Google
 

A question of Martin Scorsese’s THE KING OF COMEDY Part 2

November 9th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Last month I responded to an inquiry from Jon Oye concerning the meaning behind Chuck Low’s background antics in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. While Rupert and Rita share an intimate Chinese dinner, Low sits at a table behind the couple mimicking Pupkin’s every move.

This scene appears to have sparked much debate. Yesterday, I received a letter from Jack Pendarvis:

Hello, Mr. Marks!

I enjoy your blog. And I love Jerry Lewis. I was just looking for a picture of him with Robert De Niro (for my own blog) and I ran across your site. Back in March, I blogged about the same scene in KING OF COMEDY (the one with the incredibly nosy and intrusive extra who is mocking De Niro behind his back). I was watching Vincent Minnelli’s THE CLOCK (you know Scorsese is a big Minnelli fan) and noticed a very similar diner scene, with a background extra who practically steals the show from Robert Walker and Judy Garland. Anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me if the scene was in part just a tribute to Minnelli (THE CLOCK being a New York movie). Well, I hope you enjoy getting e-mails from obsessive strangers! Here’s the post I did on that subject.

Bye!
Jack

No problem, Jack. Some of my best friends are obsessive strangers. In his article, Mr. Pendarvis goes on to say:

Toward the end of THE CLOCK, Robert Walker and Judy Garland are in a diner, eating soup, and at a table behind them there is the nosiest extra you have ever seen in a movie. The scene is pointedly echoed in THE KING OF COMEDY during a dinner date between De Niro and Diahnne Abbott. Watch both movies and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Watch them now, I said!

Dusting off an old Laser copy of The Clock, I proceeded to the scene in question. Walker and Garland play a couple of virtual strangers who, after a 20-hour courtship, share a honeymoon dinner in a New York cafeteria. While the newlyweds converse in profile, a spiritless waiter decides to pull up an adjacent table for a pie and smoke break. Unlike Scorsese’s placement of Low (he’s parked in the background off to the right) Minnelli’s nuisance sits center frame positioned directly between Bob and Judy. The joint is far from crowded, yet the snoopy waiter can’t resist pulling up a table and listening in.

No director has ever dealt with issues of tenderness and intimacy within close confines quite like Vincente Minnelli. There could be a dozen characters in the shot and through camera placement and a slight shift of focus, Minnelli displays an uncanny flair for brightening cramped spaces with quiet moments of human dignity. What Minnelli giveth, Minnelli taketh away and this scene from The Clock is a dark comic reversal. There is no way our lovers are going to swap inward glances with this gorilla in their midst.

Did this scene inspire Marty? It’s safe a bet that’s he owns nitrate prints of all the Minnelli features and has seen them a dozen times. Hell, he’s even seen Minnelli’s daughter…naked! It’s always been my firm belief that the only reason he went with Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli’s daughter was, short of doing Anita Page, it was the closest he’d dare get to making love to old Hollywood. (As Jack pointed out, He wed Ingrid Bergman’s daughter and dated Melvyn Douglas’ granddaughter.) If he did crib from his almost father-in-law, at least he had the intelligence to steal and make it his own. Minnelli’s waiter isn’t there to mock or foretell. He merely wants to be a mosquito when he grows up while Marty’s doppelganger anticipates the onslaught of Pupkinitis.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Rants

Liza Minnelli: Former chauffer sues for rape, assault and battery

June 27th, 2008 by Scott Marks

The Addams Family in happier times

What good is sitting all alone in your limo? Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli fought and won the battle to personally defend herself against claims she sexually forced herself on her former driver.

M’hammed Soumayah is suing the 62-year-old superstar for $50 - $100 million. Soumayah claims that in 2004, Minnelli wanted him to drive more than just her limo. According to Soumayah, the Rent-A-Cop star forced him to have sexual relations “without his consent.” In reality, he probably found it impossible to follow Martin Scorsese. (It has always been my contention that the only reason Scorsese went with her was because he wanted to f–k old Hollywood.)

Soumayah is also alleging that he suffered assault and battery and that his pay was withheld until he performed…err…uhh… certain services for the star. It’s enough to make a cuckoo sterile!

As reported on WENN, “Soumayah’s lawyer suggested the star give testimony by video, as Minnelli ‘has been known to have professional commitments to meet.’ But Minnelli’s rep has insisted the request is’ just a way to embarrass’ the singer and would suggest she isn’t sound enough to appear for the deposition in person.”

If Soumayah really wants to embarrass her, all he has to do is bring a copy of Stepping Out to court.

Minnelli is scheduled to make a pre-trial statement in Manhattan Supreme court on August 15. Minnelli’s lawyers have previously called the Liza Driver’s lawsuit “a quicksand of untruths and misstatements” and accused him of an attempt to “shakedown” Sid Luft’s step-daughter for financial gain.

This is not Minnelli’s first experience dealing with a sexual harassment lawsuit. Liza’s suit against her former husband David Gest was thrown out of court by a New York federal judge in 2006 before the couple’s divorce was finalized the following year. Gest later accused his ex-wife of physical brutality.

Can’t wait to see what Liza wears on the stand. The judge had better allow cameras in the courtroom.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under News

keep looking »