Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Sober-Friend This 1982 comedy has some very comic set pieces however there is not enough to save the viewer from wandering "How Much Longer".Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker), the narrator, tells of the summer (in his "favorite year" of 1954) he met his idol, swashbuckling actor Alan Swann. Who is past his prime (Peter O'Toole). Alan also has a massive drinking problem and lack of empathy for everyone around him. Keep in mind the time period this takes place in means is the early days of television. Television was Taboo for "Movie stars" and television was also live!The main character is Benjy who works as a junior comedy writer for a variety show called Comedy Cavalcade starring Stan "King" Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) broadcast live from the NBC studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. As a special upcoming guest, they get the still-famous but in reality he is a hasbeen! Great performances! Great Cast! However with the bases load this film fails to deliver a grand slam. It hits a double and only two runners score! Good enough to watch once!

SnoopyStyle 1954 is Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker)'s favorite year. He is a lowly junior writer on NBC's top rated The King Kaiser Comedy Cavalcade. King Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) is a bombastic tyrant. Sy Benson (Bill Macy) is the head writer who always bows down to Kaiser. Benjy is in unrequited love with production assistant K.C. Downing (Jessica Harper). Legendary actor Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) is coming to guest star on the show. However he's a hopeless drunk. When he shows up plastered, Kaiser commands to replace him until Benjy pleads for his childhood hero. Kaiser puts Benjy as Swann's handler. Also union boss Karl Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell) is angry at his parody and starts causing trouble with the show.Inspired by Errol Flynn's appearance on 'Your Show of Shows', this is a great insightful period piece on a certain era of television. It has some good laughs. Linn-Baker is good as the young hopeful writer. Joseph Bologna is terrific as essentially Sid Caesar. However this is all about Peter O'Toole and he is amazing. It works even better because he is that legend. He does great drunk acting and with great charisma.

dougdoepke Hilarious, an unexpected joy. The laughs keep coming, thanks to an expert cast and a big dose of Jewish humor. No one seems in charge of getting the weekly TV show together for an audience of 20-million. Instead, everyone backstage appears to be rushing around like spinning tops. Even the alleged star King Kaiser (Bologna) can't seem to keep the order of his skits straight. Looks to me like bibulous guest star Alan Swann (O'Toole) should fit right in, drunk or sober. Then there's poor young schlemiel (Linn-Baker) who gets to baby-sit Swann when not pursuing a fruitless romance with the comely K.C. (Harper). Mix in a bunch of mobsters who don't like being made fun of, and you've got a finale to end all finales, even if the mayhem is every TV producer's nightmare.Now I'm really curious whether the old Sid Caesar show was really as wild backstage as the movie presents it. At the time, I was a faithful watcher, so the hijinks here come as a special revelation. But what else could you expect from backstage characters like Caesar's writers Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. Anyhow, this was Dick Benjamin's first directorial outing even though you'd never know it. Then too, credit O'Toole with coming up with a really sly performance that alternates between drunken stupor and charming finesse. I particularly like it when Swann reveals his real self but still shifts gears into the movie swashbuckler when needed.All in all, it's a wacko comedy well deserving its place on Premiere's Top 50 comedies of all time.

bob the moo Someone recommended this to me recently and given that he watches a lot of movies from a good spread of time and genres and that I'd never heard of it, I decided to give it a try. The plot is told from the point of view of young television writer Benjy Stone who has been charged with keeping the guest star of a live Saturday night television show in line through rehearsals and onto the show itself. This is not easy task given that the guest is none other than the Errol-Flynn-esquire Alan Swann, the legendary lothario and drinker. The narrative charts their escapades over the week and sees them learn lessons from one another (to a point).I say "to a point" because the plot is not that strong when you go much below the superficial and indeed there isn't the action/reaction that I expected from the character dynamics – or at least it is not that strong on the page. This is a bit of a weakness in the film – not that I wanted it to be serious or insightful but more that I felt it could have done with being a little sharper and more structured in regards its characters. That said, what it leaves is a rather superficial and frothy film and this is in no way a totally bad thing because it plays into this very well. The word of the day for me was "whimsy" with this – because it seems to have been founded on a bed of nostalgia for a particular place and time that may not even have existed. Given that nostalgia (as opposed to reality) is the foundation, it was wise to build with a whimsical comedic approach because the two things compliment each other well as the various backstage shenanigans and characters get on. It is an odd coincidence that this all occurs in 30 Rockefeller Plaza because the exaggerated antics and 100% comedic characters did very much put me in mind of 30 Rock – not as funny perhaps but the base elements were very similar.It is a comedy though and, while I was not laughing out loud very often, I did have several good laughs and otherwise found myself quite charmed by the amusing material. There are some great lines but there are also plenty of funny little characters around the edges to provide chuckles and feed into the overall comedy (for example the throwaway creation of Rookie Carroca, which is odd but yet very funny). As in 30 Rock today, the cast here are a massive part of making the comedy work and in particular carrying off the whimsy and silliness so that it remains charming and does not become stupid or grating. Linn-Baker is the narrative-device and as such he is pretty good, doing enough so that we like him and care a bit in regards his character's romantic ambitions but never pushing himself forward so that he challenges the main show in town – which is O'Toole. With his wonderful swagger and droll delivery of his lines, O'Toole nails his comedy character perfectly and is very funny doing it (his finest moment being the "for ladies only" exchange). OK at times the material lets him down (the more "serious" character moments towards the end jar a little in contrast with the rest of his performance) but otherwise he is very good. Harper is cute and works well with both men, while Bologna is a blast from the past that is simple but effective while the rest of the support cast has plenty of recognisable faces doing great little comic characters (Kazan, Hoffman, De Salvo, I could go on).My Favourite Year doesn't have the substance that the narrative (and narration) suggests that it will have and perhaps is a little unsatisfying if you are trying to take it even slightly seriously as a story but if you are even vaguely in the mood it is hard not to be charmed by it. With nostalgic whimsy as the approach the film delivers laughs that range from the slap-stick to the witty and, while you'll not be rolling on the floor it produced such consistent chuckles for me that it was hard not to enjoy it despite its apparent weaknesses in other areas. Not a classic comedy that will stand for all time, but one that more than does the job for its own running time, which in fairness is all you should be asking of it.