Sid Caesar Movies

Sid Caesar was the star and producer of two of the landmark television comedy series of the 1950's, Your Show Of Shows and Caesar's Hour, but a large part of Caesar's gift was his eye for talent -- his cast featured Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Nannette Fabray, and Howard Morris, and his writing staff included Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. The Sid Caesar Collection: Creating The Comedy features interviews with Caesar and his fellow actors and writers, discussing how the came to create some of the great moments of television's golden age. The video also features a number of classic sketches from Caesar's shows, including one of Caesar's famous doubletalk routines, The Cobbler's Daughter; a pantomimed argument set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Sid as beatnik jazz musician Progress Hornsby; and the classic film parody From Here To Obscurity. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

While being interviewed on film by Paul (Paul Reiser), great-uncle Marty (Shecky Green) ruins the shot by dropping dead. Marty's garbled final words ("Hummus?" "Cow Moos?" "Hey Miss?") touches off yet another crisis in the Buchman family. Amidst a veritable smorgasbord of famous guest stars, episode director David Steinberg garners some of the biggest laughs in the role of a long-winded rabbi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three giants of early television--Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Danny Thomas--combine their talents in the made-for-TV Side by Side. Berle and Caesar play a couple of 65-year-olds who've just been forcibly retired; Thomas portrays a widower, who's been aimless and lethargic since the death of his wife. The trio gains a new lease on life when they team up to manufacture a line of clothing exclusively designed for senior citizens. Their zeal intensifies when Berle's old boss Richard Klein spitefully develops a rival wardrobe line. Marjorie Lord, who'd played Danny Thomas' wife on TV in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is here cast as Sid Caesar's spouse. Side By Side first aired on March 6, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This witty version of Hans Christian Anderson's moral tale of a king whose vanity makes him an easy mark for con artists, features Sid Caesar and Art Carney. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In its own mild, unobtrusive manner, the made-for-TV Love is Never Silent managed to knock an all-star adaptation of Alice in Wonderland out of the ratings box when it was first telecast on December 9, 1985. Based on the Joanne Greenberg novel In This Sign, the film stars Mare Winningham as a normally functioning woman with deaf parents. Using sign language, Winningham has spent most of her Depression-era childhood as her parents' only conduit to the outside world. When a close family friend (Sid Caesar in a towering non-comic performance) asks Winningham if she isn't sacrificing the opportunity for happiness on her own, she carefully considers his words. She marries Frederick Lehne, at which point her embittered parents close off their relationship with their daughter. How Ms. Winningham manages to bridge this gap is the focus of the film's final scenes. The parents are played by Ed Waterstreet and Phyllis Frelich, longtime members of the National Theatre for the Deaf. The Emmy-winning Love is Never Silent was originally presented as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 1982 made-for-TV version of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland features an all-star cast. Such celebrities as Donald O'Connor, Maureen Stapleton and Eve Arden struggle to perform while buried under mounds of makeup and tons of eccentric costuming as Carroll's alternate-world loonies. Alice in Wonderland was first telecast Oct 3, 1983, on PBS' Great Performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy focuses on a bank executive and a former bank guard who access funds from inactive accounts to give to good people. (AKA Found Money) ~ All Movie Guide

The first four entries in L. Frank Baum's Oz series have in recent years fallen into public domain, which explains the plethora of animated "Wizard of Oz" productions on TV and on videocassette. Miller-Rosen Productions was the guiding force behind 1981's Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Most of the story is taken up with a replay of the first Oz book, with intriguing character designs for such familiar characters as the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. Elements from such later books as Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz are also woven into the proceedings. The animation itself is passable, though of course far below the Disney standard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Norman Panama's penultimate directorial effort, Barnaby and Me was originally filmed for Australian television. The title character is a talented Koala Bear, who is to Australian fans what Benji is to Americans. Pausing in his escape from a vengeful mobster, American con artist Caesar falls in love with Juliet Mills, whose daughter Sally Boyden keeps Barnaby as her pet. The kooky koala teans up with Caesar for a series of picaresque adventures. It's hardly The Sting, but it's easy to take. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Taken from the television series "When Things Were Rotten," this collection includes three episodes from the Mel Brooks Robin Hood spoof. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Sid Caesar pulls double duty in this episode, playing "himself" and his lookalike, Frankie the Forger. Upset that Frankie is going around time forging checks with his name, Sid conspires with Lucy (Lucille Ball) to catch the crook in the act. Alas, Lucy is so confused by the plethora of Caesars that she ends up "capturing" only Sid and herself--over and over and over and over again! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide