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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»1980s Movies»Movies 1982
    Movies 1982 Movies M 3 Mins Read

    My Favorite Year (1982)

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    Last seen playing a bad movie director in The Stunt Man, Peter O’Toole continued to bite the hand that feeds by playing, brilliantly, a bad movie actor. He’s bad in the sense of being unreliable, not incompetent.

    Alan Swann – the Errol Flynn-like character that O’Toole portrays – frequently crashes to the ground in mid-performance. That’s because he’s almost always smashed – he practically lives on scotch.

    The setting is New York in 1954, the favourite year of the title. Action centres around a Saturday night television show called Comedy Cavalcade, more than slightly like the then highly popular Your Show of Shows which originated from New York.

    Comedy Cavalcades stars King Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) and Swann is signed for a guest appearance on the show. A young Carl Reiner-like writer named Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is assigned to keep the swashbuckler – who he has idolised for his film roles – sober through a week of rehearsals and the live telecast.

    Each night proves a challenge, save for the one where he and Swann are invited by his stereotypical Jewish mother (Lainie Kazan) for dinner at her stereotypical Brooklyn apartment. Kazan’s lampoon is amusing, although it comes dangerously close to being an ethnic insult – and oi vey, has Lainie got heavy!

    That night proves to be an endurance test of horrendous proportions for Benjy, who is embarrassed – almost to death, already – by his fawning mother, tactless Uncle Morty (Lou Jacobi) and an assortment of oddballs who live in the same apartment building. Swann, however, loves it.

    There’s a secondary plot of Kaiser being hassled by a hard-as-nails labor leader who has taken umbrage at a comedy sketch Kaiser regularly does on his show, depicting a hard-as-nails labor leader. When Kaiser refuses to bow to legal threats to stop the sketches, physical threats are not long in following.

    For five days, everything brews nicely, a mixture of lunacy and romance (the love interest is supplied by a most forgettable Jessica Harper). But when airtime arrives, so does pandemonium.

    Swann, accustomed to multiple movie re-takes, comes unglued at the realisation that there is no second chance on live television. “I’m not an actor. I’m a movie star!” he bellows in stark fear. So he takes a drink and takes off.

    At the same time, some friends of the labor leader – to whom “break a leg” is more than a showbiz salutation – show up.

    A memorable live television moment ensues with shades of the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges.

    My Favorite Year was the directing debut of Richard Benjamin, until now an actor.

    Alan Swann
    Peter O’Toole
    Benjy Stone
    Mark Linn-Baker
    KC Downing
    Jessica Harper
    King Kaiser
    Joseph Bologna
    Sy Benson
    Bill Macy
    Belle Steinberg Carroca
    Lainie Kazan
    Alice Miller
    Anne De Salvo
    Herb Lee
    Basil Hoffman
    Uncle Morty Kronsky
    Lou Jacobi
    Leo Silver
    Adolph Green
    Alfie Bumbacelli
    Tony DiBenedetto
    Myron Fein
    George Wyner
    Lil
    Selma Diamond
    Karl Rojeck
    Cameron Mitchell
    Connie
    Jenny Neumann
    Bonnie
    Corinne Bohrer
    Lord Drummond
    George Marshall Ruge
    Lady Eleanor
    Amanda Horan Kennedy (as Barbara Horan)
    Cubby Brown
    John Welsh
    Harris
    Ted Grossman
    Dumpling
    Teresa Ganzel
    Federal Marshal Holt
    Philip Bruns
    Vivian
    Karen Haber
    Priscilla
    Priscilla Kovary
    Gossip Columnist
    Eleanor Heutschy
    Maitre D’
    Peter Paul Eastman
    Curt
    Fox Harris
    Andrea
    Rieneke
    Artie
    Howard George
    Alvin Horn
    Bob Windsor
    Mrs Anne Horn
    Gloria Stuart
    Rookie Carroca
    Ramon Sison
    Aunt Sadie Kronsky
    Annette Robyns
    Mrs Kessler
    Pearl Shear
    Mr Berkowitz
    Stanley Brock
    Mr Cantor
    Martin Garner
    Scalfoni
    John Medici
    Tess
    Cady McClain
    Sandy
    Norman Steinberg
    Walla Walla (voice)
    Vince Brocato

    Director
    Richard Benjamin

    Video

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