Movie Exchange of the Day (“City Slickers,” With Billy Crystal and One Tough Hombre)

Mitch Robbins (played by Billy Crystal): “Hi, Curly. Killed anyone today?”
Curly Washburn (played by Jack Palance): “The day ain't over yet...”—City Slickers (1991), written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, directed by Ron Underwood

When I started writing this post, I thought of City Slickers as perhaps the zenith of Billy Crystal’s film career--until I recalled When Harry Met Sally..., that is. Well, no matter: Slickers, released on this date in U.S. theaters 20 years ago, still has an honored place in Crystallography.

Except for voice-overs in cartoons, the comic has largely avoided roles in mainstream films over the last decade, perhaps because Hollywood can't forget the bomb that was America's Sweethearts. I can't help but hope that, before he gets too old (he's 63 now), someone will remember how good an actor Crystal can be and give him a role that will take him to the Oscars, much like George Burns in The Sunshine Boys.

If Crystal wants a lesson in the rewards of endurance, he need look no further than a key subsidiary actor in City Slickers. The role of Curly at last won for veteran actor Jack Palance a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, 39 years after his first nomination, for Sudden Fear, and 38 after his memorable, black-hatted villain Wilson in Shane.

Quote of the Day (Billy Crystal, on “My Worst Bomb”)

“I was playing a place in Pennsylvania, back when The Exorcist was the hot movie. I’d put together a very funny thing, and when I exorcised the demon, it turned out to be Nixon. This thing was scorchingly funny for colleges, but with this audience, it’s just not hitting at all. And I looked out, and the first six or eight tables were all nuns. Afterward I hit my head lightly against the wall and said, ‘Check the crowd first. Check the crowd first.’”—Billy Crystal, quoted in “The Funny Business," in Rolling Stone, September 18, 2008