Friday, April 2, 2004

Convention Preview

• Posted at 10:26 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

William Saletan nails what I suspect is a key element in the debate over George W. Bush's leadership capabilities or the lack, thereof. An awful lot of folks, both Democrats and Republicans, have sided with Bush and come to regret it. Unfortunately for sane discourse, when they change their minds, the immediate accusation is that since they said one thing then and now say another, they can't be trusted.

While we're at it, The Center for American Progress, a liberal site, has posted this list of Bush "flip-flops." I have never bought the notion that if a politician changes his position, it is a sign of weakness or insincerity. In many cases, I see it as a sign of being open to new evidence and willing to change with the times. But those who cite it as a negative about John Kerry ought to be willing to admit that Bush has often taken both sides of an issue.

• Posted at 3:13 PM · LINK

Guild Goings-On

Things seem to be stablilizing in the Writers Guild. We haven't changed Presidents for two whole weeks.

My pal Carl Gottlieb has stepped in as Vice-President. Carl is a very intelligent man who knows more about negotiations and the Guild than any man alive. But I'm still skeptical that the current drive to increase writers' revenues from DVDs is going to get anywhere.

• Posted at 10:58 AM · LINK

Coming Soon...

Let's discuss more upcoming DVDs you may want to purchase. On June 29, Twentieth-Century Fox will release the first in a series of Garfield goodies. Garfield as Himself will feature three of the prime-time specials: Here Comes Garfield, Garfield On The Town and Garfield Gets A Life. There will be more Garfield DVD releases before the year is out and I'll tell you about them and provide links soon. Also on June 29, the complete first season of the Wonder Woman TV show (the one with Lynda Carter) will be available. Here's an Amazon link if you'd like to pre-order that one. And earlier that month, you'll be able to purchase a 6-disc set of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon show. Here's an Amazon link to pre-order that one but I should warn you: One of those disks features a documentary on the making of the show and I'm in that documentary as an authority. That's right: You spent all that money on a DVD player and you have to look at me. There's still time to switch back to Beta.

• Posted at 1:17 AM · LINK

Siegfried and Max

Let us recall a key moment from The Producers (the movie). Max Bialystock and his co-conspirator Leo Bloom go to the apartment of Franz Liebkind, the Aryan author of "the worst play ever written," Springtime for Hitler. To obtain Liebkind's signature on a contract, they repair to his flat where he denounces Winston Churchill for his rotten painting and makes Bialystock and Bloom join him singing German songs. Eventually, he signs — but not before insisting that they join him in a secret ceremony and take something he calls the Siegfried Oath. He makes them don helmets and costumes suitable for a Wagnerian Opera and act out his silly ritual, eventually signing the contract in blood. I just posted an excerpt from the screenplay that covers this sacred vow.

You may not recall this scene from the movie. That's because it never made it into the movie. When Brooks was trying to sell his idea to producers, he would act out much of the screenplay and he always convulsed his audience when he performed the Siegfried Oath. The scene was filmed with Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Kenneth Mars but excised in the editing process. The film's editor, Ralph Rosenblum, wrote about it in a book called When the Shooting Stops in which he describes how he cut (and from his viewpoint, usually saved) a number of movies. The way he tells it, he decided that the Siegfried Oath should be dumped. Mel, remembering the incredible laughs the scene received when he'd performed it in pitch meetings, refused. They fought and eventually Mel gave in and the material was excised. The only remnant in the finished film comes when Franz bursts into Bialystock's office late in the action and yells, "You haf broken the Siegfried Oath!" The first few times I saw the movie of The Producers, I didn't think anything of it. (I also thought he said, "secret oath.")

This is the way I've always understood things. However, my friend Marv Wolfman is sure that when he saw the movie — in New York, shortly after it opened — the Siegfried Oath was in there. Does anyone know if this is possible? Does this scene still exist and if so, how come it hasn't been an extra on some video release of The Producers? Yes, I know a version of the Siegfried Oath is performed in the Broadway musical but Marv says that's not what he's recalling. He says he saw it done by Mostel, Wilder and Mars in the movie. Did he?

• Posted at 12:44 AM · LINK