My Favorite Year

Now THIS is a funny movie! All the energy and humor this movie created was not lost on the audience. I still know people who can quote lines from this movie, especially the scenes in Brooklyn with Rookie! Peter O'Toole has fun playing Errol Flynn and there are other recognizable actors here, as well, such as Selma Diamond, Joe Bologna and Cameron Mitchell as a gangster. Great fun for all!

From the opening notes of Nat 'King' Cole's great recording of Stardust, this film just steals your heart. If you are old enough to remember TV's Show Of Shows, live every week, this is a real treat. Peter O'Toole is magic as an Errol Flynn like movie star, swashing every buck in sight, charming the socks off one and all. The final scene of the live broadcast, with the mayhem caused by the gangsters invading the stage, is a classic. A delighful 90 minutes. 8/10 Jane

I was born in 1958, so I never saw Your Show of Shows, and needless to say, I never knew there was a famous or infamous incident involving one of my boyhood idols, a very drunk Errol Flynn.Dennis Palumbo, in what is ( sadly) apparently his only effort as a script writer, has taken this incident and woven a very human and very funny film from it. Benjamin's direction is excellent, and Peter O'Toole ( playing, it must be said, a variant of himself), is wonderful, as is most of the rest of the cast. Benjamin shows a sure comic touch in his debut. In short, like Quiz Show, one of the best movies about the fifties, and one of the best movies about the early days of television.

Hilarious film about a Sid Caesar-like comedy series where the special guest is a legendary swashbuckler movie idol who is more known for taking to drink, than for his acting credits. O'Toole shines as Alan Swann, the swashbuckler on his first live television series. Bologna is priceless as the Sid Caesar-like star of the comedy show. Baker is also wonderful as the young comedy writer assigned to watch Swann's every move. There is great support from Bill Macy, excellent as the show's head writer; Green as the show's producer; Hoffman as a comedy writer who only whispers how he feels...only to speak at the end of the film and Kazan, who is simply divine as Baker's mother. The film is a fine slice of old fashioned comedy with great slapstick and dialogue with lots of zap and zing. Director Benjamin shines in his first venture behind the camera. O'Toole was Oscar nominated.

Peter O'Toole is at the height of his comic powers in this wonderful homage to Errol Flynn, the 50's, and early live TV. Alan Swann (O'Toole) is a swashbuckling, aging, alcoholic actor billed to appear on television - which is fine until he realises that the thing is going to be broadcast LIVE, which is unthinkable. This prompts severe stage fright and heavy drinking, as he is cojoled with endless patience by his adoring young minder, Benjy Stone, (Mark Linn-Baker). The film is funny, brilliant, sad, stirring, inspiring, exciting - unique. The cast is perfect from top to bottom A tour de force by O'Toole. Watch it. 'My Favorite Year' should become one of Your Favorite Films. 9 out of 10.