Cross-dressing classic tops poll

Curtis (left) and Monroe are top again in Some Like It Hot

Comedy classic Some Like It Hot - starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe - has been voted the funniest film ever made by American film critics.

The 1959 movie beat Tootsie (1982) and Dr Strangelove (1964) in a survey of more than 1,500 film experts by the American Film Institute.

Critics' top 10

Some Like It Hot - 1959

Tootsie - 1982

Dr Strangelove - 1964

Annie Hall - 1977

Duck Soup - 1933

Blazing Saddles - 1974

M*A*S*H - 1970

It Happened One Night - 1934

The Graduate - 1967

Airplane! - 1980

But in a simultaneous poll, the American public voted 1982 college caper Porky's as the funniest film ever.

Only two films made it onto both lists: Blazing Saddles and Airplane!

And only five films from the last decade are included in the critics' top 100 - of which the highest rated is 1998's There's Something About Mary, which starred Cameron Diaz.

Other recent films approved by the critics were Fargo (1996), City Slickers (1991) and Groundhog Day and Mrs Doubtfire - both from 1993.

American public's top 10

Porky's - 1982

Dumb and Dumber - 1994

Blazing Saddles - 1985

Life With Father - 1947

The great Race - 1965

The Jerk - 1979

Back To The Future - 1985

Airplane! - 1980

The Princess Bride - 1987

Raising Arizona - 1987

The critics' top 10 goes as far back as the Marx Brothers' classic Duck Soup from 1933 and 1934's It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

The critics' list is identical to a similar American Film Institute poll in 2000.

In a striking contrast, half of the American public 's top 10 were from the last 20 years, including Dumb and Dumber, The Jerk, Back To The Future and Raising Arizona.

No British-funded films were eligible for inclusion, though the Anglo-American production A Fish Called Wanda - starring John Cleese, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis - made it to number 21 on the critics' list.

The critics' list will form the basis for a Channel 4 programme, 100 Years - 100 Laughs, to be shown on Saturday.