Peter Boyle 1935-2006

Let's pause and reflect on the little moments of perfection Peter Boyle gave us: butchering Puttin' on the Ritz with Gene Wilder and earnestly trying to have some soup with a blind Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein. In the film, Boyle is essentially doing "silent comedy," which is perhaps the most difficult kind. He does it sweetly, and is the heart of the funniest movie ever made. In Taxi Driver, we see just how good a dramatic actor he was. He makes my blood run cold as Billy Bob Thornton's bigoted father in Monster's Ball. He's a showstopper as the proselytizing mental patient in 1989's The Dream Team. "I have died and been reborn!" he booms in the movie. "I can do it again, buster." If only!

LINK BUFFET: The New York Times obit ("Mr. Canby called Joe one of the 10 worst films of the year but hailed Mr. Boyle’s performance as 'extraordinary'"). / The Archive of American Television's interview ("The highlight of my career was meeting my wife on the set of Young Frankenstein, and having two wonderful daughters"). / The Washington Post obit ("Film critic Gary Arnold ... called him 'as irresistibly uncouth as the early Brando'").

The Prestige lives up to its name (plus ClorisWatch)

Christopher Nolan is batting .1000. The Prestige has it all. Engrossing story. Two charismatic leading men, Batman and Wolverine, playing dueling magicians in hardscrabble London. Ricky Jay. Bowie. The movie is a kind of Dickensian Face/Off. It's stylish and suspenseful, but it also has much to say about showmanship, jealousy and -- on a subliminal level -- the illusion of film. Its ending, seismic and profound, is a sleight of hand itself. Well done, blokes.

Also, Mel Brooks's musical version of Young Frankenstein -- the funniest movie ever made -- has been cast. I was against this production to begin with, but the cast is sensational, especially, well, Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher. Ha! Victory! Thirty-three years after she originated the role on film at 48, she will play it on Broadway at 81. I will see it because of this. Imagine the rapturous applause when she makes her entrance, and when the horses neigh for the first time! (But if Cloris is cast, why not her fellow Malcolm in the Middle guest star Kenneth Mars, who's still alive and kicking?) Some of YF will lend itself marvelously to a theatrical experience. The "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene will be uproarious in front of a live audience (perhaps the house manager can plant rotted vegetables under each seat for patrons to throw?). But I'm otherwise dismayed about this type of franchise recycling.

Related posts: Cloris on Two and a Half Shits. Musical adaptations of movies suck, generally. Everything's Coming up Hobbits.