Customer Reviews

Comic Support: Second Bananas in the Movies

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I hate to see that COMIC SUPPORT: SECOND BANANAS IN THE MOVIES by Ron Smith has so little information about it on Amazon, because this one of my favorite movie and TV books. I came across it by chance at at used book store about 5 years ago, and have referred to it over and over ever since. One thing that's so great about it is that it covers many fine actors who as supporting players in comedies are often given short shrift, such as in the fine LEONARD MALTIN'S MOVIE ENCYCLOPEDIA, which as good as it is just cannot cover everybody and remain a reasonable length. That's where COMIC SUPPORT steps in, providing a short film biography of each actor, a good representative photo, and a list of his or her prominent film, TV, and Broadway appearances. Smith wrote COMIC SUPPORT in a lighthearted and fun manner, not just giving a recitation of data, but also discussing each actor's contributions, and often giving snippets of dialogue from films to give a representative flavor of that person's work. The emphasis is on feature films, yet television is also given good coverage when appropriate. I've enjoyed reading about so many people - James Finlayson, Mae Busch, Tom Ewell, Carol Kane, Sterling Holloway, Edward Everett Horton, Una O'Connor, Reta Shaw, Charlie Ruggles, Joe Flynn, Billie Burke, and dozens more. These people have been so important in our enjoyment of film and TV shows, yet even though most of their names are not very famous, when you see their photos, you'll probably say "Oh, yeah, I've seen her (or him) lots of times!" The emphasis in this book is on earlier films and TV shows, roughly prior to 1980, and of course part of the explanation is that this was published in 1993. The book runs 246 pages. Highly recommended.