Today’s movie is a comedy with a scene that happens on
February 9. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
MR. SATURDAY NIGHT
Self-deprecating comedian Buddy Young, Jr. tells a
reporter how he had a TV show back in the 1950’s where he was called “Mr.
Saturday Night”. Now he does shows at
nursing homes. Afterwards his brother/manager Stan gives him bad news. Stan is
retiring and Buddy has lost his cruise ship engagement. This leads to an
argument between them about how Buddy is ungrateful and Stan never did enough,
including mention of how Stan worked for a year to get Buddy on the Ed Sullivan
Show. Unfortunately, his appearance is
on February 9, 1964 [13:16 to 15:48] right after the Beatles appearance and Buddy
bombs after he turns on the inattentive audience. Stan and Buddy do a comedic
living room routine, and while Stan chickens out at their first public
appearance, Buddy goes on alone. Buddy works his way up to the Borscht belt of
Jewish resorts in the Catskills where he meets his wife Elaine. Buddy plays in Las Vegas and eventually gets
his TV show. In the present Buddy asks Phil Gusman the head of a major agency
to represent him, but he sends Annie Wells a young agent in his place. Buddy
attacks her for her lack of knowledge concerning comedians of his era. Buddy plays in dives to keep going. In a
flashback we see his show was cancelled when after the ratings took a nosedive,
he did a monologue questioning the sexual orientation of Davy Crockett. Buddy
also ignored his wife and his daughter and fired Woody Allen as a joke writer.
Annie does her homework and wins him over and gets him jobs. Buddy and Stan’s
mother dies. Annie gets Buddy an audition with Larry Meyerson, a hot Hollywood
director, but Buddy blows the audition, causing an actual physical fight with
Stan. However after this Buddy makes up with his daughter and at the end with
Stan.
This movie has its up and downs.
Both come from the fact that this was Billy’s Crystal’s movie. When he’s good
he’s good, but there was no one to tell him when it was bad.
Gould, Jonathan. Can’t Buy Me Love. New York, Harmony
Books, 2007. This book at page 3 gives the date of the Beatles appearance on Ed
Sullivan
Producer - Billy Crystal
Director - Billy Crystal
Awards – The movie was nominated for the Best Supporting
Actor (Paymer) Oscar at the 65th Academy Awards
Screenplay - Billy Crystal, Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz
Runtime – 1 hour 59 minutes
Released - September 23, 1992
Starring –
Billy Crystal as Buddy Young, Jr.
David Paymer as Stan Young
Julie Warner as Elaine Young
Helen Hunt as Annie Wells
Jerry Orbach as Phil Gussman
Ron Silver as Larry Meyerson
Mary Mara as Susan Young
Jerry Lewis as Himself
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.
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