The Projectionist | movie | 1970 | Official Featurette - video Dailymotion

A projectionist bored with his everyday life begins fantasizing about his being one of the superheroes he sees in the mo | dG1fYTdhWWdGNUJrclk

Transcript

00:00A lonely movie projectionist and his daydreams were the subject of a 1971 film starring Chuck

00:06McCann and Rodney Dangerfield. Now The Projectionist rolls again as a re-release. Jeffrey Lyons is

00:12here to tell us how he saw it. Jeff? Smiling case, can you tell? I rarely review movies which are

00:17re-released, but this is an exception. The Projectionist, a 1971 movie which got, I think,

00:22short shrift originally. And back then, I put it on my best films of the year list. Well,

00:27it's back now, down on 8th Street, thank goodness. And it's delightfully warm entertainment.

00:31Chuck McCann, a former children's show host here at WPIX, has the title role. He's a lonely

00:37New York movie theater projector operator who, between reels and in spare moments, imitates

00:42his favorite screen heavies and heroes. McCann is especially adept, you may recall, at Laurel

00:46and Hardy and John Wayne imitations. His fantasies are that he is the Flash, saving a damsel in

00:51distress, Ina Ballin. Rodney Dangerfield, just when his fame was beginning and perhaps his

00:56respect was declining, is the crabby theater owner and the villain in the fantasies. Now,

01:01the scenes of reality are interspersed with movie fantasy exceptionally well by writer-director

01:06Harry Hurwitz. Why then didn't this wonderful movie do any business originally? Well, I think

01:11several reasons. Poor distribution, the wrong theater perhaps, and too little advertising. Well,

01:16now it's back for a very brief time before being given to the Museum of Modern Art for its library

01:21and for possibility. I can only wonder in news what future generations will think of the

01:26zaniness afoot in The Projectionist. Welcome back anytime. I'm Jeffrey Lyons.