Nickelodeon (film)
| Nickelodeon | |
|---|---|
Original Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Peter Bogdanovich |
| Produced by |
Robert Chartoff Frank Marshall Irwin Winkler |
| Written by | Peter Bogdanovich W. D. Richter |
| Starring |
Ryan O'Neal Burt Reynolds Tatum O'Neal Brian Keith Stella Stevens John Ritter |
| Music by | Richard Hazard |
| Cinematography | László Kovács |
| Edited by | William C. Carruth |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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December 21, 1976 |
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
Nickelodeon is a 1976 comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and stars Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds and Tatum O'Neal. According to Bogdanovich, the film was based on true stories told to him by silent movie directors Allan Dwan and Raoul Walsh. It was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1914, Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) goes from a lawyer to a writer and then to a film director, as his job. However, Leo has problems, such as being hopelessly smitten with his leading lady, who chooses to grab his attentions by getting herself engaged to his vulgar and ignorant leading man, Buck Greenaway (Burt Reynolds). Leo is forced to move from New Jersey to California to keep one step ahead of the Motion Picture Patents Company, who are out to destroy any non-authorized equipment violating the Edison Trust. Leo finally settles in with other filmmakers in Hollywoodland, California, and makes a series of dramatic, romantic, and comedic shorts as throwaways. While initially believing movies are just a brief flickering kind of entertainment, Leo is profoundly affected by the 1915 world premiere of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, which transforms the motion picture industry.
The film started as a script by W.D. Richter called Stardust Memories which was purchased by Irwin Winkler. Winkler took the project to David Begelman at Columbia, who pursued Bogdanovich as director.
Winkler later stated:
He made David come to his office and wait until the receptionist said, 'Mr. Bogdanovich will see you now.' As soon as we came inside, we were very haughtily told that he thought the script was a piece of [garbage]. I'd been around long enough to know that I should take that as a bad sign. I remember coming out of the meeting, saying, 'David, why should we make the movie with someone who hates our script?' And all David said was, 'Hey, he's a genius.'... What he filmed had nothing to do with the original script. I know it meant a lot to Peter to have all of the authentic stories about the silent period in the film, but Rick's script, authentic or not, was terrific. It was just a great drama. By the time Peter was done with it, it was authentic, but it wasn't dramatic anymore. Peter hadn't really experienced any failure yet -- we hired him before 'At Long Last Love' had come out -- so he was easily the most arrogant person I'd ever met in the business, before or since. When we shot the picture, he actually directed some of the scenes on horseback. When I asked him why he was on horseback, he said, "Because that's the way John Ford did it.'"
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