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June 5, 2001

I EXPECTED NOT to like Laughter on the 23rd Floor, the new Showtime movie written by Neil Simon and drawn from his days working for Sid Caesar.  Critics have been generally unkind to it and, besides, I liked but did not love the Broadway play of the same name, which also starred Nathan Lane in a role corresponding to Mr. Caesar.  But of course, I had to watch this new work, fascinated as I am by the history of Your Show of Shows and Caesar's other programs.  (And isn't it interesting that, with no other TV show, do we see so little of the show itself but get endless documentaries and dramatizations about the backstage stuff and the writers' room?)  But I really enjoyed the film, in large part because I thought Mssrs. Simon and Lane, working seamlessly in tandem, etched an amazingly-penetrating portrait of Mr. Caesar.

That was, for me, missing in the stage version, where Lane seemed to be playing Jackie Gleason, and Simon seemed to be extra-cautious about not offending his former colleagues.  Neither is the case in the TV-movie, which skews more dramatic and gets more in-depth, not about the Camelot aspects of the Caesar output but of its slow, pain-filled disintegration.  For good or ill, it all struck me as an honest portrait, if not of reality, then certainly of the reality Simon witnessed.  And for those of you who need help with the little game of Who Represents Who?, here's a quick crib sheet...

Were it not for its roman à clef simplifications, this film might be the definitive biographical portrait of Sid Caesar, but I suspect it won't be.  That will probably have to wait until a few more of the folks in the third column above pass away.  Especially the first one.

WORD IS THAT, before the year is out, DVDs will be released of two of my favorite movies — 1776 and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Both will be "restored" versions, which is good news in the case of the former.  What was cut from '76 was good, almost vital material, including probably the best musical number, and it was excised for silly political reasons.  Briefly: Jack L. Warner, who produced the film, was looking for an excuse to trim it from the 3-hour length the filmmakers created.  Then Richard Nixon, who'd seen and hated the stage version, let it be known that he hated seeing conservatives portrayed as villains.  That was all the excuse Warner needed to chop 40 minutes, just before the film's initial release.  The Laserdisc restoration puts back most of it, albeit with occasionally grainy footage...and that's what's coming out on DVD and, probably at some point, VHS as well.

But the "restoration" of Mad4 creates a new version that its maker, Stanley Kramer, never intended.  It was released originally at 192 minutes, then cut to 154 for wider release.  The omitted scenes have never been seen since and may be lost forever.  The "restored" version adds back in 32 minutes of leftover material that Kramer threw away before the original release — scenes he never wanted to be a part of the movie.  That's the version that's coming out on DVD and which many folks think is the "original" version.  It isn't.  Unfortunately.

LASTLY, as you may have noticed, we have changed the name of this site.  The old name will always get you here but if you're plugging us or linking to us, I'd prefer you use the new moniker, which is www.POVonline.com.  Thanks.

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