Every frame of ‘Fresh Hare’, an early-ish Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd pairing (1942) is a gem–beautifully rendered and wittily constructed. You can feel how much fun the animators must have been having developing Bugs’ expressions, reactions and mannerisms–almost as if the animated animal anthropomorphically became a performer that was in control
The tenth anniversary of Johnny Carson’s reign as ‘The Tonight Show’ host was celebrated in 1972 on perhaps the ugliest and most awkward set ever designed for a TV show. The overwhelming green-ness of the carpet, walls etc. makes it look like a bottle of Mountain Dew. Johnny is seated
Behold the trailer of the 1975 remake of Raymond Chandler’s ‘Farewell My Lovely’ starring Robert Mitchum as Phillip Marlowe. Yesterday I posted the trailer for ‘The Long Goodbye’ made two years earlier with the decidedly more eccentric casting of Elliot Gould as Marlowe. I seem to recall seeing this one
Here’s another wicked-cool trailer for a Peter Bogdanovich movie (see yesterdays ‘Paper Moon’ trailer), this time for ‘What’s Up Doc?’ Once again PB is featured heavily and the general mood and tone gives us the sense of filmmaking actually being a pleasurable and amusing adventure, which in fact it rarely
Behold this most eccentric of movie trailers. It’s a four minute theatrical trailer for ‘Paper Moon’ which features Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal and…Peter Bogdanovich. Indeed the wunderkind director is all over this, mugging with the cast, laughing off-camera, playing director with great enthusiasm etc. It reminds us of what a
This past Saturday the Directors Guild of America gave a memorial tribute (via Zoom) to the late great Peter Bogdanovich. I was the moderator and the guests included Frank Marshall, Bennett Miller, Cybill Shepard, David O. Russell, Chuck Workman, Doug McGrath and –via tape (or whatever we call whatever captures
Enjoy ‘Porky’s Cafe’ from 1942 directed by Chuck Jones (who was still young enough to be more stodgily credited as Charles M. Jones). The minimalism here is rather striking–the cafe is done all in shades of grey with nothing hanging on the walls. There is precisely one customer. Porky runs
‘Learn To Croon’ is a song written by Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston for the movie ‘College Humor’ (1934) and was introduced by Bing Crosby. If anyone remembers the song today though, it’s because of the excruciating rendition given by Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer in ‘Our Gang Follies of 1938’. If
The actor Carl Switzer, popularly known as Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedies of the 1930s, was clearly a tortured man. He was perceived by George ‘Spanky’ McFarland as ‘cocky…a little antsy’ and other cast members recall him causing trouble on the set by creating pranks that hurt other people
I tried–I really tried–to find a non-Warner Brothers cartoon to post this AM. But the sad truth is that as lovingly crafted and artfully achieved any number of vintage cartoons are–and I speak of ‘Tom and Jerry’, ‘Woody Woodpecker’ and everything Disney–they simply can’t hold a candle to the Merrie