Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Notorious Video Daily Double

This may come as a shock to some of you, but the Cap'n has been known to read on occasion, and since the movie it's been a fairly regular occurrence. I don't usually talk about it here, because only half the time are the books film-related (at the moment, I'm winding down Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, which, though I may enjoy it considerably, doesn't fall into the Blogorium's rigid standards). At some point, I should get back to reviewing the other half, which include Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops, Yippee Ki Yay Moviegoer: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema, and Other Important Topics, and Pauline Kael's Hooked. But those are not the subjects of today's Video Daily Double.

No, today we'll be dealing with Kid Notorious: Robert Evans. Despite having seen The Kid Stays in the Picture several times, the Cap'n hadn't actually read Evans' memoir / autobiography until just a few weeks ago, and let me tell you, the documentary just barely skims the surface of his life. If you're looking for an entertaining, scandalous, cameo-laden collection of stories (sometimes tell-all, but many surprisingly not) from one of - if not the most - infamous names in Hollywood, pick up a copy. As for the Cap'n, I'll be taking Patton Oswalt's advice and hunting down the audiobook (read by the author).

Since I just wrapped up The Kid Stays in the Picture, I thought I'd give those unawares a bit of a primer on Robert Evans for today's Video Daily Double.

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Our first video is Evans' presentation to the Board of Directors at Gulf & Western, who owned Paramount Studios while he was Head of Production. G&W wanted to shut down the studio and save losses, and this pitch saved Paramount, thanks in no small part to Kid Notorious. Fun fact: this presentation was directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)



Our second video comes from Comedy Central's short-lived animated sitcom, Kid Notorious. It's not available on DVD, and almost nobody remembers it ever existed, but it posits the continued adventures of Robert Evans, his butler English, maid Tollie Mae, his cat Puss Puss, and his best friend, Slash (from Guns N Roses, and voiced by Slash). Technically this would count as two videos, but here's the intro, followed by the longest clip I could find online.



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