rickmantler Reviews

Lolita (1962)

Has Anybody Noticed Sellers Cracking Up Mason?

[10/10 · 27 April 2008]

I noticed that during Peter Sellers hysterical turn as Dr. Zempf, you can see both Sellers and James Mason nearly crack up at one point. Kubrick obviously opted to keep the take.

I think it is roughly at 1:48 when this happens. It isn't a long scene, so seeing this for yourself wouldn't be too time consuming an exercise.

I'm surprised this doesn't show up anywhere as a "goof".

There's another "near crack up" just like this in Dr. Strangelove caused yet again by Sellers. The guy you can see failing to contain his laughter is that huge bald Russian-looking dude that is standing (I think) to the left of Sellers in a wheelchair- somewhat spotlighted.

Goin' South (1978)

Wow. A cocaine-fueled disaster.

[26 February 2008]

One can't help but notice how Nicholson eventually gave up on concealing his hilariously obvious coke nose (to the untrained ear it just sounds like "allergies"- this is the usual excuse given, of course....).

Over the counter allergy medicine can help with allergy symptoms. Nothing helps cocaine-blasted sinuses.

Not even Scorsese could direct while coked up. Nicholson's attempt is considerably more disastrous. Take a second look at the cast (see Belushi) and it isn't hard to deduce what happened to this movie.

Note that it gets steadily worse as the film progresses.

I wasn't expecting a "great" movie being that this was Nicholson's only directing effort. I was just curious. I didn't expect something this bad. Yikes.