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''Nickelodeon'' is a 1976
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and stars
Ryan O'Neal Ryan O'Neal (born April 20, 1941) is an American actor and former boxer. He trained as an amateur boxer before beginning his career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera '' Peyton Place ...
,
Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...
and
Tatum O'Neal Tatum Beatrice O'Neal (born November 5, 1963) is an American actress. She is the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award, winning at age 10 for her performance as Addie Loggins in '' Paper Moon'' (1973) opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal. S ...
. According to Bogdanovich, the film was based on true stories told to him by
silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
directors
Allan Dwan Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, wa ...
and
Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He wa ...
. It was entered into the
27th Berlin International Film Festival The 27th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June – 5 July 1977. The festival opened with ''Nickelodeon'' by Peter Bogdanovich. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Soviet Union film '' The Ascent'' directed by Larisa Shep ...
.


Plot

In 1914, Leo Harrigan (
Ryan O'Neal Ryan O'Neal (born April 20, 1941) is an American actor and former boxer. He trained as an amateur boxer before beginning his career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera '' Peyton Place ...
) goes from being a lawyer to a writer and then to a film director while having problems, such as being hopelessly smitten with Kathleen Cooke. Whilst directing a scene of his friend Buck rising in a
balloon A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or lig ...
, Kathleen gets trapped in a rope and is hoisted in a most undignified level. They keep filming including the balloon crashing onto a moving train. As the footage is excellent, they incorporate it into the film and rewrite the story to fit. Kathleen therefore accidentally becomes the leading lady. Due to Kathleen's life being saved by Buck in the balloon they are now engaged. After shooting a scene where they get married they drive off to really wed. When they go to a small town
nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
, they are surprised to see a film "Tuttle's Muddle" which is a spliced version of the ten films which they have made to date. Their attitude changes when the audience follow them, recognising them as the stars of the film. The group are offered a contract by Atlantic Pictures who are relocating to the Pacific and they all head to
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...
. Leo moves from New Jersey to California to keep one step ahead of the
Motion Picture Patents Company The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC, also known as the Edison Trust), founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-bra ...
, who are out to destroy any non-authorized equipment violating the Edison Trust. Leo finally settles in with other filmmakers in Hollywoodland, California, and makes a series of dramatic, romantic, and comedic shorts as throwaways. While initially believing movies are just a brief flickering kind of entertainment, Leo and the crew are profoundly affected when they go to see the 1915 world premiere of
D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...
's ''
The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...
'', which transforms the motion picture industry. The film gets a standing ovation and Leo is left feeling inadequate. After the film, they re-encounter Cobb who speaks to camera enthusing about what the cinema can bring. He wants Leo to make a film about the war, getting "what war?" in response.


Cast

*
Ryan O'Neal Ryan O'Neal (born April 20, 1941) is an American actor and former boxer. He trained as an amateur boxer before beginning his career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera '' Peyton Place ...
as Leo Harrigan *
Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...
as Buck Greenway *
Tatum O'Neal Tatum Beatrice O'Neal (born November 5, 1963) is an American actress. She is the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award, winning at age 10 for her performance as Addie Loggins in '' Paper Moon'' (1973) opposite her father, Ryan O'Neal. S ...
as Alice Forsyte * Jane Hitchcock as Kathleen Cooke * Brian Keith as H.H. Cobb * Stella Stevens as Marty Reeves * John Ritter as Franklin Frank *
Brion James Brion Howard James (February 20, 1945 – August 7, 1999) was an American character actor. He portrayed Leon Kowalski in ''Blade Runner'' and appeared in ''Southern Comfort'', '' 48 Hrs.'', ''Another 48 Hrs.'', '' Silverado'', ''Tango & Cash'', ' ...
as Bailiff * Sidney Armus as Judge * Joe Warfield as Defence Attorney *
Lorenzo Music Gerald David "Lorenzo" Music (May 2, 1937 – August 4, 2001) was an American actor, producer and writer. Music began his career in the late 1960s as a writer and a regular performer on the controversial CBS variety show ''The Smothers Brothers ...
as Mullins * Jeffrey Byron as Steve *
Priscilla Pointer Priscilla Marie Pointer (born May 18, 1924) is an American retired actress. She began her career in the theater in the late 1940's, including productions on Broadway. Later, Pointer moved to Hollywood and making appearances on television in the ...
as Mabel * Philip Bruns as Duncan * Frank Marshall as Dinsdale's Assistant * Harry Carey, Jr. as Dobie * James Best as Jim *
George Gaynes George Gaynes (born George Jongejans; May 16, 1917 – February 15, 2016) was a Finnish-born American singer, actor, and voice artist. Born to Dutch and Russian-Finnish parents in the Grand Duchy of Finland of the Russian Empire, he served in the ...
as Reginald Kingsley *
M. Emmet Walsh Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television series, including small but important supporting roles in dozens of major studio features of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in '' B ...
as 'Father' Logan *
Miriam Byrd-Nethery Miriam Byrd-Nethery (May 17, 1929 – January 6, 2003) was an American actress. Her film roles included '' Bound for Glory'' (1976) and '' Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III'' and ''Across Five Aprils'' (both 1990). Personal life By ...
as Aunt Lula * Les Josephson as Nickelodeon Bouncer *
Griffin O'Neal Griffin Patrick O'Neal (born October 28, 1964) is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as '' The Escape Artist'', ''April Fool's Day'', '' The Wraith'', ''Assault of the Killer Bimbos'', and '' Ghoulies III''. Early life and career O' ...
as Boy On A Bicycle * Hamilton Camp as Blacker * Elaine Partnow as Movie Fanatic


Production


Screenplay

In his memoirs, Irwin Winkler says he wanted to make a movie about the silent film era. He took the idea to W.D. Richter, with whom he had worked a number of times, and Richter agreed to write the project on "spec" for the producers (Winkler's producing partner was Bob Chartoff). Richters final script was called ''Starlight Parade'' and attracted interest from United Artists and Columbia. David Begelman at Columbia suggested Peter Bogdanovich as director. Winkler later stated:
He made David come to his office and wait until the receptionist said, 'Mr. Bogdanovich will see you now.' As soon as we came inside, we were very haughtily told that he thought the script was a piece of arbage I'd been around long enough to know that I should take that as a bad sign. I remember coming out of the meeting, saying, 'David, why should we make the movie with someone who hates our script?' And all David said was, 'Hey, he's a genius.' ... What he filmed had nothing to do with the original script. I know it meant a lot to Peter to have all of the authentic stories about the silent period in the film, but Rick's script, authentic or not, was terrific. It was just a great drama. By the time Peter was done with it, it was authentic, but it wasn't dramatic anymore. Peter hadn't really experienced any failure yet—we hired him before '
At Long Last Love ''At Long Last Love'' is a 1975 American jukebox musical comedy film written, produced, and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. It stars Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, and Duilio Del Prete as two couples who each switch partners d ...
' had come out—so he was easily the most arrogant person I'd ever met in the business, before or since. When we shot the picture, he actually directed some of the scenes on horseback. When I asked him why he was on horseback, he said, "Because that's the way John Ford did it.'"
Bogdanovich has an alternative version:
I should have never gotten involved, I should have done it myself. I'd been planning to do a big picture about the silent era, largely based on the interviews with Dwan, Walsh and McCarey. I was preparing it and I got a call from my agent and she said they're preparing a movie called ''Starlight Parade'', there's another director involved but they want you. I said, "Well, I don't really want to do their script, I'll have to rewrite it completely." "They'll let you rewrite it, whatever you want." Basically I rewrote the whole damn thing and never used any of ''Starlight Parade''. The trouble was, again, the picture had a balance between comedy and drama and it was a comedy-drama, no question about it, and I had wanted to do it in black and white. It was very important to do it in black and white and Columbia, the studio, wouldn't let me. I had a big fight about that and they cancelled the picture. Then Barry Spikings at British-Lion came in and funded some of the picture, threw in a few million dollars. It ended up being a Columbia-British Lion picture and but when it was all done it was a difficult picture.John Gallagher, "Between Action and Cut", August 2004
accessed 3 June 2013
The movie's title was eventually changed to ''Nickelodeon''.


Casting

Bogdanovich said his original choices for the leads were Jeff Bridges, John Ritter, Cybill Shepherd and
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
. However Columbia Pictures head David Begelman refused and Burt Reynolds and Ryan O'Neal were cast in the leads. He also refused to let Bogdanovich's then-girlfriend Shepherd in the female lead out of fear of a public backlash against her, following the poor box office performance of ''
Daisy Miller ''Daisy Miller'' is a novella by Henry James that first appeared in '' The Cornhill Magazine'' in June–July 1878, and in book form the following year. It portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a s ...
'' and ''At Long Last Love''. Brian Keith played the part Bogdanovich wanted Welles to play. (He later said he was going to play it at one stage.) Of Bogdanovich's original picks for the leads, only Ritter was cast, in a smaller role, as cameraman Franklin Frank in what would be the first of three collaborations between him and Bogdanovich (the other two being 1981's ''
They All Laughed ''They All Laughed'' is a 1981 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, John Ritter, Colleen Camp, Patti Hansen, and Dorothy Stratten. The film was based on a screenplay by Bogdanovic ...
'', and 1992's '' Noises Off''.) "The character I play ... is a sort of a
Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...
with a little
Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
thrown in", said Reynolds. "I do a lot of pratfalls and fall into things. He's a very shy, sweet, and likeable character. This is a first for me. The part that I would normally play is being played by Ryan O'Neal. He's a fast talking guy trying to become a big success. Peter wrote the film for Ryan O'Neal and me; he sees me n real lifeas that shy guy." Tatum O'Neal, who had won an Oscar appearing in ''Paper Moon'' with her father and Bogdanovich, joined the supporting cast. The fees for Reynolds and O'Neal were around $750,000, and Tatum O'Neal was $350,000. This caused the budget to increase and Columbia cancelled the film. "This film is not over and done with", said Richter in November 1975. "What it comes down to is a power struggle over the budget. Columbia wants an enormous hunk cut out of it and I think if we can cut if they will make the film. By its very nature it is an expensive project. Why the studio brought this to is another question. Maybe it is the beginning of an attempt to start cutting back stars' prices. I think it is criminal to have to shorten the film just to pay a kings ransom to stars. You end up in debt before you begin." Extra finance was obtained by British Lion and it was announced that filming would proceed. "We have worked out 99% of the problems and expect to work out 100% of the creative differences", said David Begelman in December 1975. Columbia provided $6 million, British Lion $2 million. The director's fee was $700,000, $500,000 of which was held as a completion guarantee. Bogdanovich later said the film "didn't have to cost half as much as it did. The producers insisted it be bigger and I fought but I finally had to accept what they wanted."


Shooting

"The whole idea was to capture the era, since obviously the original films were shot in black and white", Bogdanovich says. "My cinematographer, Laszlo Kovacs, carefully lit everything to accommodate black-and-white, which is why the lighting looks so good. We used a lot of the techniques of the silent era, irising in and out of scenes. There are no opticals at all in the film. But all the studio wanted was another broad comedy like ''What's Up, Doc?'' " During filming, Burt Reynolds collapsed on set one day. Doctors could not figure out what was wrong with him and the film had to be postponed for two weeks while he recovered. The film went over schedule and over budget and Bogdanovich had to forfeit his $500,000. "I just had a smaller picture in mind", said the director later. "Both Burt Reynolds and Ryan were good in it, and Jane Hitchcock was good but she didn't have any threat about her."Interview with Peter Bogdanovich at Hollywood Flashback Interview
accessed 3 June 2013
Ryan O'Neal had made two pictures previously with Bogdanovich but said ''Nickelodeon'' was a "terrible experience" and that Bogdanovich "began no longer using writers ... Orson Welles quit one week before he was to appear in the film ... Bogdanovich rewrote what originally was a tough little script about Hollywood into a farcical series of precious little jokes. I tried to get out of the picture. I told him, 'Peter we had a good script but you changed it. You're locked up there in your house. You've got to get out and regain the gritty edge you showed in ''Last Picture Show''. But he never did." Reynolds and his stunt man Hal Needham had an unhappy experience making the film. They later made the film ''Hooper'' which featured a pretentious film director based on Bogdanovich.


Post-production

Winkler says when he saw a rough cut of the final film he thought it was "atrocious ... for Peter to blame the movie's failure on the casting and not being in black-and-white is a really terrible excuse for a guy who simply screwed up a really terrific script."


Reception

For the Los Angeles premiere, all guests (and some critics) paid five cents to see the movie in honor of the film and early Hollywood ticket prices. However, the movie was unsuccessful at the box office, and was Bogdanovich's third flop in a row after ''Daisy Miller'' and ''At Long Last Love'' (the latter of which was also an attempt to revive an older style of film making). Bogdanovich reminisced in 2004:
The previews were edgy and the studio wanted me to take most of the drama out, play it more comedy and turn it more into a What's Up Doc?, which it really wasn't. So that threw it off and it got fucked up. Again, the picture came out not at all the way I wanted. I tried to recut that one and I couldn't get back to it. There's about five minutes I'd like to put back that really makes a difference, some heavy stuff where you find out that Ryan O'Neal has an affair with Stella Stevens, it becomes very clear, and you see that John Ritter knows it, all that stuff. It was just much heavier and darker. So the picture got screwed up and that's why I took three years off and went away.
Bogdanovich blamed the studio for poor marketing.
I couldn't seem to get anything across to them. I felt like I was talking into a void. When you've had a few successes you can say the stupidest things in the world and people will think it's clever. When you've had a few flops, you can say something perfectly reasonable and they look at you as if they had no idea what you are talking about.
As for Richter;
After it became clear the picture was a failure, the most amazing thing happened: I got more job offers than ever before in my life. People seemed so mad at Peter that they were eager to make excuses for me and help me out. And they all wanted to hear about working with him.
After making the film, Bogdanovich felt he had compromised so much he took three years off directing before returning with ''
Saint Jack ''Saint Jack'' is a 1973 novel by Paul Theroux that was adapted into a 1979 film of the same name. It tells the life of Jack Flowers, a pimp in Singapore. Feeling hopeless and undervalued, Jack tries to make money by setting up his own bordello ...
'' (1979). Among contemporary reviews from critics,
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film two stars out of four and called it "a curiously flat movie. It functions like clockwork and it looks right, but it doesn't feel like much. The laughs are telegraphed, the actors are lifeless (with the exception of Burt Reynolds), and the movie does an abrupt turnabout, from comedy to elegy, about two-thirds of the way through."
Richard Eder Richard Gray Eder (August 16, 1932 – November 21, 2014) was an American film reviewer and a drama critic. Life and career For 20 years, he was variously a foreign correspondent, a film reviewer and the drama critic for '' The New York Times''. ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the film "two hours and two minutes of impersonations. Some of them are very good impersonations—deft and funny—but they lack a life to string them together." Arthur D. Murphy of '' Variety'' called it "an okay comedy-drama about the early days of motion pictures. Recreating a cultural era in terms of some of its artistic forms and cliches emerges as an uneven dramatic device though it sometimes works."
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that it "really bogs down with incessantly inept pratfall comedy" and "is successful only when it captures the innocence of the period." Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' wrote, "In the first part of the film O'Neal, Reynolds and Miss Hitchcock often seem merely silly as they carry on like the exaggerated characters in their own movies. Alas, the effect is to make the latter portion of the movie unduly static and drawn out in comparison to its frenetic beginning. However, the more aware one is of what Bogdanovich is trying to do and the more knowledgeable one is about the era he is trying to evoke, the more enjoyable the movie. Indeed, 'Nickelodeon' is most affecting for the cineaste, and its culminating tribute to D. W. Griffith as the screen's first great artist brings tears to the eyes." Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' wrote that while Bogdanovich's new film was not quite a disaster on par with his previous flop ''At Long Last Love'', "this elaborate, rambling and ultimately tedious period comedy about the pioneering years of the movie business in Hollywood does not lack for crippling deficiencies, miscalculations and self-indulgences." Critic John Simon called the film "a sanity test: anyone who catches himself laughing at any of it at this late date should seriously consider committing himself to the nearest mental hospital even though in his case a cure is hardly to be hoped for." As of March 2022, the film holds a rating of 8% on the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 10.


Alternative versions

The 2009 DVD release includes a 125-minute "Director's Cut" in black and white. "There's nothing to distract you", said Bogdanovich, "Ryan's blond hair and blue eyes don't distract you, and you focus on the action in an easier way. That's why the funniest movies ever made were silent comedies—Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin. It focuses the attention in a different way, and color is distracting for that sort of thing.""Q&A – Director Peter Bogdanovich Finally Gets Five Minutes of His Movie Back"
AMCTV, accessed 3 June 2013


References


External links

* * * {{Peter Bogdanovich 1976 films 1976 comedy films American comedy films British comedy films Columbia Pictures films 1970s English-language films Films about filmmaking Films about Hollywood, Los Angeles Films directed by Peter Bogdanovich Films produced by Robert Chartoff Films produced by Frank Marshall Films produced by Irwin Winkler Films set in 1914 Films set in 1915 Films set in California Films set in Chicago Films set in Los Angeles Films with screenplays by Peter Bogdanovich Films with screenplays by W. D. Richter EMI Films films 1970s American films 1970s British films