Elaine May, is 94 years old today. She was born on 21 April 1932. She first came to prominence as part of a comedy duo with Mike Nichols. They are both great directors. May is one of the greatest comedy writers ever.
Sadly, May has not done all that much in Hollywood. Part of it is doubtless that she’s a woman and a demanding artist. She made two moderately successful and widely loved films A New Leaf (which she also starred in) and The Heartbreak Kid.
Her next film could well be her masterpiece, Mikey and Nicky. But it went well over budget and was almost a year late so Paramount Pictures did the mature thing and killed the film by basically not releasing it. (It no longer shocks me just how petulant and self-destructive studio executives are.)
Ishtar
Because of this, May didn’t direct anything for another decade and when she did, it went even worse. Warren Beatty put together the funding for Ishtar. And I think we all know how that ended.
Sadly, most people do not know much about the film except that it supposedly sucks. Of course, it doesn’t. It’s hilarious. And looking back, I really think the problem was that the critics found out how much money it cost. That’s never a good sign (eg, Heaven’s Gate).
I’ve written about Ishtar in the past. So let’s watch Mikey and Nicky with Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. After all, it is probably her most psychotronic film. And for any critics out there, the budget was still pretty small.
Other 21 April Anniversaries
Filmmakers:
- Anthony Quinn (1915-2001): Iconic actor who didn’t do much psychotronic work but played the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and typecast as Zeus in five made-for-TV Hercules films.
- Alistair MacLean (1922-1987): Writer of war films like The Guns of Navarone and Ice Station Zebra.
- Larry Forrester (1924-1988): Writer of Tora! Tora! Tora! along with Akira Kurosawa writers Hideo Oguni and Ryûzô Kikushima.
- Charles Grodin (1935-2021): Actor in various interesting films like Catch-22, The Heartbreak Kid, and King Kong.
- Andie MacDowell (1958-): Actor in Sex, Lies, and Videotape and the horror comedy Ready or Not.
Films:
- Trick or Treat (1933): Pre-Code mystery film.
- DOA (1950): Noir where a man walks into a police station to report his own murder.
- City Beneath the Sea (1953): Underwater action film.
- Pet Sematary (1989): The first filmed version of the Stephen King novel.
- Alien Fury: Countdown to Invasion (2000): Science fiction film about a fake space alien invasion.
- My Dead Girlfriend (2006): Comedy with a man who accidentally kills his girlfriend and uses her occult books to bring her back to life.
- Silent Hill (2006): Exceptional horror film based on game.
- The Hunted: Terms of Extermination (2009): Micro-budget science fiction.
Image cropped from Nichols and May photo from Rossano aka Bud Care under CC BY 2.0.