique performances and one of his best.

7. All Of Me

Dir. Reiner (1984)

All of Me sees Martin collaborate with director Carl Reiner after working with him on The Jerk.  Martin and co-star Lily Tomlin spar off against each other with a perfect sense of comic timing, the unique double-act made more interesting by the fact she is trapped in his body.

Martin is in his element as he battles with his possessed limbs. She controls one side while he controls the other; the ensuing physical comedy of Martin trying to walk straight and even go to the toilet, makes for some of the film’s funniest humour.

The relationship between Martin and Tomlin is as endearing as it is unique. In a sense, Martin has to carry the film with only Tomlin’s omnipresent voice to help him. And he has no trouble doing so. The middle 1980s were Martin’s prime period, especially for the work he did with Reiner.

6. L.A. Story

Dir. Jackson (1991)

L.A. Story is distinctive in the career of Steve Martin for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he wrote the film in which he stars. Secondly, it’s a very personal film. Woody Allen wrote about his beloved New York City and with the same zeal and affection Martin writes about his adopted home of Los Angeles.

The city of angels, with its quirks and idiosyncrasies seen through the eyes of Martin’s existential book of gags, is depicted as a town built on illusion and excess.

In Bowfinger – another film Martin would write and star in – he pokes fun at the industry that made him a star. In L.A. Story he parodies a pastiche of moments, traits, and people that make Los Angeles unique. Amongst his targets are upper-class social gatherings and artificial small talk, corporate television, gun and street crime, and the snobbery of art institutions.

It is also an original, refreshing tale about love, that attempts to discover how romance works under such social peer pressure. Martin hints at the idea this “pressure” is an imagined cultural constraint, and to break away from it is to return to an innocence lost on those suffering the Los Angeles “condition”.

5. Bowfinger

Dir. Oz (1999)

Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) is a down-on-his-luck movie producer who can’t get a film made. When he finds the “perfect” script, he approaches Hollywood’s hottest action star Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) to be in it but Ramsey declines the part. Bowfinger, deciding not to be discouraged, cobbles together a makeshift crew and shoots the film anyway. What Kit Ramsey doesn’t know is he’s still the star of the movie.

This delightful comedy benefits from one of Martin’s most inventive and funny scripts. He brings together an ensemble of quirky characters in a story that celebrates movies while parodying the business that makes them. Martin’s targets are spot-on, from the initial script “meeting” and sale, and the ego of his top star, to the lascivious young actress.

4. The Man With Two Brains

Dir. Reiner (1983)

The Man with Two Brains is from that less commercial stable of “brand” Steve Martin. It’s minted from the creative juices that created L.A. Story and The Lonely Guy with elements of existential angst colliding with absurdist humour.

It’s notable also for Kathleen Turner’s ravishing allure and fiendish nastiness. Think equal parts Body Heat and War Of The Roses, and you get Turner’s basis for the devilishly frightening “Scum Queen” she is in The Man With Two Brains.

Here, Martin plays Dr. Hfuhruhurr, a brilliant neurosurgeon who saves the life of the beautiful Delores (Turner). The doctor sees the woman as the reincarnation of his dead wife, quickly marrying her. But, Delores is only after his money and won’t stop until she’s got rid of her new husband and inherited his millions.

3. Roxanne

Dir. Schepisi (1987)

Steve Martin wrote Roxanne as a modern day take on Edmond Rostand’s play about Cyrano de Bergerac. That’s perhaps why its his finest piece of writing on the subject of love and infatuation, a dramatic theme that often dictated his work – see also L.A. Story, A Simple Twist of Fate, and Shopgirl.

It also features some of his most crowd-pleasing comedy sequences including the brilliant take-down of a barroom bully (when a beer-guzzling drunk dares him to make twenty better jokes than “Big Nose”).

I’m not sure Martin has been better, both as writer and actor, as he reels off twenty gags in front of a packed bar, simultaneously rising above the bully’s pettiness while demeaning his machismo. It’s funny and tragic, witty and personal. Martin’s jibes burst the bully’s ego, conversely empowering his own stature in front of a fervent audience.

2. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Dir. Oz (1988)

Steve Martin and Michael Caine excel in this riotous comedy about two conmen who prey on rich women for financial gain. One of those happy films that makes you feel good thanks to the sparkling energy of its leads.

For Martin, it’s clear he’s at his best when working with a director who understands him as a performer. He was always on form for Carl Reiner (The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man With Two Brains, All Of Me) in his earlier career before later enjoying his time under the direction of Frank Oz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop Of Horrors, Housesitter, Bowfinger).

When Martin’s small-time crook Freddy Benson arrives on Laurence Jamieson’s (Caine) patch in the French Riviera, the American is in awe of his British counterpart’s ability to extract significant amounts of money from the women he cons.

Eventually persuading Jamieson to teach him the tricks of the trade in return for leaving his turf, the two men come to blows over American heiress Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly). What ensues is a battle between the pair to gain the most money from Colgate. The film is a triumph thanks to Caine and Martin’s terrific chemistry and charisma. There’s also fiendish glee to be found in the film’s twist ending.

1. Planes, Trains And Automobiles

Dir. Hughes (1987)

As much John Candy’s best film as Steve Martin’s, Planes, Trains and Automobiles is one of the most widely loved movies of the 1980s. Martin plays Neal Page, an advertising executive trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving after a business trip to New York. When his plane is grounded due to bad weather he finds himself stuck with the innocent but accident-prone Del Griffith (Candy).

The brilliance of writer-director John Hughes is also laid bare in this buddy road trip adventure. Away from his comfort zone of high school and teenage drama, Hughes proved his ability to paint unique, sympathetic but flawed characters was not constrained to the classroom.

The film also reveals a more reserved Martin, dropping the existential anxieties and physical eccentrics that marked his early career for an appealing middle class nice-guy just trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving.

In Planes, Trains and Automobiles we not only get two of John Hughes’ most colourful characters on a physical and metaphorical journey of self-discovery, but arguably its two stars’ finest performances.

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