After yesterday’s post on the 3-Strip Technicolor process as demonstrated in the ‘before and after’ reel of scenes from ‘Becky Sharp’, I’ve begun a slow and pleasant dive into a rabbit hole of Technicolor history. Above is a series of ‘color tests’ from 1933-1936 made for Pioneer Pictures, a subsidiary
This past weekend we watched the restored version of Rouben Mamoulian’s 1935 ‘Becky Sharp’ which was the first feature shot and released in the beautiful and sadly long-gone Three-Strip Technicolor process. Old Three-Strip Technicolor films without restoration tend to look like bowls of multi-flavored bowl melted sherbet. If one didn’t
On Saturday the 12th of February the Directors Guild of America presented a tribute to the late, great Melvin Van Peebles. A distinguished roster of filmmakers participated on the panel, including Michael Mann, Reginald Hudlin, Michael Schultz, Mario Van Peebles (naturally) and others. It was an invigorating look at Van
Dig Rick Moranis doing his wicked Merv Griffin impression in this sketch from the immortal SCTV NBC late night show of the early 80s. Guest appearances by Liberace, Loni Anderson and Yasser Arafat. I remember seeing this late at night in its original airing. I religiously taped every SCTV on
I mentioned yesterday that in addition to hosting an array of glitzy show-biz guest, Merv Griffin also hosted his share of important and controversial guests. One of them was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who appeared on Merv’s show in 1967. I had no idea that this interview existed when
Merv Griffin–talk show host, game show creator, media mogul, hotel and resort tycoon–was my first late-night talk show host. That’s because he wasn’t on late-night. He was on KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles at 9PM. So as a ten year old obsessed with show-biz I was able to stay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7SsYtLP9fg NOTE: FOR SOME REASON THE ABOVE VIDEO HAS BEEN BLOCKED FOR VIEWING ON OTHER WEBSITES SO SIMPLY GO TO YOUTUBE (CLICK ABOVE LINK) AND WATCH IT DIRECTLY. *********** Shortly after I met Peter Bogdanovich at a party I gave in 2002 (actually about 20 minutes after we met) we discovered that
My dear friend Peter Bogdanovich passed away the other day, age 82. I saw him last October in L.A. and he was, as always, funny and charming and dry-witted. While we were waiting for our table in the restaurant somebody noticed him and approached us (not an uncommon occurance–he was
I’ve been working on a documentary about the great Burt Young on and off for the past five or so years. I’m honored to count Burt as a good friend and artistic collaborator and am delighted to be able to say that a cut of the film is finally finished.
Here’s a terrific twelve minute excerpt of a 1972 Flip Wilson show with the Jackson 5 as his guests. You get the family participating with Flip in a fairly tame ice-cream based sketch which is then followed by two terrific Jackson family performances. Enough has been said about the freaky