The film “Made in Italy” was made in Italy. See, there’s truth in advertising. It’s Liam Neeson and real son Micheál Richardson playing father and son. Scenario: His wife dies. They remodel a Tuscan villa. His set of skills in this is spackling. No kidnapping. No chase scenes. Spackling. OK? Liam likes Italy. Not the …
The film “Made in Italy” was made in Italy. See, there’s truth in advertising. It’s Liam Neeson and real son Micheál Richardson playing father and son. Scenario: His wife dies. They remodel a Tuscan villa. His set of skills in this is spackling. No kidnapping. No chase scenes. Spackling. OK?
Liam likes Italy. Not the first time father and son were there. They’re now hustling this film, which both just showed at an upstate New York drive-in. Liam also likes upstate New York. Not the first time father and son were there.
Liam: “Having shot four movies in Italy since the early 1980s, once I had a horse bolt with me on its back in the Abruzzi region. And I was privately shown Michelangelo’s last painted ‘doodle’ in one of the Vatican chapels with my late wife (Natasha Richardson) and 6-month-old Micheál.”
Whether it’s their first shot in a drive-in, this I’m not sure. And how often both spackle, I also don’t know. I only know “Made in Italy,” which was made for big screens, is now on small ones. On demand.
Time traveling yields facts
Lawyer Raoul Lionel Felder sent me Aug. 26, 1935, Time magazine. It was 15 cents.
It listed a Pontiac at $615. A “half ton truck” — $400. Silver? “Below 66 cents per ounce.” Jeweled Elgin watch — $19. Fountain pen? A buck. Vaseline, 40 cents. A page guaranteed “most efficient, dependable and economical telephone service in the whole world and only costs you a nickel” plus, ready? “all your equipment guaranteed in perfect working order.” Yeah.
Free Met Life booklets about “measles, colds, influenza or pneumonia” dangers. And before today’s gents began fat, greasy beards, you could buy 5-for-a-quarter razor blades. An ad for radio news “heard through your loudspeaker” was almost a century before Jake Tapper’s even louder spits about Donald.
A Cinema page rates Katharine Hepburn, who then had already won an Oscar, “least versatile.”
The Aug. 2, 1937, issue had NYC’s then police chief saying: “I do 500 miles a day in my ’29 Plymouth.” City Hall’s hunting that same car for Dermot. Its cover featured Mayor LaGuardia so the rumor is de Blasio already called for hair and makeup.
Opposed to us in kindly 2020, 1937’s National Affairs section — Page 9 — peed on President Franklin Roosevelt, who “suffered the worst defeat since entering the White House” … “has outlived his political usefulness” … “two out of three Americans preferred anyone else” and was asked why he called justices of the Supreme Court “morons.”
Time goes on — opinions don’t.
Hard times
I love Ben Vereen. I’m saying so because he needs love. His 55-year-old son Benji just died. I remember Ben once told me he planned to design a line of men’s clothing. At that time he was wearing long gold earrings, red satin shirt, red sneakers, black and white tie. I told him I didn’t think Brioni had what to worry.
Please pay attention
Question: Wearing masks, how do you pick out a guy in a lineup? … Situation: Since 1877, Westminster Dog Show, 2,500 dogs into MSG annually, for this coming year? Likely to be canceled … Ann and Andrew Tisch’s ritual Rosh Hashanah blessing luncheon — canceled … Washington, DC. The Republican asks the Democrat, “So where you from?” Lefty: “I’m from a place where we don’t end sentences in prepositions.”
So the GOP pol re-asks: “OK, so where you from, dumbass?”
The Basement Bard, Biden:
Row, row, row your vote
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Winning’s but a dream
Only in America, kids, only in America.
