Director Allan Arkush knew whereof he spoke in Get Crazy. A longtime employee of Fillmore East, a popular rock-concert locale of the 1960s and 1970s, Arkush brought a great deal of insider's savvy to this comedy about the concert circuit and its denizens. Malcolm McDowell stars as a Mick Jagger-type rocker who is one of several acts lined up for a big New Years' Eve show. If villains Ed Begley Jr., Bobby Sherman and Fabian have their way, however, the show will never get off the ground. The supporting cast is dotted with such cult-flick icons as Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph and Mary Woronov. The musical portion of the program is handled by the likes of Malcolm McDowell, Lou Reed (as a Bob Dylan type) and Bill Henderson (as a Muddy Waters takeoff). In case it hasn't been made clear already, the main "joke" of Get Crazy is the presence in the cast of actors as musicians and musicians as actors; it is to the film's credit that this one joke never wears out its welcome.

There was this small company called Sherwood Productions that had some capital. We had meetings, and they liked my idea of a comedy set in a theater like the Fillmore. Airplane! was really big then, and what they wanted was that kind of whacky comedy. We started working on the script… and I realized during that process that the executive, Herb Solow, was pretty much of a jerk. Whatever I’d suggest, he’d counter with another suggestion. It was just the way he was: everything he heard, he said “no” to… but he would take the germ of what you said, and put his own spin on it...The part of the little sister was supposed to be played by Mariska Hargitay, who was so beautiful, you wanted to fall on the floor. Herb wanted Stacey Nelkin. We wanted Jerry Orbach to play the owner; he was much more like Bill Graham. Herb went with Allan Garfield. Every role, there was an argument. He actually talked me into Daniel Stern in the lead instead of Tom Hanks… who was hilarious, and I think he’d only done “Bosom Buddies” at that point. So it was one stupid decision after another. Then the company was taken over by David Begelman, who was already on his way down. In the end, they never really understood the movie, and the scam they came up with to release it was to sell the shares in it to some Wall Street tax shelter group, and then put it out so it would lose money… just like The Producers (1968)! So nobody saw it—on purpose! It was so horrible to work so hard on something, and then see it just thrown away.

I'm stunned African Queen isn't available on DVD. You'd think they'd be throwing all kinds of man hours at a remastering effort for a movie of that renown.

I've been waiting over twenty years to see a movie called "Harry in your Pocket" starring James Coburn. It was on TCM tonight. I know this because I tuned-in just in time to see then ending credits.