Shinbone Alley | |
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Directed by | John David Wilson |
Written by | Joe Darion (screenplay) John David Wilson (story continuity) David Detiege (story continuity) Dick Kinney (story continuity) Marty Murphy Mel Brooks (play) Joe Darion (play) Don Marquis ("Archy and Mehitabel" stories) |
Produced by | David Detiege (associate producer) Preston M. Fleet (producer) John David Wilson (executive producer) |
Starring | Carol Channing Eddie Bracken Alan Reed John Carradine Hal Smith Joan Gerber Ken Sansom Sal Delano |
Narrated by | Byron Kane |
Edited by | Warner E. Leighton |
Music by | George Kleinsinger |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Allied Artists |
Release dates |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Shinbone Alley is a 1970 American independent [1] animated musical comedy film based on the Joe Darion, Mel Brooks, and George Kleinsinger musical of the same name as well as the original Archy and Mehitabel stories by Don Marquis. [2] It was directed by John David Wilson. [3] [4] Eddie Bracken reprised his role from the Broadway musical; Carol Channing played the starring role originally performed by Eartha Kitt. [5]
A New York City poet named Archy (Eddie Bracken) attempts suicide only to come back as a cockroach. As he learns how to write poetry by hopping on typewriter keys, he grows used to his new life and becomes infatuated with Mehitabel (Carol Channing), the singing alley cat. [6] She instead goes out with the tomcat Big Bill (Alan Reed). When Big Bill dumps Mehitabel, Archy confronts her about her wild ways in general and her affinity for bad boy tomcats in particular. She momentarily agrees; however, self-appointed theatre maestro cat Tyrone T. Tattersall (John Carradine) promises to make her a star and becomes her next lover. Archy attempts and fails suicide again. In the theatre, Mehitabel holds up her end of the deal in getting food for Tyrone, but he kicks her off the stage. Archy and Big Bill watch her, and Mehitabel gets back together with Big Bill. Back to his typewriter, Archy channels his frustration in calling the other insects and spiders to revolution. He immediately drops the scheme when he hears the news that Mehitabel has kittens, and Big Bill has left the scene again. It's a rainy evening, and Archy points out to Mehitabel, that her kittens, who are inside a cover less trashcan, are floating away from her, and the two of them rescue the kittens, however, a moody Mehitabel, chases Archy away for interfering with her private business. Archy persuades Mehitabel to give up her life as an alley cat and support the kittens with a "job" as a house cat.
Later, however, when Archy comes to visit her in the upscale house, with her visibly changed by the experience, she reminds him that social class now separates them from being friends and kicks him out—regretting it later. Archy gets drunk and meets several ladybug street walkers who find his love poems about Mehitabel. Big Bill makes fun of him. One day, Mehitabel returns to Shinbone Alley and sings and dances again like her old self. After having tried to reform her, Archy realizes he liked Mehitabel for her wild ways all along and accepts her for "being what she has to be," content to be just friends.
In 1968, the film began pre-production, with meetings between the producers (Preston Fleet & John Wilson) and the writers (Dick Kinney, Marty Murphy, & David Detiege), they decided to take heavy inspiration from the writing and illustrations of Archy and Mehitabel, to set up a "visual jazz experience". But to them, this presented a problem, and midway into pre-production the thought occurred to modernize the George Herriman illustrations in a contemporary style. Storyboards were drawn by Richard Kinney and Marty Murphy. In 1969, the designs of the characters were finalized, and animation and voice acting soon began. [7]
In 1970, a year before the film's theatrical release, it was screened at the Atlanta Georgia International Film Festival and won a Golden Phoenix Award. [8]
Shinbone Alley did not fare well at the box office. However, New York magazine critic Judith Crist called it "a blend of literature, musical comedy and fine arts... pure sophisticated entertainment for all, and a refreshment for moviegoers." [9] Vincent Canby, in his New York Times review, wrote: "'Shinbone Alley' is a little like the old mehitabel. It suffers from split personality being based, as it is, on works that must go over the heads of 8-year-olds .. but it's executed in a mostly juvenile style that's not too far removed from what the children see on television. It's a very mixed bag and this, in case you hadn't guessed, is a very mixed review." [10]
Edward Vincent Bracken was an American actor. Bracken came to Hollywood prominence for his comedic lead performances in the films Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek both from 1944, both of which have been preserved by the National Film Registry. During this era, he also had success on Broadway, with performances in plays like Too Many Girls (1940).
Archy and Mehitabel are fictional characters created in 1916 by Don Marquis, a columnist for The Evening Sun newspaper in New York City. Archy, a cockroach, and Mehitabel, an alley cat, appeared in hundreds of humorous verses and short stories in Marquis's daily column, "The Sun Dial". Their exploits were first collected in the 1927 book archy and mehitabel, which remains in print today, and in two later volumes, archys life of mehitabel (1933) and archy does his part (1935). Many editions are recognized by their distinctive illustrations by George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat.
Carol Elaine Channing was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Each of her characters typically possessed a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice.
Donald Robert Perry Marquis was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, supposed authors of humorous verse. During his lifetime he was equally famous for creating another fictitious character, "the Old Soak," who was the subject of two books, a hit Broadway play (1922–23), a silent film (1926) and a talkie (1937).
The Aristocats is a 1970 American animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It is directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and written by Ken Anderson, Larry Clemmons, Eric Cleworth, Vance Gerry, Julius Svendsen, Frank Thomas and Ralph Wright. It is the final Disney animated film made with the involvement of Walt Disney Productions' co-founder Roy O. Disney before his death on December 20, 1971. The film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, and revolves around a family of aristocratic cats, and how an alley cat acquaintance helps them after a butler has kidnapped them to gain his mistress's fortune which was intended to go to them. The film features the voices of Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Dean Clark, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, and Roddy Maude-Roxby.
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Shinbone Alley is a musical with a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, lyrics by Darion, and music by George Kleinsinger. Based on the album Archy and Mehitabel: A Back-Alley Opera, which in turn was based on archy and mehitabel, a series of New York Tribune columns by Don Marquis, it focuses on poetic cockroach archy, alley cat mehitabel, and her relationships with theatrical cat tyrone t. tattersal and tomcat big bill, under the watchful eye of the newspaperman, the voice-over narrator and only human being in the show.
Alexander's Ragtime Band is a 1938 American musical film released by 20th Century Fox that takes its name from the 1911 Irving Berlin song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to tell a story of a society boy who scandalizes his family by pursuing a career in ragtime instead of "serious" music. The film generally traces the history of jazz music from the popularization of Ragtime in the early years of the 20th century to the acceptance of swing as an art form in the late 1930s using music composed by Berlin. The story spans more than two decades from the 1911 release of its name-sake song to some point in time after the 1933 release of "Heat Wave", presumably 1938.
George Kleinsinger was an American composer most known for children's compositions, Broadway scores, and film/television scores. He is best known for a string of children's compositions in collaboration with lyricist Paul Tripp and a series of works in collaboration with Joe Darion based on Don Marquis' archy and mehitabel columns.
Fine Arts Films was a production studio based in Northern England and Hollywood. It was founded in 1955 by the animator John David Wilson as a means to preserve the notion of animation as an art form. It shut down in 1996.
The Play of the Week is an American anthology series of televised stage plays which aired in NTA Film Network syndication from October 12, 1959, to May 1, 1961.
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Carol Channing was an American actress, singer, dancer, comedian, and voice artist. She won the Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Muzzy Van Hossmere in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Other film appearances include The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and Skidoo (1968). On television she has made many appearances as an entertainer on variety shows, from The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s to Hollywood Squares. She is also known for her performance as The White Queen in a 1985 production of Alice in Wonderland.
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