Hoagy27 Solid, well-written comedy that makes making a solid, well-written comedy seem easy. There are so many fine character parts that it's hard to say who the star is. Of course there's Peter O'Toole but he only plays the star. This cornucopia of comedy includes so many well-blended styles it amounts to a lexicon of laughter. There's slapstick, sarcasm, deadpan, bathroom, droll, farcical and more. There are even a couple of touches of heartwarming schmaltz.Again to make the 10 line limit:Solid, well-written comedy that makes making a solid, well-written comedy seem easy. There are so many fine character parts that it's hard to say who the star is. Of course there's Peter O'Toole but he only plays the star. This cornucopia of comedy includes so many well-blended styles it amounts to a lexicon of laughter. There's slapstick, sarcasm, deadpan, bathroom, droll, farcical and more. There are even a couple of touches of heartwarming schmaltz.

mlktrout I was in Germany when the film came out so didn't see it for the first time until 1984 or so, but I have seen it probably almost every year since then. I should have it memorized by now, but somehow each viewing I find something new and special. I've loved it since the first time I saw it.There is little I can add to the basic story--a washed-up Errol Flynn type of action movie star goes on a live television comedy program in the 1950s. O'Toole is just masterful in the part and according to director Benjamin, he even insisted on doing all his own stunts (some of which were dangerous!). I could believe him as a movie hero and as a real-life washout.Joseph Balogna is just hysterical as the Sid Caesar TV star, rough, bombastic, occasionally mean, but kind under the crust, and utterly fearless. I grinned at every sight of him.Mark Linn-Baker is superb as the kid from Brooklyn who finds himself rubbing shoulders with his childhood hero and discovering the statue has feet of clay. His embarrassment over his background and his weird family rings true and yet are hilarious; I forget the name of the actress who plays his mother, but she is screamingly funny.I just can't say how much I love this movie, how inspiring I find it, how it touches my heart. But it's my favorite movie, and in a house where we own something like 5,000 movies and most of our conversations contain at least one movie quote, this film is quoted almost daily, so that's saying something.

gelman@attglobal.net Although Peter O'Toole is unquestionably the star of "My Favorite Year" in the part of an aging film star, whose major preoccupations are having sex with beautiful young women and getting roaring drunk, he's not the only actor to acquit himself well in this film. Joseph Bologna as King Kaiser, a TV comedian, imitates Sid Caesar with considerable success, Mark Linn-Baker is very good as a junior writer on the show assigned to make sure that Alan Swann (O'Toole's character modeled on Errol Flynn) is actually on hand when the show is broadcast, and Jessica Baker is charming as the young writer's love interest. But O'Toole dominates the comedy just as he dominated his best known dramatic films, and he is hilarious, reminding us that his star, when at its brightest, shown brilliantly not alone because he was physically beautiful but because the guy could really act. His imitation of a drunk is priceless, even though, in fact, O'Toole unfortunately had a good deal of experience to go with his acting talent on this particular matter.

bob the moo Someone recommended this to me recently and given that he watches a lot of movies from a good spread of time and genres and that I'd never heard of it, I decided to give it a try. The plot is told from the point of view of young television writer Benjy Stone who has been charged with keeping the guest star of a live Saturday night television show in line through rehearsals and onto the show itself. This is not easy task given that the guest is none other than the Errol-Flynn-esquire Alan Swann, the legendary lothario and drinker. The narrative charts their escapades over the week and sees them learn lessons from one another (to a point).I say "to a point" because the plot is not that strong when you go much below the superficial and indeed there isn't the action/reaction that I expected from the character dynamics – or at least it is not that strong on the page. This is a bit of a weakness in the film – not that I wanted it to be serious or insightful but more that I felt it could have done with being a little sharper and more structured in regards its characters. That said, what it leaves is a rather superficial and frothy film and this is in no way a totally bad thing because it plays into this very well. The word of the day for me was "whimsy" with this – because it seems to have been founded on a bed of nostalgia for a particular place and time that may not even have existed. Given that nostalgia (as opposed to reality) is the foundation, it was wise to build with a whimsical comedic approach because the two things compliment each other well as the various backstage shenanigans and characters get on. It is an odd coincidence that this all occurs in 30 Rockefeller Plaza because the exaggerated antics and 100% comedic characters did very much put me in mind of 30 Rock – not as funny perhaps but the base elements were very similar.It is a comedy though and, while I was not laughing out loud very often, I did have several good laughs and otherwise found myself quite charmed by the amusing material. There are some great lines but there are also plenty of funny little characters around the edges to provide chuckles and feed into the overall comedy (for example the throwaway creation of Rookie Carroca, which is odd but yet very funny). As in 30 Rock today, the cast here are a massive part of making the comedy work and in particular carrying off the whimsy and silliness so that it remains charming and does not become stupid or grating. Linn-Baker is the narrative-device and as such he is pretty good, doing enough so that we like him and care a bit in regards his character's romantic ambitions but never pushing himself forward so that he challenges the main show in town – which is O'Toole. With his wonderful swagger and droll delivery of his lines, O'Toole nails his comedy character perfectly and is very funny doing it (his finest moment being the "for ladies only" exchange). OK at times the material lets him down (the more "serious" character moments towards the end jar a little in contrast with the rest of his performance) but otherwise he is very good. Harper is cute and works well with both men, while Bologna is a blast from the past that is simple but effective while the rest of the support cast has plenty of recognisable faces doing great little comic characters (Kazan, Hoffman, De Salvo, I could go on).My Favourite Year doesn't have the substance that the narrative (and narration) suggests that it will have and perhaps is a little unsatisfying if you are trying to take it even slightly seriously as a story but if you are even vaguely in the mood it is hard not to be charmed by it. With nostalgic whimsy as the approach the film delivers laughs that range from the slap-stick to the witty and, while you'll not be rolling on the floor it produced such consistent chuckles for me that it was hard not to enjoy it despite its apparent weaknesses in other areas. Not a classic comedy that will stand for all time, but one that more than does the job for its own running time, which in fairness is all you should be asking of it.