Son of Miscellany

"DON'T BE STUPID, BE A SMARTY, COME AND JOIN THE NAZI PARTY"

The LA Times had an article today about the opening of the musical The Producers in Germany. Nobody had dared to do it before and the producer, Falke Walter, had to dip into his own pocket when he couldn't find a backer. But it's a hit and has been extended for four weeks.

PRIDE IN PREJUDICE

Michael Ross, who wrote for All in the Family (winning an Emmy for the episode The Bunkers and the Swingers) and helped bring Three's Company to the U.S. by adapting the British TV series Man About the House, has died.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0806073/

BLOODY HELL, BLOODY SAM

I finished the biography, Bloody Sam, by Marshall Fine. What a sad and pathetic life. Someone who could have given us years of great films in many ways threw away his life through alcohol and cocaine.

I remember seeing his film The Osterman Weekend, not liking it partly because I never really understood the plot. It was nice to know that even Robert Ludlam, who wrote the book, knew the plot never made sense. Sam wanted to rewrite the script, but his version was not accepted by the producers, but a lot of people thought it didn't matter, that there was no way anyone could have made the script make sense.