Yes, 50 years ago this July 22, these creative performers (see TRAILER & FULL MOVIE) jumped into my ‘1988’ flick, produced in San Francisco, CA, courtesy of financial support from the American Film Institute (AFI) Independent Filmmaker’s grant. One of the four selectors who awarded me the $9918 was writer/director King Vidor (WAR AND PEACE epic with Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, etc.)
NOTE: In September, 1975, about six weeks after shoot (and a week before their first TV premiere) I showed a short 14 minute preview cut to the entire cast/crew of Saturday Night Live in Rockefeller Center, (21st or 22nd floor I think), projecting picture and sound on two separate reels of the interlock projector (it took both a ‘mag” soundtrack and16mm picture reel). At any rate, as the film ran along, cast member Garret Morris leaned forward and whispered, “Nice camera work,” responding to when auditioner “Jerry” danced his way out of my picture frame and I didn’t pan the camera quick enough to follow him (Ha!). And a few minutes later, in that room-filled screening (Lorne Michaels was there, as was Andy Kaufman), Garret whispered to me again, saying, “You could never write this stuff, they’d never believe it!” That was probably said to me during the “nun” act, by performance artist LINDA MONTANO (see movie in link below). In any case, Garret was probably correct, although SNL certainly did its best to prove him wrong. Enjoy the full movie here
PS. The movie begins with my entertainment lawyer, Thomas Steel, explaining that I was threatened by MGM and the estates of JEROME KERN and EDNA FERBER over this parody, notice served while it screened for several days at the WHITNEY MUSEUM, NYC.
“1988 recounts the fictitious tale of a middle-aged librarian’s attempts to finance and remake the film musical “Showboat” in contemporary terms. The auditions are arranged on a San Francisco stage, and range from incredible to merely bizarre.”
— VARIETY
“1988 in its cumulative preposterous flummery is a spirited outcry for people to throw off the covert and overt forms of oppression and be themselves. Beneath the film’s Quixotic humor and surprisingly touching pathos stands the surrealist belief that art is never more important than life. An outrageous tour-de-force.”––Vic Skolnick, CINEMA ARTS CENTRE
1st Place, ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL
————
CREDITS: Actors ED NYLUND, RICHARD A. RICHARDSON, and CAROLYN ZAREMBA again supplied pivotal Actor roles, along with WILLIE BOY WALKER, SKIP COVINGTON, BRUCE PARRY, RICHARD MARCUS. Directed by Rick Schmidt. Script by Rick Schmidt, Bill Farley (OF MEN AND ANGELS, PLASTIC MAN, I WANTED TO BE A MAN WITH A GUN), Nick Kazan (AT CLOSE RANGE, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, DREAM LOVER), and Henry Bean (INTERNAL AFFAIRS, THE BELIEVER).
———-
**And here’s. my book on “the making of” SHOWBOAT 1988––THE REMAKE: “SLEEPER TRILOGY, THREE UNDISCOVERED FIRST FEATURES 1973-1983.”:
————
Share this post