Wednesday, May 20, 2015

LITTLE BIG SCREEN - "JULIUS CAESAR" (1953)


Many of the movies we enjoy in the Real World also exist in Toobworld, but with some slight variables.  Some of those variables are in what is actually seen on screen; others occurred behind the scenes during production.

For instance, many of them were based on actual events and we covered this last year with our monthly feature "Little Big Screen".  Among those types of films:

  • "Back To The Future"
  • "The Wizard Of Oz"
  • "Casablanca"
  • "The Maltese Falcon"
"Sense And Sensibility" was based on a novel by Jane Austen which was also based on a real event in Toobworld.  But the Toobworld movie from 1995 differed from the Real World film in that it starred Emma Thompson.  Oh, the Real World movie starred Emma Thompson as well, but her televersion is faking her English accent and background.  She is really a lesbian from Akron, Ohio.

Anyhoo....



For the most part, the 1953 adaptation of "Julius Caesar" is exactly the same as the one we can now view on DVD or some alternate streaming device.  But here's the difference: see those crowds waving to Caesar?  Among those with their hands in the air is Bobby the Bellboy at the Hollywood hotel where the Ricardos and the Mertzes were staying.

Bobby vogues his "Hail Caesar" pose
According to Bobby, he got four days work out of that movie.  What makes it believable is that Bobby Jellison (who played Bobby the Bellboy) was very short, so he could have been in that crowd - even right up front behind a centurion! - and who would have seen him?

(That bit of extra work makes him as a TV character similar to Mitchell the vampire in 'Being Human', who did extra work on "Casablanca".)

And if there really was a "Don Juan" movie starring Ricky Ricardo in the Real World, perhaps he was able to secure a role for Bobby in that as well.  After all, Bobby became an indispensible part of their time in Hollywood... sometimes against his will.  So it would have been only right!

BCnU!


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