tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post188911648448297867..comments2024-03-25T10:22:04.995-07:00Comments on Ed Gorman's blog: Stuart Kaminsky; Leonard Cohen; Gerald KershEd Gormanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06126267358266480356noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post-51431081515358100112009-10-11T13:24:42.089-07:002009-10-11T13:24:42.089-07:00"Night And The City" (the Jules Dassin v..."Night And The City" (the Jules Dassin version--1950) remains one of my all-time favorites, too, Ed. You don't see too many people invoke that one. It was a great movie on every level. The remake was just okay, but you have to ask, "What was the point?"<br /><br />Regarding Stuart Kaminsky, I met him in Sarasota back in 2002 and he told me the following story.<br /><br />In the early 1980s, he was approached by representatives of Sergio Leone, the great Italian film director. Leone was preparing to do a film about Jewish gangsters in New York City, and it would be called "Once Upon A Time In America". It would eventually star Robert DeNiro, James Woods, and Tuesday Weld.<br /><br />The film was to cover the lives of these gangsters from young boys in the 1910s to older men in the 1960s. The scope was staggering, but Leone had his arms firmly around the whole thing. He wanted Stuart to add some dialogue to the script.<br /><br />They met one day, and through an interpreter, Leone told Stuart he wanted the dialogue in the American gangster idiom of the time. He handed Stuart the script, and to Stuart's complete amazement, it contained only camera direction and some ideas (in broken English) as to what the characters might say in each scene. There was not one word of actual dialogue.<br /><br />Stuart had to write every word of dialogue for the entire film, which lasted over three hours! He was given credit at the end of the movie ("Additional Dialogue: Stuart Kaminsky"). A host of writers, all with Italian surnames, none of whom could speak English, were credited up front as the "Screenwriters".Mike Dennishttp://mikedennisnoir.comnoreply@blogger.com