The beloved Allan Sherman actually was a thoroughly depressed screwed-up man and his biography, ‘Overweight Sensation’, is so depressing that I haven’t watched/seen/thought of Sherman since I read it a few years ago. Today I’m breaking that self-imposed sanction with this delightful clip of Sherman singing ‘Crazy Downtown’, his parody
Here’s ‘Fright Night’ (1947), Shemp’s first Stooge short in the Columbia years iteration of the Stooges. It takes a certain kind of low-budget brilliance to make a fight film that doesn’t actually show a boxing match. (Shemp gets batted about the ring a little bit but its inside the gym
Let us close this Greenwich Village obsessed week with a little dancing. This is the magnificent duet between Bob Fosse and the great (and unsung) Tommy Rall from the 1955 musical version of ‘My Sister Eileen’. What has this to do with the Village? Well, the story is set there.
This week we’ve seen views of Greenwich Village in the 1940s, early 60s and late 60s verging on the 70s. Now we have a minute of deep 70s village at hand. In some ways this clip is so period-perfect that it doesn’t feel real–more like an expensively re-produced set (complete
Our Greenwich Village history week continues with this very nice one minute clip of color footage of the Village in the 1940s. We are in three locations–Washington Square North, MacDougal Alley and Eighth Street which, as you’ll see in this footage, was once lined with artists peddling their wares. (It’s
This is a real find–a lovely ten or so minute travelogue style journey around Greenwich Village featuring lots of the fashion of the time and plenty of views of streets and buildings that are all pretty much still there. From the look of things I think we’re in 1968–a close
In 1960 a filmmaker named Stewart Wilensky spent the summer shooting footage of New York’s Greenwich Village which he turned into a twelve minute doc called ‘Village Sunday’ which was completed in 1961. If you were watching the film back then then you’d likely see it as a sort of
At the peak (or perhaps the depths) of the 1950s 3-D craze, The Three Stooges made two 3-D shorts. One, ‘Spooks’, took place in a haunted house. The other, ‘Pardon My Backfire’, takes place in a garage. Now, a haunted house movie in 3-D makes perfect (if somewhat predictable) sense.
Did you know that Roberto Benigni played Inspector Clouseau in a Pink Panther movie you most likely never heard of? Or that Roger Moore played Clouseau who, it was explained, had undergone extensive plastic surgery to look like Roger Moore? Or that David Niven was brought back for the first
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Mv9YFkMIo Here’s a quite cool mini-doc (twenty minutes) on the evolution of the ‘Pink Panther’ series. I remember as a kid in the early 70s seeing the second ‘Pink Panther’ movie, ‘A Shot In the Dark’ first and then seeing the first eponymous one and wondering why Inspector Clouseau went
Nancy Savoca, a truly maverick #indie #filmmaker, is my guest on the new installment of my 'Movies Til Dawn' podcast. Listen to part one of two here and now! https://www.moviestildawnpodcast.com/new-page-2
Dig Allan Sherman's Petulia Clark send-up 'Crazy Downtown' from a Tony Randall-hosted 'Hollywood Palace'. Crazy. #comedy #60s #television https://raymonddefelitta.org/allan-sherman-too-much-info-on-crazy-downtown/
'Fright Night', Shemp's first appearance with the Three Stooges (not really but that's a long story) awaits your viewing on our Saturday Morning Stoogefest. #Comedy #FilmTwitter https://raymonddefelitta.org/saturday-morning-stoogefest-2/
Check out the best dance number from a musical nobody really wants to see--Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall's amazing duet from 'My Sister Eileen' (1955). #FilmTwitter #Dance #TCM #musical https://raymonddefelitta.org/fosse-v-rall-a-duel-in-dance/
Dig this short but deeply period drive through the Greenwich Village of the 1970s, an era you simply can't make up. #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkForever #Documentary https://raymonddefelitta.org/the-village-in-the-bell-bottom-era/
