The year is 1954, in case you are wondering. Allan Swann (Peter O’Toole in his most entertaining role — which is saying something) is a washed up Hollywood star, clearely modeled on Errol Flynn. Once upon a time he was a swashbuckling heartthrob. Now he’s a swashbuckling alcoholic. He’s booked for an appearance on to a TV comedy show in New York, and one of the junior writers (Mark Linn-Baker in a role loosely based on Mel Brooks) is given the job of keeping him off the booze in the run up to the show. Easier said than done!
In real life, Flynn would expire in Vancouver in 1959, dead from a heart attack at age 50.
O’Toole is simply astounding.
Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
My Favorite Year is a film that rises — and sometimes soars — on the beauty of its central idea and on the loving, intelligent way it’s been fleshed out.
Michael Sragow, Rolling Stone
Richard Benjamin
Peter O’Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna
USA
1982
English
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Credits
Screenwriter
Norman Steinberg, Dennis Palumbo
Cinematography
Gerald Hirschfeld
Editor
Richard Chew
Production Design
Charles Rosen
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