My pal Ken Plume, who contributes wonderful articles and interviews to IGN FilmForce, informs me that he's seen the Sunshine Boys DVD and that the make-up test of Jack Benny is silent and that he sports an extremely dark dye job. I'm guessing that's make-up for the scene in the film where Lewis and Clark do one of their old vaudeville sketches. Mr. Burns had a bad dark wig on for those moments in the movie, as I recall. I'm still eager to see this footage, and I'm wondering if they'll ever find or release some of the other tests done for the film. Milton Berle, I believe, did one and it would be great to view the test of Red Skelton that won him (briefly) the lead. Reportedly, they tested Skelton more as a courtesy to a legend than because they thought he'd be good in the role, but he surprised everyone by being wonderful. Then he surprised them all over by walking off the film.
And of course, it would be great to see Mr. Benny's actual screen test. This may be apocryphal but the story is that at one point during the filming, Herbert Ross (who was directing) stopped the action and told Benny he was moving with too much energy. He said, "Remember, Jack, you're playing a 70-year-old comedian." There was a pause and then Benny replied, "But I'm an 80-year-old comedian."
I don't know if that actually occurred but it does prompt an interesting argument: If Benny had played the role, should he have moved slower to conform to the way most of us expect a septegenarian to act? I mean, it's not like critics would write, "Jack Benny is way too young for the role." On the other hand, the character in the film is retired and a certain lack of energy might have been right, at least in a thematic sense. So who can say?
By the way, Ken Plume is the gent who gave me the advice that solved my problem with my Panasonic DMR-E80H DVD Recorder — a model he also owns. So I thank him, and I presume others who've written me to say they had the same crisis, thank him too.