Saturday, January 14, 2006

Shelley Winters, R.I.P.

I haven't seen it in any of the obits that are online so far but there's a great story about Shelley Winters that other actors tell. I must have heard it a dozen times just from Howard Morris.

It took place late in her career, about the time she hit age seventy. She had a string of auditions with directors and casting directors who looked like children to her and who, she felt, were not showing her the proper respect. She was, after all, Shelley Winters. So when her agent sent her to meet one particular gentleman who was casting a new feature film, she went prepared.

She sat down in the casting director's office, right in front of his desk. After some pleasantries, the man said to her, "Now, Ms. Winters...remind me what you've done."

Shelley Winters reached into a big bag she'd brought with her, pulled out an Academy Award statuette and slammed it down on the man's desk. "That was for The Diary of Anne Frank," she announced. Then she pulled out another Oscar and put it next to the first one. "And that one was for A Patch of Blue. Now, why don't you remind me what you've done?"

I don't know for sure that happened. But it should have.

I met Ms. Winters only once and only for a few minutes. Chuck McCann introduced us at a restaurant and I said something real geeky. I think it was, "You know how everyone who meets you tells you what a great actress you are. Well, I agree." And she really was great in just about everything she did, ranging from the films for which she won those statuettes to fluff like Bloody Mama and a guest villain role on the Batman TV show. I also admired the incredible candor she displayed in her books and talk show appearances. One time, she was telling Johnny Carson about how she'd go to a Hollywood spa every week and sit around the sauna, discussing the men of Hollywood with other actresses of all ages. Johnny asked, "What's the main topic?" And though NBC bleeped it, you could tell from the audience reaction and Mr. Carson's expression, she'd answered, "Penis size."

Just when the laugh died down, she added, "Your name came up the other day." Johnny quickly decided it was a good time for a commercial...and I'm not sure he had Shelley on his show again after that. He should have. She was one of the best.

• Posted at 5:35 PM · LINK

Coming to a DVD Player Near You...

After our recent notation of the birthday of Mr. Soupy Sales, several of you wrote to ask where on God's Green Earth it is possible to obtain copies of some of his old TV shows. Well, Amazon is now taking advance orders for Soupy Sales: The Whole Gang is Here, a boxed set of 3 DVDs that offers 190 minutes of Soupy and his friends. I have no idea what's in it or why a 3 DVD set sells for only eighteen dollars or why they can't get 190 minutes of material on one DVD. So let's announce this one with a warning flag and suggest you might want to wait until someone's actually seen the thing. If you feel like living dangerously though, here's a link to order it.

In the meantime, American Laurel and Hardy buffs have reason to rejoice. In the past, Stan and Ollie films have received a major, prestige DVD release in the United Kingdom but have only trickled with minor fanfare and cheap presentation into the U.S. market. Last March, for instance, Hallmark quietly issued a low-priced DVD with no special features and not the best prints of two of their features (Way Out West and Block-Heads) and one short (Chickens Come Home) You can order it here and again, caution is warranted.

This neglect of my favorite comedians begins to change in April with two offerings from different companies. Warner Home Video brings us a two-disc set under the Turner Classic Movies imprimatur. It features The Devil's Brother and Bonnie Scotland with commentary tracks by Leonard Maltin and Dick Bann along with trailers, clips and a documentary on short subjects. I am told the print quality is wonderful. You can advance order this set here if you like. The two films included aren't the absolute best of Stan and Ollie but they're way ahead of the films Fox Home Video is releasing at about the same time.

Fox has announced a Laurel and Hardy Giftset (that may not be the actual name) containing three later films — Great Guns, The Big Noise and Jitterbugs. By contrast to the Soupy Sales set above, this 3-disc offering contains three whole features, loads of trailers, audio commentary by Laurel & Hardy expert Randy Skredvedt, photo galleries and other material for a suggested retail price of $35. It all sounds like a first-rate packaging of three of Stan and Ollie's second-rate films. When The Boys (as we lovingly call them) moved from the Hal Roach Studio to Twentieth-Century Fox in 1941, a certain amount of their greatness did not make the transitition with them. Their later features are lesser works for the most part...or at least, that's my opinion and the opinion of most long-time scholars of their work. Recently within the Laurel and Hardy fan circles, a vocal minority has emerged to argue that the later films have been unfairly maligned, in part because viewers took their cue from Laurel's expressed dislike for them.

You can decide for yourself. Most in the "old school" of Laurel and Hardy fandom generally consider The Big Noise the poorest feature they made (I would argue for The Bullfighters, which is not on this set) while Jitterbugs is generally regarded as the best of the later crop. But nothing Stan and Oliver ever did was without interest or a few priceless moments. I don't have an Amazon link yet to offer you but one should be along soon. I'm sure gonna order it.

• Posted at 1:53 PM · LINK

Eldon Dedini, R.I.P.

A great magazine cartoonist — whose style is familar to everyone who ever opened a Playboy and got past the breasts — has passed away at the age of 84. Eldon Dedini put in several years at Disney as a gagman (on Donald Duck shorts, Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Fun and Fancy Free and a few others) before he began selling cartoons to Esquire. They liked his work enough to not only fill their pages with his drawings but also to hire him to write gags for other artists. In 1959, he segued to Playboy and became one of their most prolific and valuable cartoonists. The National Cartoonists Society gave him their award for gag cartooning four times, which should give you some idea of how respected he was by his peers. Here's a link to the New York Times obit.

• Posted at 1:00 AM · LINK