Dig a Hole: Melville Shavelson
August 10th, 2007 by Scott Marks
After decades of killing audiences, writer/produce/director Melville Shavelson died of natural causes at his Studio City home. He was 90.
Mr. Shavelson began his careers as a radio gag writer on Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Show. His first screenwriting assignments were Bob Hope and Danny Kaye vehicles. Shavelson’s friendship with Hope helped launch his career behind the camera and his first two films as a director (The 7 Little Foys and Beau James) represent the comic’s finest non-Tashlin features. In addition, Shavelson gave Milton Berle his first dramatic role in Always Leave Them Laughing.
As a director, Shavelson was a competent gag man. Was he any good or are Hope’s pairings with Gordon Douglas and Norman Panama so embarrassing that anything looks brilliant by comparison?
Of Shavelson’s two collaborations with Sophia Loren, Houseboat is buoyed by Cary Grant while an ancient Clark Gable finishes It Started in Naples. There were two more abysmal Kaye outings before Mel tackled the birth of Israel. Even with Kirk Douglas, Angie Dickinson, John Wayne, Yul Brynner and Frank Sinatra, Cast a Giant Shadow is a monumental dud.
Some of you may have kind things to say about Yours, Mine & Ours. I don’t.
Melville Shavelson will always be remembered as a major footnote to the career of Bob Hope, something we can all be envious of.
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Quotes, Quips and Fun Facts
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“Marilyn Monroe? A vacuum with nipples. Directing her was like directing Lassie. You need 14 takes to get each one of them right.” - Otto Preminger
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Perhaps his crowning glory was the 1976 made for TV movie “The Great Houdini” starring Sally Struthers in the Janet Leigh role, Paul Michael Glaser in the Tony Curtis role, and Adrienne Barbeau as a 1910 groupie who tries to sleep with the great magician:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1azsGvTiXo
I saw this in his imdb listing while “researching” this entry. Never heard of it. I’ll put this right behind THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED on my films to see list.