Bob Hope was not only Woody Allen's comedic inspiration but mine as well & just hearing his spit out his rapid fire comedy come backs smacks you audibly & humorously in the soul! Here he portrays Radio commentator Larry Lawrence (his parents were lacking in imagination) who has been getting the inside scoop on the mob. CURTIS SLIWA WABC's famed Guardian Angel News Broadcasting commentator is presently in the same trouble that Hope is in within this premise. As both have been spilling the preverbial beans on the mob and now they are after his skin!!! Tho Willie Best as Hope's "Family Detainer" keeps tempo with ALL of his retorts marvelously he is truly the asset to the cast & tho some might be bothered by some of the verbal barbs (such as when the lights go out) Hope can't find his Nubian manservant & says "You Look Like A Blackout in a Blackout!" Today's viewers have to see this type of comedy as not a put down but as a need to insert humor at any expense at every chance to keep a audience of the period's attention. And Best plays up on the slow witted characterization amiably as this was HIS art just as Hope was the smart alleck with the yellow streak down his back!! Both were playing up the character that gave them notoriety & a salary! But where Curtis Sliwa ended up getting a few shots in the gut for his opening up the dirt on the radio which angered the mob--Hop at least has the sense here to race off hidden in a steamer trunk to Cuba before the shots can be fired! A GREAT FILM & A TRIBUTE TO ATMOSPHERIC CINEMATOGRAPHY & PINNING PERSONALITYS AGAINST ERACH OTHER FOR LAUGHS & CHILLS!
Reviews
4 Reviews
The Devil-Doll
(1936)
The Director As The Star
16 October 2009
I have always stated that as a actual theatrically shown Independent film maker myself--That The Director Is The Production's TRUE Star & actual focus from opening to end credit title cards! Todd Browning is so much seen in every shot , even the romantic sequences & it's overall casting and plot that one can only say that aside from stealing the idea of the miniature people from the prior year's The Bride Of Frankenstein that either it was Browning that either had a hand in creating the script or that another writer submitting said as a project for contractually clad MGM director Browning that it's premise oddities are the only element that gave Browning interest in bringing it to life as every & all of his other films, be them as Chaney Sr projects or atmospheric "Freaks" that needed a type of acute way of looking at the odd that only Herr Browning had & could offer to the studio system. Although supporting & star characters are evidence of this and wonderful--it is assumed that only due to the director could performances of this nature be brought without going over the top to the roles! In the credits is also seen in terms of screenwriter Strange Cinema Director Erich Von Stroheim--a obvious touch of his can be noticed in the role of Maleeka's IN BRED RETARDED House Servant & first victim who has the "Shortenizing" experement tried on her to make her beautiful & mentally well. This added character is so much in the vein of other deformed roles that the great silent film director would have exploited & explored furthur if it had been his own production! Tho her inclusion was keeping with master overseer Browning's oddity necessitation for a world that existed off center yet resided with & among us.
Here Comes Cookie
(1935)
Gracie Teamed With Another than Burns
6 September 2009
This was not the only time that Gracie Allen played screwball sidekick to another than hubby George Burns! As in this Paramount she marvelously is the comedy relief to George Barbier, In COLLEGE SWING (Bob Hope's first Paramount) Gracie ABSOLUTELY has Burns forgotten as she plays her Scatter brained character against that of Edward Everett Horton!!! THE TEAMING IS SO GREAT & PERFECT in such a teaming that Burns is delegated to that of Horton's straight man assistant & You Almost Forget About Him! Gracie & Horton are such a tremendously perfect pairing that one even forgets Hope, tho Martha Raye's loud antics can't help but keep you knowing she's in the cast!
Nickelodeon
(1976)
Ryan O'Neal's Plot Premise Was Ala Leo McCary's Own Life
6 September 2009
As the story goes, as I have heard it as a film collector, Indie Theatrical Genre re-creationist Film maker & historian/preservationist (There's a mouthful wasn't it!) Ryan O'Neal's character & premise to get into the infant film industry was taken by Masterful Bogdanovitch & lifted directly from the life of Leo McCary's start in the business. As he too had a situation where he was chased from the court building as a youthful law hopeful! Bogdanovith's read published book of the interviews he recorded from the Original Filmn Maker interviews especially had made me happy when I read of McCary's giving CHARLEY CHASE full credit for teaching him the trade he was to later win Oscars for when he had his own start at Hal Roach and many times was Assistant to Chase then later directed the Chase series taking over for Charley as the studio's Director General! Leo even originated the Mirror routine he was to later re use in DUCK SOUP with Groucho & Harpo when it originally appeared with Chase & brother Jimmy in the one reeler of 1924 SITTING PRETTY! Was this Charley's suggestion or Leo's? As the gag first was used by Max Linder in the teens it is more probably that Chase though of recreating it!
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