Movies Til Dawn

Behold, below, two clips from one of the most extraordinary gatherings of filmmakers ever assembled on one prime-time talk show--scratch that, assembled anywhere. On a 1971 Dick Cavett show (when he was still on network), Cavett had Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman and Mel Brooks--all representing "young Hollywood" (though Brooks and Altman were each about fifty years old by then)--welcome the legendary Frank Capra, then seventy-five years old and promoting his newly published autobiography "The Name Above The Title". (Personal note: Capra, his films and his book are what influenced me to want to make my own films--his book still has a vibrant and tremendously appealing "call to arms" quality about the power and responsibility that being a filmmaker carries that makes it damn hard to read and not want to join Capra's "one man-one film" army.) In the first clip, Capra comes on and talks about "It Happened One Night", "Dirigible...

Long thought to be lost (and in some quarters even thought to have never existed), "The Stolen Jools" (also known by its foreign title "The Slippery Pearls" and mis-identified on this IMDB listing under that title) was an all-star short comedy shot in 1931 by the National Vaudeville Artists (NVA) as part of their "relief work" for the American Tuberculosis Society. It stars...everybody, more or less, in a sincerely puzzling tale of Norma Shearer's jewels having been stolen and the quasi-investigation that follows--though that makes it sound like there is something resembling a plot line which I assure you there isn't. Really it is just an excuse to get all of the big Hollywood stars of the day on screen--sometimes for mere seconds--in blackout sketches designed to aid a good cause. The film was then shown in theaters across the country, accompanied by a live speaker from the NVA asking for donations to help cure tuberculosis. Since the film has n...

Why are blooper reels--which are never really all that funny--still so fascinating? Because they demonstrate that in every performance there exists a woefully thin line which seperates complete confidence from utter absurdity. Whenever we non-performers hear a perfectly delivered line or announcement, we can't help but wonder how the speaker/actor managed to get something so right that we non-pro's--under any circumstances--would find challenging. The answer--as provided by blooper reels--is that sheer dumb luck is mostly what is requried. Bloopers are proof that the most assured and polished of professionals are only a milli-inch away from rank amateurism. Indeed, if not for the miracle of editing, most professional actors would be exposed as the fraudulent amateurs they in fact are. At least that's how it feels after seeing a decent selection of bloopers... Apparently, there was something called the "Warners Club"-an organization of actors, producers and crew un...

"I am just back from a weekend at Joe Cook's with Connelly, Ross, Chasen, etc. Very good time. Dinner every night at midnight, barbecued spare-ribs and the like, with a show before dinner in Joe's personal opera house. It seats nine people, including the chair in the box. I had that seat. It is the only seat that has opera glasses attached to it. It was not a restful week-end, as so many of the seats exploded when you sat down on them, but I had a good time. " (Alexander Woolcott in a letter to Harpo Marx, October 3, 1932) Chances are, if you are reading this weblog, that you will know at least a couple of the above referenced names. Certainly Harpo Marx's still thuds resoundingly when dropped. Woolcott lives on primarily as the inspiration for the main character in George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's still very funny (and very often revived) "The Man Who Came To Dinner." If you've gotten that far, you probably can infer that Ross is Harold Ross, t...