A Few Photos

George C. Scott in "Sly Fox" (1976)

Alberto Sordi was one of the greatest Italian film comedians.  He is one of my all-time favorite.

Andy Clyde shares soup with a young woman.

Bill Murray was photographed by Nigel Parry for a 2016 Esquire article.

"Sly Fox" is a comic play by Larry Gelbart, first premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on December 14, 1976.  It is an adaptation of Ben Jonson's Volpone (1606), a Renaissance satire, reimagined as a fast-paced farce set in late 19th-century San Francisco.  The play centers on Foxwell J. Sly, a wealthy, cunning miser who pretends to be on his deathbed to manipulate four greedy townsfolk vying for his fortune.  The role attracted major actors.  The role was originally played by George C. Scott.  

Scott was later replaced by Robert Preston.  

Jackie Gleason toured as Sly in 1978 until a heart attack forced his exit.  

Richard Dreyfuss played the role in a 2004 Broadway revival.

Here are screen captures from A Weekend With Lulu (1961).

Common, ordinary eyeglasses can easily be turned into a comedy prop.

Eyeglasses can, without effort, make a comedian funnier.

The Goodtime Girls was an American sitcom that aired on ABC from January 22, 1980, to August 29, 1980, lasting for 12 episodes.  It was a period comedy set in Washington, D.C., during World War II, serving as a 1940s counterpart to the producers' 1950s hits Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.  The show followed four young women - Edith Bedelmeyer (Annie Potts), Betty Crandall (Lorna Patterson), Loretta Smoot (Georgia Engel), and Camille Rittenhouse (Francine Tacker) - who shared a cramped attic apartment in the Coolidge Boarding House due to a wartime housing shortage. The series depicted their comic struggles and camaraderie as they navigated life, work and romance while supporting the war effort. 

Joe Stöckel and Beppo Brem starred in the West German comedy feature called Two Bavarians In The Jungle (1957).  The story follows Jonathan (Joe Stöckel) and Max (Beppo Brem), who leave their rural Bavarian roots for an unexpected journey to a jungle (the film is vague about the location).  Their fish-out-of-water antics drive the humor, with cultural clashes, misunderstandings, and slapstick encounters with locals and wildlife.

Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker), a tough private investigator, is up against a cunning, ruthless and lethal young woman, Lilly Carver (Gaby Rodgers), in Kiss Me Deadly (1955).

Harold Lloyd and Gilbert Pratt are rivals for Gene Marsh's affections in Luke, the Candy Cut-Up (1916).

So much horror royalty in one portrait.  Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee joined forces for an 1983 British horror film called House of the Long Shadows.

This photo is from the failed American remake of Steptoe and Son.  The titular characters were played by Aldo Ray and Lee Tracy.

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Tinkering with Midjourney

AI programs can turn a simple photo into dramatic art.

This is political commentator Benny Johnson with his children.  AI turned them into Pixar characters.

I liked how this turned out.

Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed a wary Carole Lombard under a hair dryer.

This is Midjourney's adaptation of that photo.

In 1955, photojournalist Ed Feingersh was assigned by Redbook magazine to accompany Marilyn Monroe around New York City.  The most outstanding photographs from the magazine pictorial featured Monroe at Grand Central Station.  

I submitted these photos to Midjourney.  This was the result.   

I submitted the following prompt to three AI programs: "A homicidal ventriloquist dummy chases a man out onto a building ledge.  The image looks like a publicity photo from a 1940s horror film."  Here are the results:

Midjourney

Grok

ChatGPT

ChatGPT wins on this one.

Nico Mone used Grok to reimagine Ghostbusters with Eddie Murphy and Chris Farley.

Days after Robert Francis Prevost was elected the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, it was reported by various media outlets that Prevost had an older brother who was a Trump supporter.  

Twitter commentator Van Ike thought that it would make a great sitcom premise to have a Pope's blue-collar brother move into the Vatican.  I took this idea further, creating a theme song for a sitcom called Bless You, Brother.

You can let your imagination roam freely with Midjourney.  Midjourney member bobsblazed submitted a simple prompt to the program: "A rapper and Mickey Mouse drink tea at Buckingham palace."

Midjourney has a "Retexturing" feature that allows you to turn an illustration into a photo.

There's a famous story of philosopher Diogenes wandering Athens with a lamp in search of an honest man.  I asked Midjourney to illustrate this story.  I was very pleased with the result.

I submitted the following prompt to Midjourney: "A funny little guy tries to sell a ridiculous invention, a self-tying shoelace machine, to a skeptical crowd, while his large slow-witted partner stands nearby. The scene is set against a bustling street."

Rembrandt was modernized by kontakoptics with the simple addition of wire-framed eyeglasses.

I modernized John Adams with a couple of "thug life" embellishments.

This interesting reimagining of Columbo was created by majgptdesigns.

This great image of the Frankenstein Monster was used as a reference photo.

Here are the results.

Wikipedia estimates that there has been 123 film adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 Gothic horror novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."  By far, the best adaptation was Rouben Mamoulian's stylish 1931 version, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  

Midjourney gave me a couple of good images of Jekyll and Hyde.

Midjourney goes from menacing to cute with Winnie the Pooh.

I created many images for my recent reimagining of Taxi Driver.  Here are outtakes of Sport using his seductive charms on a young and vulnerable Iris.  

This is Travis on an awkward date with Betsy.

I asked Midjourney to show me a 1920s vaudeville comedian sitting in his dressing room.

I asked Midjourney to create a vintage comedy duo.

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