This last week, my cousin David was visiting Los Angeles on a research trip. Having written best-selling books on Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett and other fine singers, he's switched his focus to comedy and is currently authoring a biography of Woody Allen for a major publisher. I'll tell you more about it as we get closer to its publication date, which is early next year.
It was David who told me about this film…and for God's sake, don't click this link until you have 26 minutes to devote to it because you're going to want to watch the whole thing. In 1971, Mr. Allen wrote, directed and appeared in a short film that was to air on PBS — a rather devastating look at the administration of one Richard M. Nixon. Due to cowardice and/or political pressures, it never aired on PBS but you can watch it below.
As you'll see, it includes a lot of familiar faces from Allen's earlier films like Louise Lasser and Diane Keaton, plus character actors like Conrad Bain, Graham Jarvis and Dan Frazer. (I think there was a law for a time that you couldn't film a movie or TV show in New York without hiring Dan Frazer. He was in several of Woody's.) It's a real good film and it reminds you of something that people forget about Woody Allen, which is that he was a real good comedy writer. He got where he is today because of that.
So here it is — Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story…
