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Post by Buppster on Jul 11, 2018 4:42:34 GMT -5
He may not have landed any starring roles but he seemed to be building a career as a character actor. You might not get famous doing that stuff, but you can make a very good living. I like Carl Switzer, I really, do but the reality is that he wasn't building a career as a character actor at all, he'd already had one and his acting career was in decline. The parts were drying up and getting smaller. From being one of the most famous kids in Hollywood he'd been reduced to 'walk on' roles in TV shows, uncredited parts in moves, named roles in low budget B movies and occasional appearances on his pal Roy Roger's show. Just look at the facts, like his last five credits on IMDb. 1955... Dig That Uranium (uncredited) 1956... The Ten Commandments (uncredited) 1956... Between Heaven And Hell (uncredited) 1957... Motorcycle Gang (Speed) 1958... The Defiant Ones (Angus) In those final last three years he had just four screen roles, two of which were uncredited. In his final role, he played a guy who was helping to track the two escaped prisoners, with his hunting dogs. He got the role because... in real life he tracked with hunting dogs. Carl eked out a precarious living as a hunting guide and topped up his earnings by working as a bar tender. That's not the lifestyle of someone who was building a career or who is earning very good money at all, especially when you consider that he lost his life as a result of an argument over just $50. That's a sum of money which is a quarter of what he was earning every single week, over twenty years earlier, when he just was a small boy in Our Gang.
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Post by malaria on Mar 10, 2019 18:12:41 GMT -5
"I knowwww... BUT I WON'T TELL YA!!"
Put another way: MOAR MAX DAVIDSON (see my avatar). Why did they ditch him after that one memorable short?
Of course, keeping him on could have led to the series being called The Little Paskudnyaks. But everyone would have had a nice (if fake) toikey leg!!
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Post by mtw12055 on Mar 10, 2019 18:36:41 GMT -5
Why did they ditch him after that one memorable short? I knowwww... BUT I WON'T TELL YA!!
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Post by myhomeo on Mar 11, 2019 12:30:48 GMT -5
"I knowwww... BUT I WON'T TELL YA!!" Put another way: MOAR MAX DAVIDSON (see my avatar). Why did they ditch him after that one memorable short? Of course, keeping him on could have led to the series being called The Little Paskudnyaks. But everyone would have had a nice (if fake) toikey leg!! They didn't. He had his own series at Hal Roach studios but his shorts are largely forgotten.
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Post by malaria on Mar 11, 2019 17:59:50 GMT -5
Would've KILLED in "The Jazz Singer"... "I.. HAVE... NO... SON... aaauuwwwwooooooooooooooo!!!"
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Post by mtw12055 on Mar 11, 2019 18:18:12 GMT -5
They didn't. He had his own series at Hal Roach studios but his shorts are largely forgotten. The Davidson series was discontinued in early 1928, supposedly because MGM wasn't a fan of its Jewish humor. Max continued to appear in the Roach All Star comedies, and make occasional appearances in other Roach shorts. "Moan & Groan, Inc." was actually one of the last ones he did for the studio. His Roach films afterwards were a Harry Langdon comedy filmed few months after "Moan," an early '30s Charley Chase short, and a cameo in the feature "Kelly the Second."
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Post by malaria on Mar 11, 2019 20:56:55 GMT -5
MGM-wise, if Goldwyn actually uttered half the Goldwynisms that are attributed to him, he would have been funnier than little Max... hell, he would have been funnier than Groucho. And an oral contract really *isn't* worth the paper it's printed on.
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Post by myhomeo on Mar 12, 2019 12:38:12 GMT -5
I think it was either him or Yogi Berra who reportedly commented, "I didn't actually say a lot of the stuff I said."
One story I kinda want to believe because it's bizarrely sweet involves someone calling something a 'Cinderella Story.' Goldwyn was bewildered: "A what story?" The writer eventually discovered he'd never heard of Cinderella and found himself telling the fairy tale to this middle-aged-at-best studio boss. When he finished, Goldwyn was thrilled: "That's the best story I've ever heard! We gotta get the rights! Find out who has the rights!"
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Post by malaria on Mar 12, 2019 17:26:39 GMT -5
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Post by mtw12055 on Mar 13, 2019 3:39:24 GMT -5
Going back to Max Davidson, I wonder what roles he would have played had he been kept on. I can see him as a relative to one of the kids. Maybe he was the real Uncle George. All I can picture now is Uncle Max/George imitating Bumbo’s catchphrase with his thick German/Yiddish accent.
Or maybe he’d return as the town’s residential lunatic. New kids are initiated into the gang by spending an evening with crazy ol’ Mr. Davidson.
In this alternate universe, by the time of the MGM Our Gang films, Max would have become a favorite character actor at the studio. He’d drop by the Our Gang set regularly, where the cast would always beg him to say his catchphrase for old time’s sake. “I know.... but I won’t tell ya!”
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Post by myhomeo on Mar 13, 2019 13:33:05 GMT -5
Re: The 'Cinderella' thing. The explanation given where I read it was that Goldwyn grew up very poor and possibly without parents. So he never actually heard any fairy tales.
Are you sure Max Davidson's accent was German? I thought it was meant to be Yiddish. Would you know if he really spoke like that or if it was a put-on for the character?
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Post by mtw12055 on Mar 13, 2019 14:31:14 GMT -5
Re: The 'Cinderella' thing. The explanation given where I read it was that Goldwyn grew up very poor and possibly without parents. So he never actually heard any fairy tales. Are you sure Max Davidson's accent was German? I thought it was meant to be Yiddish. Would you know if he really spoke like that or if it was a put-on for the character? Yiddish sounds more accurate. I just know he came from Germany. Guess I don’t know my accents very well. Richard Bann did a nice write-up on Max. www.laurel-and-hardy.com/archive/articles/2011-01-davidson/davidson-1.htmlShame he’s not better remembered. There was a set of his Roach comedies released in Germany some years ago that I’ve heard good things about.
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Post by malaria on Mar 13, 2019 15:43:00 GMT -5
Yiddish is derived from German, and there is substantial overlap. I grew up listening to my grandparents speak Yiddish, and later discovered, much to my shock and surprise, while watching a German-language flick called "Hanussen", that I was following a lot of dialogue without needing subtitles. Davidson does come across as having a Yiddish inflection, but there are all sorts of German accents and dialects; a northern German from, say, Hannover, will often have marked trouble understanding a Bavarian German from Munich. Austrian German borrows heavily from Yiddish and sounds especially close to it. (Btw, the only time I ever saw "A Tough Winter" was at the house of those beloved grandparents... once, and out). It is funny that "toikey" always seems to pop up in Jewish-related cinema. It did so in "Avalon," many decades later, when the Jewish family in essence splits in two, in great anger, because Dey Cut Da Toikey Vidout Lou Jacobi... another classic scene. Perhaps Davidson could have saved the day with a nice imaginary toikey leg.
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Post by eternalstudent on Mar 21, 2019 22:00:52 GMT -5
What I would like to have changed is a little odd and something that was just a convention of the series, but it always bothered me as a kid. I wish there had been more continuity as far as who were brothers/sisters, good kids/bad kids, who lived where, who was the leader, or some introduction or explanation for incoming or departing members. One thing I liked about Teachers Pet, School's Out, and Love Business is that there was an attempt to retain some kind of continuity.
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Post by malaria on Mar 28, 2019 17:27:45 GMT -5
LOL, very good.
I would like to reverse any moment or event which took Robert McGowan away from the Gang and the shorts.
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