Blog post (or Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton Make a Picture)![]() In July of 1963, acclaimed Irish playwright/poet/novelist/weirdo Samuel Beckett traveled to New York City to oversee the filming of his first and only screenplay, a silent two-reeler starring Buster Keaton. Would you like to know how that all came about? Me, too. So let’s get our checkbooks out…
Long story short — Chaplin never read the script; in fact, he refused to read unsolicited scripts, even if one were to come from someone as renowned and acclaimed as Beckett (at this point five or six years away from his Nobel Prize for Literature — but still!). Beckett and Schneider considered Zero Mostel as a replacement but Mostel, too, was unavailable, starring as he was in the Broadway hit A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. (Even if he had not been otherwise engaged, Mostel likely would not have been an ideal candidate for the rigors of FILM, having suffered a traumatic leg injury in 1960, which caused him considerable pain and incapacity for the rest of his life.) Also considered was Irish actor Jack MaGowran, who had a history of collaboration with Beckett and had starred in Beckett’s END OF DAY in Dublin in 1962. The history seems to indicate that MacGowran (who went on big roles in Roman Polanski’s THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS) and William Friedkin’s THE EXORCIST) was interested in the assignment but had to bow out at the last minute when he was called abroad to play a supporting part in LORD JIM (1965), starring Peter O’Toole. Apparently the notion to cast Buster Keaton came from one of FILM‘s bit players, a young stage actor named James Karen, and here’s where the story gets a little weird. A graduate of New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actor’s Studio, James Karen was at the time a reliable Broadway stand-in, having been on tap to replace — if necessary — Karl Malden in the original 1949 production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE directed Elia Kazan and both George Grizzard and Arthur Hill in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Edward Albee’s WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF – directed by Alan Schneider. Anyone growing up on the East Coast in the 70s and 80s will remember Karen as “the Pathmark Guy” (from countless regional commercials) but the Psychotronic crowd has long en-cult-ed him as an integral part of the classics FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965), POLTERGEIST (1982), and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985). So, that guy.
FILM was shot during a typically sweltering New York summer, with Keaton — who didn’t really understand what the hell Beckett and Schneider were on about — running around lower Manhattan in a thick winter coat, playing a man — it seems — in mortal fear of being seen. A meta celebration of cinema and the dialectic of perception (to see and to be seen), the film was given a grand push at the 1965 Venice Film Festival, where Keaton was hailed by Italians as “Caro Buster” and both Schneider and Beckett worried that FILM was being received not as a Beckett film but as a Keaton film. And we could argue that point ad nauseam but it hardly is the point in light of the historic and cultural significance of this project. The film itself can be seen more or less in its entirely on YouTube (though the presentation is, of course, hardly optimal). The reason I write to you today is to inform you that there is a plan afoot to make a feature length documentary about the making of FILM and to put you in touch with the crowdfunding info to help you kick in, if you are so inclined. NOTFILM is a “kino-essay” by Ross Lipman and Milestone Film and Video that uses talking head testimonials (Karen, Billie Whitelaw, Leonard Maltin, Kevin Brownlow, and others) as well as surviving behind-the-scenes materials and outtake footage that was discovered moldering under a sink in Barney Rosset’s apartment! It’s a hell of a story and I know I need to know how it all came together. The fundraising goal is $95,000, which comprises approximately half of NOTFILM‘s budget. As of this writing, $20,000 has already been raised and there are 28 days left in the campaign. Give what you can. Among the wide range of incentives is a copy of the FILM/NOTFILM DVD for those who contribute $75 (for $85, you get the Blu-ray) and $250 gets you onscreen thanks. $2,500 gets you credit and dinner with James Karen (who turns 90 at the end of the month), so you can have the satisfaction of having made a significant contribution to cinema and whilst yelling “You son of a bitch, you left the bodies and you only moved the headstones! YOU ONLY MOVED THE HEADSTONES! WHYYYYYYYYY?!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!!!” Alternatively, you can ask him about Samuel Beckett or Buster Keaton but, you know, your money your call. To contribute, click here. To like NOTFILM on Facebook, click here. To follow NOTFILM on Twitter, click here. 4 Responses Blog post (or Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton Make a Picture)
![]() i heard about this way,way,way,way back when i was a much younger bohemian wannabe,and i certainly knew of James Karen from his involvement in the aforementioned “cult” films….he’s kind of the east coast Dick Miller,i know he did a lot of commercials in the NYC area,just outside my sphere of influence of Boston,but i will see if i can scrape some coins from between the sofa cushions to help ![]() John Lahr writes about the Florida “Waiting for Godot” in his Bert Lahr biography “Notes on a Cowardly Lion.” Schneider is quoted a few times, and in passing mentions working with Keaton (eager to be helpful, always offering bits of business). ![]() Shame on me but I did not hear of Samuel Beckett until I happened to read the article. I rad it from A to Z and it made me feel like watching his films. What I need to do is to find time for doing it but I surely will because I am a movie lover, a cinema goer and just a huge fan of the genre Samuel Beckett works in! Leave a Reply |
As of November 1, 2017 FilmStruck’s blog, StreamLine, has moved to Tumblr. Please visit us there! http://filmstruck.tumblr.com/tagged/streamline-blog Streamline is the official blog of FilmStruck, a new subscription service that offers film aficionados a comprehensive library of films including an eclectic mix of contemporary and classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
Actors
Alfred Hitchcock
Bela Lugosi
Bette Davis
Boris Karloff
British Cinema
Buster Keaton
Cary Grant
Charlie Chaplin
Citizen Kane
Comedy
Criterion
Criterion Channel
Dracula
DVD
Elizabeth Taylor
Film
Film Noir
FilmStruck
Frankenstein
Fritz Lang
Hammer Horror
Horror
horror films
Horror Movies
Humphrey Bogart
James Bond
Joan Crawford
John Ford
John Huston
John Wayne
Joseph Losey
Movie
movies
mystery
Night of the Living Dead
Orson Welles
Peter Lorre
Psycho
Roger Corman
Steve McQueen
TCM
The Exorcist
Warner Archive
Westerns
|
I’d like to see Film and I’d like to see NotFilm get made. Alas, I am but a poor, corrupt official.