Saturday, January 29, 2011

Richard Fleischer


Since I mentioned "Fantastic Voyage" in my last blog entry, I might as well comment on that movie's director, another one of my favorites, Richard Fleischer.

Richard was the son of Max Fleischer, the man behind Betty Boop and all those other wonderful Fleischer cartoons of the 1910s through the 1940s. Fleischer was the main competitor to Walt Disney, so it is kind of amusing that later Walt allowed Richard to direct one of his best-loved pictures, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

Richard isn't a household name even today, five years after his death, but he directed a lot of pictures that you've heard of, some of them very good, and admittedly, some of them lousy.

Apart from the aforementioned "Fantastic" and "Leagues", Richard directed "The Vikings", "Doctor Dolittle" (1967 version), "Tora! Tora! Tora!", "Soylent Green", "Mr. Majestyk", "Mandingo", "The Jazz Singer" (1980 version), "Conan the Destroyer", "Red Sonja" and many others.

So, here's "Hee-Haw" salute to Richard Fleischer.

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