The below is part one of a three part essay I wrote on director George Stevens (‘A Place In The Sun’, ‘Shane’, ‘Giant’) in April, 2011. Today would have been Stevens 119th birthday. I’ll be posting the rest of the essay throughout this week. A few weeks ago I was
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2DCtyYLWus&list=PL2MtElzTEi6kRm3MSxxmZ6FXMstYUQIKu Did you know that Albert Brooks made a comedy LP in 1975? This was in the heart of the Monty Python LP era (as a kid I was a voracious collector of comedy albums from the previous decade through the mid-70s) and I remember playing Brooks record many times
Here’s one of Albert Brooks’s best appearances on Johnny Carson. This is from 1983-ish (he apparently was about to shoot the thoroughly unnecessary remake of ‘Unfaithfully Yours’ with Dudley Moore which was released in 1984) and features one of his most Brooksian inventions–the ‘home impressions kit’. Carson laughs so much
‘Spook Louder’ (1943) is the 69th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Friday, July 17th through Tuesday, July 21, 1942 and was released on Friday, April 2nd, 1943 (the 92nd day on the Gregorian calendar). This oddball hodgepodge of a short is
‘Three Pests In A Mess’ (1945) is the 83rd short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Thursday, June 22nd through Monday, June 26th 1944 and released on Friday, January 19 1945 (the 19th day on the Gregorian calendar). This is a top notch
I saw the superb Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ this past Sunday which of course led to a deep Stephen dive on YouTube. Of primary importance in the canon of filmed Stephen stuff is D.A. Pennebaker’s remarkable documentation of the marathon recording session of the original
Above dig ‘The Olympics’ doing their hit song ‘The Hully Gully’ on a Los Angeles based TV show called ‘Hollywood A-Go Go’ which aired in syndication in 1965–1966. The song entered Billboard’s Hot Top 100 chart at position #98–three weeks later it would peak at #72 {for 1 week} and
Apropos of the doc about the making of Billy Wilder and I.A.L Diamond’s ‘Fedora’ (1978) which I posted last Friday, here’s another doc about the making of Wilder’s much more robust and well-known film ‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959) titled “Nobody’s Perfect’. Scholars of Wilder and Marilyn Monroe will hear
‘Disorder In The Court’ (1936) was the 15th film made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Wednesday, April 1 through Monday, April 6, 1936 and released on Saturday, May 30th of that year (the 151st day in the Gregorian Calendar). Though the script is credited
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS2XRiN9xbE ‘Fedora’ (1978), written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and directed by Wilder, was the teams penultimate film and for all intents and purposes the more appropriate finish to their legendary partnership than their unfortunate final outing ‘Buddy Buddy’. I saw the film in its Los Angeles first (and