DVD geek-out moment: Bogdanovich's NICKELODEON released

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/29/09 at 6:33pm

From The Onion AV Club, this was his little-seen flop follow up to the megaflop AT LONG LAST LOVE:

Peter Bogdanovich?s Nickelodeon?which has just received a long-overdue DVD release featuring both its color theatrical version and a far superior black-and-white ?director?s cut??begins with Ryan O?Neal?s milquetoast lawyer intentionally losing a case, then racing out of the courtroom one step ahead of his enraged, corpulent client in a slapstick chase so goofy and over-the-top that it seems inevitable that the director will pull back to expose the shenanigans as a film within a film. Bogdanovich never does. Even more astonishingly, the opening sequences were inspired by the real-life exploits of legendary director Leo McCarey. With Nickelodeon, Bogdanovich finally achieved his dream of erasing the thin line between reel and real life, and he did it in a movie about people making movies, meticulously styled like a silent movie from the era it depicts.

O?Neal stars as a bumbling barrister who literally stumbles into a job first writing, then directing silent movies for an unruly pirate ship of an upstart film company run by brash mini-mogul Brian Keith. O?Neal soon finds his perfect leading man in Burt Reynolds, a charismatic hayseed whose ascent to movie stardom is every bit as half-assed and random as O?Neal?s path to the director?s chair. But their personal and professional bonds are threatened by O?Neal?s lingering infatuation with Reynolds? wife, played by model-turned-actress Jane Hitchcock.

Nickelodeon gleefully inhabits the Wild West era of film, a lawless time when pretty much everyone was an enthusiastic amateur making up the rules as they went along. Bogdanovich?s affection for film?s embryonic beginnings informs every frame, from the machine-gun crackle of snappy banter smartly executed to meticulously choreographed pratfalls and comic fights to silent-movie-style intertitles. Nickelodeon begins to sag in its third act, as the pace slows and O?Neal and Reynolds? dull romantic rivalry dominates the proceedings. But it recovers spectacularly during a movie-mad climax featuring the première of Birth Of A Nation and a stunning, succinct monologue from Keith about the transformative power of cinema.

Key features: The theatrical and director?s-cut version, plus a Bogdanovich commentary that discusses the many scenes inspired by the real-life travails of directors like McCarey, Allan Dwan, and Raoul Walsh. There?s also a director?s cut of Bogdanovich?s most widely admired film, The Last Picture Show.

[nealb1]

Posted: 4/29/09 at 6:43pm

Thanks for the update. Would love for "At Long Last Love" to come out on dvd. Maybe, one day.......?

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/29/09 at 7:38pm

I saw Nickelodeon when it was first released and don't remember one thing about it.
At Long Last Love is another story. I remember everything about that movie.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/29/09 at 8:27pm

Other than Targets, which I love, I have never liked a Peter Bogdanovich film.
And yes, that includes the tedious What's Up Doc? and the overrated The Last Picture Show.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/30/09 at 11:27am

I remember seeing this on cable in the VERY early days of The Movie Channel, but I honestly don't remember a thing about it.