The Extras - Remembering Peter Bogdanovich and Sidney Poitier

Episode Date: February 6, 2022

On January 6th, 2022 the film community lost two titans of cinema, director/film historian Peter Bogdanovich and actor/director Sidney Poitier.  Recently film historian Constantine Nasr interviewed Peter Bogdanovich for a special feature for the Blu-ray release of Preston Sturges's film, “The Great Moment,” along with Tom Sturges, the son of the director.  It may have been one of the last on-camera appearances for Mr. Bogdanovich in his well-accustomed role of film historian and Constantine relates stories from their time together.  Constantine also details his thoughts on the career of the ground-breaking actor Sidney Poitier.  He reads transcripts from the extras he produced for the DVD releases of the comedies Mr. Poitier directed.  And he discusses the current lack of access to some of the films of both Bogdanovich and Poitier.Visit our website:  www.theextras.tvThe Sitcom StudyWelcome to the Sitcom Study, where we contemplate the TV shows we grew up with and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies, and animation, and they're released on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Lard, your host. and they're released on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Lard, your host.

Today our show is a little different in that it's not focused on a film or TV show specifically, but rather we're remembering two titans of film that passed away on the same day, January 6th of 2022. The men I am talking about are the beloved actor and director Sidney Poitier, and actor, director, and film historian, Peter Bogdanovich. Like most of you, I only knew these men through their work, so I reached out to someone that I knew had recently worked with one of them, filmmaker Constantine Nasser, and he's my guest today. Constantine, welcome to The Extras. It's very good to be back. Thank you very much for inviting me, Tim. You bet. So I remember the last time I think that we did a podcast, you mentioned that you had done an interview with Peter Bogdanovich for a release you have coming up. And when I heard that he had passed away, I immediately thought of you because of that. And then the fact that both of these men passed

on the same day was, that was a huge blow to film fans. What were you thinking when you heard the news? Well, I was actually flying home. I was in an airport when I landed in Las Vegas and I look on my phone and there's Peter Bogdanovich had passed away. And I had kind of known he was a little sick. I had been tipped off this when I was working on the project I was working on, which we'll talk about. So it was a sad moment. Yeah. You know, not completely surprising, but but sad and shocking because he's still at, I think you're age 82 was still pretty young. And I mean, I just talked to him, you know, we had just done something two months ago.

So, um, then I think I landed and was with my family and all of a sudden I read Sidney Poitier passed away. Um, it was, you know, we've've had a we've had a rough beginning of 2022 and i think it goes to uh show that this time bubble that we're in of covid we've lost a lot and and when we come out of it we're going to see that a lot of great legendary important artists are no longer with us i think a a lot of them, especially if they were older, like Peter was, you know, were maybe not getting out as much. Although we actually did cross each other at a restaurant a couple months prior to that in Studio City or yeah, Toluca Lake. I was coming out of a restaurant and I immediately noticed the ascot and I looked, wait, is that, and it was, it was him. And I just, you know, I let him walk in,

but I didn't want to interrupt him. Um, and then two months later, like we worked together. So, you know, I'm sure he was getting out, but what everyone's been so cautious that when we walk, look back, I think, uh, what we'll be missing a lot of friends and, and, uh, uh, artists that made such a great impact. Yeah. It's a, it's a big loss. I was thinking about the fact that you had worked with him. You mentioned just a couple months ago on this interview, it could be one of his last interviews that he did. Yeah, possibly. Um, I've, I've actually had a couple experiences where I might've caught the last of an interview with this director or that actor. And, you know, I read something about, I think Kim Basinger did a digital streaming or some sort of video performance where he directed

her. It might've been the last thing he directed with her and they interviewed her for that. And it made me think, you know, how lucky she was. And I feel both myself and Tom Sturgis, who I worked with on this project, uh, and this was all his, his idea. We're very fortunate, but I think most importantly, um, yes, it may, I think most importantly, yes, it may be one of the last things, at least maybe released. But we recorded this in, I think, October of 2021. And it's coming out. And again, I'll tell the story. It was all really Tom Sturgis, the son of director Preston Sturgis, who had this idea.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about that release? When's it coming out? Well, it comes out on February 1st, and we're very excited. Those of us that know this film and have some appreciation or interest in it. And I have to admit that before I worked this hard on this release, it was a movie that I had somewhat dismissed in the Preston Sturgis canon. This movie came out in 1944, but was made in 1942. And it went through hell, as did the director. But both of them were beaten up by it. And it was the movie that, I mean, effectively wrecked Sturgis's career, certainly with Paramount. So Sturgis made arguably the greatest run of any filmmaker critically and financially and these beloved films back to back to back to back in a small stretch of time. Even John Ford didn't do this, I would say,

in his great year of like 1939 and 1940. First, it was in 1940, The Great McGinty, followed by Christmas in July, followed by The Lady Eve, followed by Sullivan's Travels, then The Palm Beach Story. In 1942, after that, he directs The Great Moment, which gets shelled for two years. And in that period of time, he makes the miracle of Morgan's Creek and hail the conquering hero. And at that point, Paramount decides to release the great moment in a butchered form after Sturgis basically demands an ultimatum of Paramount. And then they, and they let him go after seven movies. And in 1942, when he made the great moment, not only had he been the first writer director, but he had such

power that he had earned that he became the very first writer, director, producer of his own film. Oh, wow. And after that, he went off to work with Howard Hughes and other other films. But nothing, nothing like the magic of those seven films at Paramount. So tell me how you got involved with this title and why it was interesting to you. And then the relationship with Tom Sturgis, who is the son of Preston? The son of Preston Sturgis. Yes. Who is the what? The son of Preston? The son of Preston Sturgis. Yes.

I was asked by Kino a few months prior and not that long ago. I mean, we're talking maybe the early fall. You know, here are two movies. Would you be interested in doing an audio commentary? And I immediately saw The Great Moment, which was, you know, arguably his let's just say his worst film. Right. Which which for a Sturgis movie is not bad. Um, I immediately said, I, I'd love to do something for Preston Sturgis. And, uh, and I knew that would take a lot of work, but I was willing and up to it, I think. And then I, uh, I started trying to do research and of course the Academy was closed, but I had a few friends there that, that were able to help pull some favors and get me some material. And what I discovered was

that there were like all the Paramount records, they were there. I mean, if I had time to read a thousand pages of notes to squeeze that detail into a commentary, okay, good luck. But I had for years, I've had these collections of screenplay, printed screenplays that Tom Sturgis back in the 80s as the caretaker of his father's estate and legacy. historian Brian Henderson, the chance to not only organize and publish these works in beautiful hardback volumes, but Henderson had written these very detailed, studied essays on the making of these scripts. And these books came out in the mid-80s, and we're now almost 35 years later, almost 35 years later. And I would argue that no screenwriter or filmmaker has had their work so carefully, specifically presented and accessible to an audience. Here's all of Preston Sturgis' work. Here's some of his plays. Here's some adaptations, such as The Power and the Glory, which was a Fox film in the early 30s, the movie that influenced Citizen Kane, let's say. So Sturgis is, I do feel

a filmmaker that has been never forgotten in the cinephile world. If you love classic movies, you know who he is, but he's not Hitchcock. You know, he's not John Ford in terms of being celebrated as much as he should be, I believe. So when they said, you want to do something? I said, sure. And then I realized how hard this was going to be, despite having all these resources that maybe other people didn't. I reached out through a friend, Susan King, who used to write for the LA Times, the film critic. She was friendly with Tom Sturges. I had known, I'd seen something she

had written. I Facebooked her and she said, I'll introduce you. So thank you to Susan. She connected me with Tom. Tom said, oh, I'd be happy to talk about my dad. And I said, let's do a commentary together. And then he said, well, maybe let's do a video conversation. Cause he didn't really want to talk over the movie and I get it. People don't want to talk over, over films. And so part of my decision not to do a commentary was to respect Tom's thought process of like, let's not talk over my dad's movie. But then he had this idea of, well, let's, we're going to do a conversation. Would you be interested in, uh, having my friend Peter Bogdanovich join us? And now I had, I'd worked with Peter a couple of times and I big fan of fan of his on many fronts, including really his historian front, too.

But then I just immediately thought, OK, sure. But what do I bring to the table? You're his son. And that's Peter Bogdanovich. And who am I? But it turned out to be a really special experience that, you know, I could talk about how it happened, but the resulting conversation that we recorded via Zoom for COVID reasons, I think was a delight and really showcases a lot of love for all the work of Sturgis. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Tim Millard,

host of The Extras Podcast. And I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers Catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page

or look for the link in the podcast show notes. Yeah, the name of the extra is Triumph Over Pain, a celebration of Preston Sturgis. And I watched it and it's fascinating. I think for the first 10 minutes or so, you guys were just kind of talking about Sturgis in general. And Tom's really actually got a great wealth of knowledge about his dad and his work. And just hearing those two guys just banter was really entertaining. And then you try to bring them back to, oh, OK, we have actually a movie here to talk about. That's always the important part. Being a good producer is when not to talk

and then when to do your job. Yeah. Stay out of the way. So I see where your role was to actually like keep them on track to, to spend some of the conversation on the movie itself. And Peter had a lot of interesting things to say. And I know that you respect him, Peter Bogdanovich, as a film historian, and he is as well known for that, or maybe even more so than his directing because of just the immense amount of time and effort he put into interviewing and meeting some of the old Hollywood directors, actors, everything. Tell us a little bit about that and how actually, you know, you as a film historian, you really connect with that. And then the other thing, he worked with Roger Corman. Didn't you read a book on Roger Corman? Yes, I did. That's Roger Corman interviews, a part of the conversations with filmmakers series by the university press of Mississippi. Yeah. That book, I guess, could be in the, the lineage that that Bogdanovich began back in the 60s with his series of interviews. Right. He's got a book in that series as well. But, you know, Bogdanovich's work was seminal. probably more historian because he wrote these just in invaluable monographs on John Ford and

Howard Hawks and Fritz Lang. And, um, that resulting passion, not only like led him to Hollywood and led him to meet people like Sam Fuller or Roger Corman, or I mean, Orson Welles, you name it. I mean, there's too many things that he had done. He's done in that field. Um, he probably written as many books as he's made movies, but between all of his, his journals and writings for newspapers and magazines, um, it was hugely influential on, on everybody that was writing. And so he's part of that wave of film lovers that became, I think a generation that proved that film was not just an art form, but an art form that was, yes, it was constantly moving forward, but Bogdanovich said, look at, look at the brilliance that came at the very beginning. And, and he shined so many lights on the filmmakers that I think had

been forgotten, let's just say like Alan Dwan and onward. Um, but yeah, uh, I, I, I knew his work that way. And then of course I knew the last picture show. I mean, picture nominated. He was nominated with McMurdy for the screenplay. He directed one of Karloff's great films. His first film was Target. Target. I mean, really to go from here's the thing. We're talking Preston Sturges, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, all these great movies. And then you've got this is Bogdanovich, bang, bang, all these great movies. And then you've got, this is Bogdanovich targets to the last picture show to what's up doc to paper moon, all four different, completely different. I mean, I was, I decided to watch last picture show last night a little bit. I couldn't get

my house is in a mess. Couldn't get to targets, which, you know, targets is coming out on Blu-ray. I saw that. Yeah. Finally, I think the BFI is putting that out. I'm very excited. And I'm very sorry that Peter wouldn't be here to see that movie, Getting Another Life, you know. And that was with Roger Corman's company, right? Yeah. Corman, that was another case of Corman having, you know, Karloff for a few extra days. Like a two day contract.

But, you know, what Karloff saw in Peter Bogdanovich, you know, I think he had him contracted, Corman had him contracted for two days, but they got along so well that Karloff said, I'll give you a few more days. I think he gave him five days instead of his two to make this picture. I mean, it's, it's one of the great films of the sixties in my view, but look at the difference of those four films. And of course, onward, you know, like Sturges, he made some steps that I think cost him, but he was the golden, you know, golden boy there for in Hollywood for that stretch. Yeah. But he was also never disrespected. I think he was never forgotten. I think he, he reinvented himself so many ways,

but I mean, you gotta, you gotta give it up for those four films. And one of the things, you know, whether we talk about it with his movies or with Sidney's films, as we'll talk about Mr. Poitier, his films, a lot of these films are not completely available, you know, a lot of these films are not completely available, you know, even the good ones, the, um, the fact that it's taken this amount of time for targets to be reissued in any better form than the Paramount DVD. Um, that's what we're talking about in home entertainment. You know, I highly recommend anyone who's got a multi-region player, go get it from the BFI because that's an important film. Columbia, you know, Sony's not putting out Last Picture Show. That's in Criterion's collection.

Right. You know, every it's all separated. And if you want to find Nickelodeon, you know, good luck because it's out of print if you want to pay $100 for it. So Peter's films are just a joy to watch, whether they're the classics or they're the noises off or the cat's meow, the later films. And it was, for me, wonderful to... When I came out of here as a student, I saw him in interviews, I saw him at events, and then I got to work with him. I produced a couple of DVD releases that he had did commentaries for. One was Wagon Master for

Warner Brothers, which is out on Blu-ray through Warner Archive. We did that, Peter and Harry Carey Jr., which is such a treat. And then we were able to source John Ford's comments from interviews that Peter recorded with Ford in the 60s. And we were given permission by Peter to incorporate into his commentary track. And then I think a year later, we did Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs. Not the greatest film. And Peter certainly in the commentary didn't care for it that much. And he was very opinionated and let everybody know that. But we still had this wonderful opportunity to include Howard Hawks talking.

Yeah. That wouldn't have existed without Peter Bogdanovich. Yeah. Yeah. He's been a real friend, I think, to many of the Warner and Warner Archive releases, has interacted, done commentaries, you know, worked with you and others on those. And so I think, you know, for listeners at the show who buy a lot of the Warner archive releases, they've heard, or, you know, seen the work that he's done with Warner brothers, but it's a real shame that more of his movies aren't made available. And maybe,

maybe there'll be a movement for some of that now. I hope so. I hope so. You know, the, the sad part is, as we talked about, you know, the inability to tell people into their face, what they, what they think about their work. I mean, I think Peter has had so many people tell him how great he is. Um, I I'm sure he, People tell him how great he is. I'm sure he still loved that. No, no doubt. But, you know, when when we were doing this, we had we had recorded this piece through Zoom. And then unfortunately, you know, the recording is sorry, folks, the recording is what it

is. You know, it's a Zoom call. So we covered most of it up. You know, I edited a lot of it out. I mean, there were conversations about Tom talking to Peter about directing the Tom Petty documentary. I mean, it had nothing to do with Preston Sturgis. So we had to like take some of these things out. I think Peter was like, oh, or Tom said, I just just leave it all in. But I really had to kind of contain this and form it into something that I thought organizational wise would, would feel focused on, on Sturgis. But the thing about Peter Bogdanovich as you know, you follow him wherever he wants to go and he can go in all different directions.

Yeah. His, his, the breadth of knowledge of what he talks about just in the piece that, you know, this of the content that you left in is like a history lesson, film history lesson in many ways, you know, he's talking about Sturgis and his admiration. Well, he had a lot of admiration for him, especially as that hyphenate breaking new ground, really changing things in Hollywood and how that ended with the great moment and how the, you know, the film was pretty much taken away from him and re-edited. And it just was not the film that he had written, um, or planned. I call the piece triumph over pain because that was the original title, not only of the book that Sturgis was adapting, but that was the original title of the film. Um, it went through other changes. Another title was called Great Without Glory. And so that seemed to be more vault that may be at Universal because this is a, a, a title when,

when Universal got access to all of Paramount's movies, all their assets, you know, went over to Universal. And so Universal made this licensing deal as they do with all, all of the Sturgis films or the Universal films to Kino. But, you know, you just sort of have to use your imagination. And I think my encouragement would be to, you know, if you like this film and think, well, it's an odd picture, there's some value to it. But why doesn't it not feel like a Preston Sturgis movie? Well, watch the little introduction, seek out the screenplay. If you read the script and you see, and you experience through reading it, the imagination and innovation that Sturgis was trying to do with the format of storytelling,

with filmmaking, with, you know, if you thought, if you thought Citizen Kane was revolutionary, Preston Sturgis wanted to move that forward with the great moment or in his version, triumph over pain and might not have worked. Maybe Paramount didn't think it worked, but what we have, what's left of this movie certainly is, is not, I mean, it couldn't have been worse than what we, we have, what's left of this movie certainly is, is not, um, I mean, it couldn't have been worse than what we, we have, you know, I thought one comment that, uh, Peter mentioned in there that, uh, that stuck with me was that the performances are still very good, but the

structure of the movie, uh, the, the editing of it is just not a Preston Sturgis movie, but you can tell in looking at the performances, what he pulled from the actors still quite good and comes across very well and very compelling as you watch the movie. Yeah. The structure was completely reshuffled. reshuffled. And imagine a very carefully told story that originally had a lot of flashbacks, but was intentionally placed in such a way where, you know, the weaving of the story is so tight that if someone tries to reshuffle the deck and if you're not the person who put it together originally in the first place, there was no interest in that. There was an interest in how do we make it funny? How do we do this or that? How do we simplify it?

And that was never going to be because that was never it was never shot. Things they wanted were never shot. So in my little introduction, I tried to actually pinpoint, sometimes you could actually see some of the bad edits, some of the bad transitions visually, because they were, you know, I don't know what source they were pulling it from, but it was very clear. Some jump cuts, um, the film had problems, but that does not mean it's not worth watching and understanding why he chose this film, because he fought, you know, look, lesser filmmakers would give up. Right. Sturgis was not the type of guy that would give up.

And that's why we have the movies that we have that good because he didn't give up. But you also have to remember, he wrote these things in like two months and then direct them. And then like he, these movies were made one after the other, after the other. And he wrote them and directed them. I mean, you can't get any better. Let's just say we'll call them golden age, but in, in movies period, Sullivan's travels and the, like the lady Eve talk about a movie that influenced Peter Bogdanovich and what's up doc. I know it's a Howard Hawks influenced comedy that, that movie with Streisand, but certainly there's, there's, there's a lot from the lady Eve that I think Bogdanovich paid homage to. And then you're stuck with like this movie that, that Paramount takes out of your hands. And it's, it's a fascinating bit of film history to see, you know, somebody who's so iconic and,

and did so much in breaking barriers in Hollywood and just as, you know, one of the great directors and then to watch this film, it's just an interesting thing. And I thought that the triumph over pain piece, um, and then also your introduction, introduction, it really gives a lot of context for the, you know, viewer as they go into watching it or after they've watched it to just kind of put it into context of Hollywood history and film history. I'm really glad we did it this way. Tom Sturgis, who was extremely generous. I mean, I cannot thank him enough for saying yes and bringing Peter on. And at the time that, you know, he suggested Peter, I think he knew that Peter's health wasn't probably that great, but he, he said to me, let's, let's make this something special

for him as well. And the two of them were so close that for me, I just wanted this to be something Tom would value. You know, there's this, the whole thing became very important for me to do right. And of course, I thank Frank Tarzy and the folks at Kino for letting me do this because it was like, Oh, here's a commentary and just kept growing and growing. And sometimes things grow and sometimes they don't. But I think all things considered, I mean, despite the fact that we didn't do it in person. And that's, again, one of the reasons you don't see a lot of us. I sprinkled a couple shots of us in there. But for, you know, for good reason.

I'm really proud of this. I'm really proud of this. And, and, uh, I think the, the one person that should take a bow is really Tom for, um, making it all happen this way. Right. Well, I'll have some information on the website for those fans who are curious to hear a little bit more about it, but, um, it comes out, uh, February one and that extra triumph over pain and celebration of Preston Sturgis is really, really great piece. Thank you. Thank you. So the other icon of Hollywood that passed that same day was Sidney Poitier. And we wanted to talk about him a little bit today. What, what do you remember about his career?

wanted to talk about him a little bit today. What, what do you remember about his career? Well, um, Sidney Poitier is a little challenging for me to speak about because I just feel like he's too big for me to even be the one to say, you know, he's, he's so important that any comment can't contain what needs to be said about him. However, you know, I grew up watching his films at a time where he was still making films and his films were circulated on TV. And I knew there was no one else like him at the time that he was making film. I mean, look, we can talk about how many barriers this man broke. The only person that might have come close before Sidney Poitier was Paul Robeson, but he never became what Sidney Poitier became. And he broke everything out, uh, from his first appearance. Uh, I think it was in no way out the, the, the Mankiewicz film

through blackboard jungle, which gave it, he was the very first Black actor to be nominated for Best Actor. Then that was with The Defiant Ones. And then it was nomination after nomination. And I mean, I don't know what can be said except for not just the extremely redefining position that he offered to African-Americans everywhere, whether you're an actor or actress or not, or a filmmaker. He was represented with pride and dignity and power and talent and all of those things. But I think for, again, I'm Middle Eastern American, so I consider myself, I look to others who have been able to break some boundaries. He gave hope to everybody else. Right.

If you were Cherokee, I believe you probably appreciated Sidney Poitier. You were Asian, you probably appreciated Poitier. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So he opened up so much for everyone that I just had this like like the rest of the universe, this great appreciation. And then I love watching his movies. So you get all that going on. I had one of my early mentors in my film career was the still photographer Ralph Nelson. film career was the still photographer, Ralph Nelson. His father was the filmmaker, Ralph Nelson senior, but he was Ralph Nelson juniors, the son. And Ralph, Ralph is a great friend. His dad,

Ralph directed lilies of the field. He directed dual Diablo. I mean, I think they, I try and remember, um, I think he directed three movies. Now I'm probably missing a big one that he directed with Sidney, but you know, I heard a lot from Ralph about that relationship when I would just hang out with him. I'd say, talk to your dad, talk about Sidney Poitier. I'm friendly with Jamie Farr, who co-, uh, the Blackboard jungle with Poitier under direction of Richard Brooks. He talked about him. I mean, anybody who's worked with him now, I was very fortunate, um, many years ago to be asked to produce a few of his comedies. And these were seminal movies for particularly black audiences in the 19, early 1970s, Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again, and A Piece of the Action.

And those were films that were instigated by Sidney to bring together black actors and comedians and filmmakers and make black movies at a time where this is not blaxploitation, you know, but this was bringing in big names like Bill Cosby or Harry Belafonte or Rosalind Cash or whoever it might've been, you know, and the amount of talent that those movies made, I think, I mean, they all came together because this was Sidney making, he was directing. Right. After Buck and the Preacher, he decided he was going to go into directing. Into directing, right.

And I was asked to produce these releases. And the first thing I did was try to reach the great Sidney Poitier. And, you know, this is a secret for everybody who, who listens to your show. If, if you think that we don't go out to big names and if they're not on the release or why didn't they do a commentary or why didn't they do an interview with this major star? Believe me, we've all gone out and they just say no, or they don't even call you back. Right. Yeah. So I call, um, Sidney Poitier's office and I was expecting a secretary to answer the phone, somebody, some assistant. And as soon as I heard hello, I realized in the word hello, I had Sidney Poitier on the phone.

And I was, I mean, I don't get nervous, but this was about 15, 16, 17 years ago. I was really nervous. How do I, where am I about 15, 16, 17 years ago. I was really nervous. How do I, where am I going now? This was not the phone call I was expecting. And it was him. And, uh, I had a nice little brief briefest of chats, uh, where I explained what was going on. And, you know, you've been in that position where you like, Oh, I'd like to talk to you

about this and that project. And we're working on your movies. Right. These are your films. And, uh, he was so polite and he, he, he declined. Of course, you know, we, we did not get the great Sidney Poitier, but I had a couple of minutes on the phone where he not only just appreciated that Warner brothers was putting these films out, just appreciated that Warner Brothers was putting these films out. But he said to me, basically, you're going to do great. I'm sure you're going to do fine. I really don't want to participate. Of course, I try to smooth talk him into saying, but this is, this is your, your legacy. I really wouldn't want to do this without, without you. Right. And, and I'm genuine

here. I really, I really was excited to have a chance to break through. I'm not talking to an agent. I'm talking to this icon. And he was so kind about the whole thing. No, that that that's OK. I'm sure this is going to be great. You you'll have a lot of other people that will will talk about them and that kind of response. But I didn't think he, he was blowing me off. Right. I got a genuine moment and, and I thanked him and he thanked me and that was it. Um, and we went, we went on and we did, um, we did a lot of great interviews and, and, and, um, I actually, because I couldn't get into archives to find the tapes, I brought a few transcripts of people of saying a few things about Sidney Poitier that I thought if your audience might be interested, I'd be happy to share. Yeah. Why don't you? So, um, one of the people we interviewed was actress Denise Nicholas, who was in both let's do it again. And a piece of the action that was a third film. This is what she had to say. Um is back in, I think, 2004.

What Sidney did by doing these movies and casting the way he did and pulling in these people was to give people the opportunity to feel that they were having a full life in this business. Not just, well, we need a black person. So, you know, you get called in, but to have roles, to have to work together with people three or four times, that gives you confidence. It gives you clout. It gives you film. It gives you all the things that you need to go on and continue to have a full fledged career, not just a hit or miss affair. So I think they were enormously important for all black performers who worked on those films and the people who worked on the set as well. Wow. Another person that I spoke to was James Earl Jones, who co-starred in A Piece of the

Action, which was the third film that they made. This is what he had to say when I asked about the importance of Sydney to film and film history and black actors. He said, I think Sidney has always built a similar legacy, similar to Robert Redford, very powerful talents unto themselves. And when they become producers of their own movies, they were able to control. They were able to take a couple of years and develop a story in which they would star and then do it and present it. That's a noble tradition. And not many actors get to do that. But Sidney and Robert have that legacy. And I think we should let them do that. We shouldn't ask them to, you know, take care of the problems of the world as documentaries like to do.

Let's talk about this, these hairy problems in a documentary film rather than a dramatic film where dramatic films have their own conflicting energy going on. energy going on. Later in the conversation, he said, Sidney said he wanted to make movies where a young black person could get into a theater and walk out and say, hey, I can be a cop. I can be a psychologist, a little like Gary Cooper. He never played the bad guys, you know, some gratuitous bad guys. He wanted to offer a positive input into life. You know, so many people, you know, whether it was John Amos or Jimmy Walker, they all had wonderful things to say about Sidney Poitier. I mean, who who doesn't? And and here's the here's the tragedy of some of the stuff we're talking about. We're losing these these actors, these legends and these filmmakers, and a lot of their movies are unavailable. Okay. So I decided to watch, I tried to watch a few of his films again in the last couple of weeks. One was the defiant ones

unavailable on Blu-ray. You might've bought like an out of print Blu-ray that might be out of UK, but because of companies, let's say like Amazon buying the MGM library, you can watch the fine ones in HD streaming. You can't buy it. Right. You know, it's just out of print. Um, you can't buy to sir with love. I believe, uh, Louie's of the field might be coming out. And I think it's out through Kino, all these films, either they're, they're hit or miss. So, you know, luckily Warner archives keeps some of their films. You know, you want to get a patch of blue. There it is. Um, but some of these other films in the heat of the night, there you go. That's going to be coming out on 4K.

I'm promoting everybody's movies for Kino. But because the studios are just hit or miss, who are they licensing them to? Or can you find a Sidney Poitier film on Netflix? It's kind of hard. It is. You know, if you that's what's happening to older movies, older films by filmmakers like Peter Bogdanovich. And, and, you know, those two men, those two big names came together in a movie I've never actually seen. Peter directed To Sir With Love 2, of all things. I think you can find it like through some, you know, you know, maybe in the, in the UK.

Again, these movies, it's not totally accessible and that's what we're stuck with. So when a, when a name, when a legend like Sidney Poitier dies, it's like when David Bowie died, all the music disappeared, right? Like everyone's buying it up so they can listen to it. Oh, I've forgotten how great David Bowie is or Prince is. Where's the Sidney Poitier movies to buy? They're not really available. That's a big, big problem. I feel so. I hope that any executive out there who has control over these films can, can try to, you know, again, encourage the reissue of them because it's, it's just unconscionable as far as I'm concerned that, you know, these big movies, Oscar nominated, Oscar winning films are hard to find. Right. Yeah. Well, that's the world we live in and

streaming, I think is it's going to be more and more difficult to find some of these older releases until somebody puts it out on a DVD or a Blu-ray or a 4K if we're so lucky. I'm not against I'm not against screaming, by the way. So it was great to see the Defiant Ones and Poitier in HD on my big TV. But that was only like one of two films I could find. Right. That, that does seem like a problem for most people that, you know, don't even have telephones or televisions are watching on them. How are they going to get access? Cause they don't even have a disc player. That was something that Peter was really promoting. I think is that film history and something that you've been very active in. And, and I think people who listen to this podcast are very interested in is the film history in keeping alive the great films of old and even the other films that might not reach that level, but that are still valuable and important.

Absolutely. So all of these companies that are doing it, this is God's work, you know, like just keep keep it going. But for those streaming sites as well, or the digital platforms, just just access to someone like Sidney Poitier in all of his monumental roles that changed, not just cinema, we're talking the 20th century. He, he helped redefine everything after 1950, you know, um, it's, uh, just not just a shame. It's just like tragic. So I know, I know that stuff will eventually be, uh, be rectified and, and, and his films will, will, you know, continue to define audiences. But as I said before, he impacted it all. And every one of his performances, there's not, there's not a loser in the bunch. There's not even a phoned in, there's not even a phone-in opportunity.

And I think personally, it's because Sidney Poitier realized that every film made a difference. And he was building on something, one performance at a time. And his comedies, I'm a big fan. By the way, go get Stir Crazy. Stir Crazy, that's still available on Blu-ray. I didn't even work on it, which did Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, you know, you'll, you'll never look at oregano again in the same way. Um, you want that kind of oregano, you know what I'm talking about, but that's a great film. And, and I think it's just wonderful that Sidney Poitier, this serious actor, just, he was, he was, he knew comedy so well. Like I, that's what I enjoyed most about doing

these films. And, and that's what I thanked him when I talked to him. Like I, I love Uptown Saturday Night, but it's, it's, it's stir crazy. That's, that's the magic movie, I think. When you read the James Earl Jones quote, he mentions Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier. When you read the James Earl Jones quote, he mentions Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier. And I can't help not mention their collaboration in that film, Sneakers, when they're both a little bit older. And it was a fun movie to watch with those two legends and doing something different. Yeah, they're both having fun. And that's a great movie. Yeah, that's a lot of fun.

Well, thanks, Constantine, for coming on the podcast today to talk about Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Poitier, and to spend a lot of time talking about how you interacted with them recently for Peter and the conversation you had with Sidney a number of years back. I never have had that privilege. So it's fun to hear firsthand some of your stories. Thank you very much. It's, it's, it's, it's an honor. Um, and I, I, I just hope people will take time to go back, you know, cause with the movies we talk about now that are new before long, they're going to be everything. Everything old is going to be new again. So discover Peter Bogdanovich and, and definitely, definitely discover Sidney Poitier. Peter Bogdanovich, and definitely, definitely discover Sidney Poitier. Thanks once again to filmmaker Konstantin Nasser for coming on the show and discussing his recent interview with Peter Bogdanovich and some of his thoughts on Sidney Poitier and the importance

both men have in cinema history. For those of you interested in learning more about some of the titles discussed in the show today, please visit the website at www.theextras.tv. Also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter at The Extras TV or Instagram at The Extras.TV to stay up to date on the latest episodes and for exclusive images and behind the scenes information about the episodes and upcoming guests. If you're enjoying the guests we have on the show, please subscribe and leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Until next time, you've been listening to The Extras with Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed.

The Extras is a production of Otaku Media, producers of podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.