I was watching the Astaire-Rogers opus The Barkleys of Broadway the other night and was once again struck by the wit and musical ability of Oscar Levant (1906-1972). I've known him by his role in Barkleys as well as his most famous film, An American In Paris and the one liner attributed to him about Richard Nixon ("He'll doublecross that bridge when he gets to it.")
Now I'm finding myself needing to read the man's memoirs and I understand he had a TV show in the late 1950s. Whenever I see him on film, I am immediately taken with his scene-stealing, caustic, self-deprecating wit, which, apparently was all too real in his personal life, making himself the butt of his own jokes. He's about as original of a performer/personality as I've ever seen or read about. He's fascinating.
and the one liner attributed to him about Richard Nixon ("He'll doublecross that bridge when he gets to it.")
It's so tempting to then think of what he possibly could have said about the guy who couldn't cross the bridge when he did get to it, but....
I've seen loads of clips of Levant on talk shows, where he was a real favorite of Jack Paar's, and his surly hypochondria also a source of much of his humor.
I once started reading "Memoirs of an Amnesiac", but time prevented me from getting far. It was quite a funny experience, though. It's outstanding how Levant describes his family life. An unfortunate example of how close brilliancy and dementia can get...
Sardonic, intellectual wit has been replaced by rank cynicism and I think we're all the worse for it. Levant has to have been one of the most complex personalities of the 20th Century. Imagine a child prodigy who yearns to compose but becomes a close friend of perhaps the greatest American composer of his time (maybe all time). Did the words "why bother" come to mind? And how about that two-year stint with Jolson on THE KRAFT MUSIC HALL? Talk about two head cases butting heads every week!
God, I miss these witty old raconteurs who used to inhabit the TV and radio talk shows!
I'm so happy I've lived long enough to have enjoyed, first-hand, people like Levant, Noel Coward, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woolcott, Monty Woolley and some of the now more obscure ones like Ilka Chase and Alexander King.
Catch him in the 1946 Warner Bros. potboiler HUMUORESQUE, supporting John Garfield and that magnificent bitch, Joan Crawford. Sublime.
I saw the film once, years ago. I'm quite a John Garfield admirer and Joan Crawford won me over with THE WOMEN (1939) and SUDDEN FEAR (1952). Not to mention THE DAMNED DON'T CRY. She was brilliant!
My wife's favorite movie of all time is probably AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, so my exposure to Levant was through that film.
More Levant wit:
1. Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.
2. I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.
3. I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.
4. I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients.
5. It's not a pretty face, I grant you, but underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.
6. There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line.
7. [Jack Paar: What did you want to be when you were a kid, Oscar?] An orphan.
8. The Jerry Lewis Show has all the suspense of a Hitchcock thriller -- the suspense of wondering when the first laugh will come.
9. [Leonard] Bernstein uses music as an accompaniment to his conducting.
10. I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me.
