larry gelbart Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Free Flick of The Day: Blame It On Rio
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Fandom », Home Entertainment »
A film about an affair with your best friend's daughter is probably the last place you would expect to find a lesson on morality. But oddly enough, that's exactly what you get in Larry Gelbart's sex comedy, Blame It On Rio. Like many of the films I saw during my childhood, I was well out of the prescribed age group for the story of a May-December affair, but I always remembered this movie for two reasons: it was where I learned about the world of mid-life crisis, and I even learned a little something about the consequences of your actions ... but we'll get to that later. So if you've never seen this movie, you're in luck because SlashControl offers the flick as part of their free film selection.Released in 1984, Rio was written by Gelbart, who is best known for his work in TV (as one of the creators of M.A.S.H) and in film (as the writer of Tootsie), and was directed by movie-musical legend, Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain). The story centered on two friends, Victor and Matthew (played respectively by Joseph Bologna and Michael Caine), who decide to go on vacation to Rio de Janeiro when their marriages have hit the skids. But things get a little tricky when Matthew (Caine) begins an affair with his best friend's teenage daughter, Jennifer (played by Michelle Johnson).
AMPAS Event: Celebration of Comedy in Film with Judd Apatow, James L. Brooks and Larry Gelbart
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Romance », Fandom », Scripts », Home Entertainment »
Friday night I got the opportunity to attend a talk with three of my writing heroes: "The Jack Oakie Celebration of Comedy in Film featuring Judd Apatow, James L. Brooks and Larry Gelbart." James L. Brooks is one of the major reasons I started writing. I saw Terms of Endearment when I was a little kid and sobbed like...that little kid in Terms of Endearment. I have seen Broadcast News fifty times, and consider it perhaps the finest romantic comedy ever written. As Good As It Gets is a modern classic, I loved I'll Do Anything, and even have a soft spot in my heart for Spanglish. Oh, plus The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and the guy has been with The Simpsons from day one! No further questions, your honor. Brooks' incredible skill of seamlessly blending laughter and heartbreak clearly made a huge influence on Judd Apatow (although from reading all the articles about him, you'd think Apatow invented the practice). Like Brooks, Apatow did a lot of television work (the classics Larry Sanders Show, Freaks and Geeks, and Undeclared), and lately he's written and directed two of the best film comedies of the decade -- The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.
Larry Gelbart wrote Tootsie (with Murray Schisgal) -- one of the greatest screenplays ever penned, comedy or otherwise. That script earned him an Oscar nomination, as did Oh God! He earned Emmy nominations for writing, producing, and directing episodes of the classic sitcom M*A*S*H, and his writing career spans more than 50 years.
These three dudes on one stage, plus little cameos from the likes of Garry Shandling, Leslie Mann, and Jonah Hill. It was quite a night. Apatow kicked off the evening by sharing that he had been in that very theater as a boy, to see Steven Spielberg's notorious flop 1941. "I thought this was about comedy," quipped Gelbart.
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