In "Seriously Funny: The Films of Leo McCarey," the Museum of Modern Art surveys the portfolio of an often overlooked early Hollywood director who in his prime was one of the industry's biggest names. Originally a lawyer, McCarey, who earned his spurs in the silent era, directing dozens of shorts for the Hal Roach Studios, is credited with bringing Laurel and Hardy together. From there, he would make all manner of comedies: subversive (the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup"); patriotic ("Ruggles of Red Gap," with Charles Laughton); and screwball ("The Awful Truth," with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant).
But he could also do melodrama. "Make Way for Tomorrow" is an unsparing Depression-era chronicle of an elderly couple who lose their home and must move in with their children, who don't know what to do with them. Orson Welles called it the saddest movie he had ever seen. When McCarey won the Oscar for directing "The Awful Truth," he said he'd won it for the wrong picture. (Through July 31; moma.org.)