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The Reluctant Astronaut, starring Don Knotts and Leslie Nielsen

The Reluctant Astronaut

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The Reluctant Astronaut (1967) starring Don Knotts, Leslie Nielsen

 Don Knotts takes his ‘nervous fraidy-cat’ character to outer space (or at least to orbit) in this funny, family-friendly comedy.  The Reluctant Astronaut begins with Roy Fleming (Don Knotts in the title role) appearing to be in a space capsule orbiting the Earth. Until the camera zooms out, and reveals that instead he’s operating a kiddie ride at an amusement park.  Once the ride is over, he leaves the ride (with the help of the actor who played one of the ‘old men’ on the Andy Griffith Show). In order to demonstrate to the audience that Don Knotts’ character has a severe fear of heights.  On his break, he asks one of his fellow employees at the amusement park for a date. And after much begging, she reluctantly agrees.  His normal day at work is interrupted by an urgent call from his mother, causing him to dash home.

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Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work

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Editorial Review of Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work, courtesy of Amazon.com

Jackie Gleason knew that to produce his top-rated weekly CBS variety show he needed more than just witty monologues, innovative June Taylor choreography and big name guests. He personally had to garner the respect of his national audience, which he did superlatively with a cavalcade of compelling and lovable characters. As television’s pioneer weekend evening entertainer he created iconic personas and deservingly earned the title “Mr. Saturday Night.”

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The Private Eyes

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The Private Eyes (1980), co-starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts

 Don Knotts and Tim Conway co-star in The Private Eyes. It’s a silly little comedy where they spoof the murder mystery in general, and Sherlock Holmes in particular.  Called from Scotland Yard, Inspector Winthrop (played by Don Knotts), and his bumbling assistant Dr. Tart (played with mindless abandon by Tim Conway) to solve the murder of Lord Morely.

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Nothing in Common

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Nothing in Common (1986) starring Tom Hanks, Jackie Gleason

Nothing in Common – Jackie Gleason’s final film role, as the gruff father who needs to repair his relationship with his son Tom Hanks before he dies

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The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again

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The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979) starring Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Harry Morgan

 In The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Amos and Theodore (Tim Conway and Don Knotts) the two bumbling outlaw wannabees from The Apple Dumpling Gang are back. They are trying to make it on their own. When they arrive at the town they are going to, all sorts of things go awry. They accidentally subdue the town’s legendary lawman, Wooly Bill Hitchcock thus enraging him into tracking them down. They also are accused of bank robbery. And they “enlist” in the army, and burn down the fort. Amid all this, the army is besieged by someone stealing their supplies.

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The Prize Fighter

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The Prize Fighter (1979), co-starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts

 The Prize Fighter is a very funny, very sweet comedy.  Set in depression-era America, Tim Conway stars as Bags Collins who has a perfect record as a boxer – twenty fights, twenty knockouts—and twenty losses.  His manager, Shakes, is the ‘brains’ of the team, played by Don Knotts.  However, his luck starts to change, and Bags starts to win against other ‘loser’ boxers and eventually gets a shot at the title in his weight category.  Unfortunately, this is when they find out that the fight has been rigged …

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Silent Movie

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DVD review of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie – Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn (Mel Brooks), Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise) go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio’s creditors attempt to thwart them

Editorial Review of Silent Movie, courtesy of Amazon.com

 One of Mel Brooks’s weaker vehicles, this 1976 feature finds a movie producer (Brooks) deciding that the public is ready for the silent film form again. Reasonably ambitious and promising, the film ultimately doesn’t do for silent cinema what Brooks did for atmospheric horror (by reviving it while parodying it) in Young Frankenstein. Lots of famous faces pass through Silent Movie, to varying effect. Perhaps the best joke in the movie is the one performer who actually has a line of dialogue: mime Marcel Marceau. —Tom Keogh

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The Sid Caesar Collection – The Fan Favorites – 50th Anniversary Edition

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Editorial Review of The Sid Caesar Collection – The Fan Favorites – 50th Anniversary Edition, courtesy of Amazon.com

 “When we worked together,”reminisces Sid Caesar, “it was magic, and you don’t question magic.” So just enjoy this essential three-disc collection of vintage sketches from Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour. To work on these programs was to attend “the Harvard of Comedy,” and this “great amalgamation of talents,” which included Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, Howard Morris, Nanette Fabray, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, and Neil and Danny Simon, were at the head of their class. “We did everything,” Caesar notes at one point, and the proof is on these discs: domestic sketches (“Life Begins at 7:45″ ), game show parodies (“Break Your Brains” ), spoofs of foreign films (“U-Bet-U” ), opera (“Gallipacci” ), and classical music (and a pantomime of “the 1812 Overture” ). It is a testament to the knowledge, technique, and taste of those who created the show that these 50-year-old sketches hold up as well as they do. This was the golden age of live television, when anything could happen, and the cast would have to go with it. In “Gallipacci,” Caesar’s make-up pencil breaks when his character, a heartbroken clown, is applying make-up to his face. Without missing a beat, Caesar rises to the potentially disastrous occasion with one of the most inspired ad-libs in television history.

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