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| Frank
Tashlin |
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| Director
/ Screenwriter / Producer |
| 1913 - 1972 |
| Born February 19,
Weehawken, New Jersey, USA |
| Key
Production Country: USA |
| Key Genres:
Comedy, Slapstick, Romantic Comedy,
Comedy of Errors |
| Key
Collaborators: Hal
Pereira (Production Designer), Jerry Lewis
(Leading Player/Producer), Walter Scharf (Composer), Tambi Larsen
(Production Designer), Paul Jones (Producer), W. Wallace Kelley
(Cinematographer), Haskell Boggs (Cinematographer), Kathleen Freeman
(Character Player), Jayne Mansfield (Leading Player), Herbert Baker (Screenwriter) |
| Highly
Recommended: Son
of Paleface (1952), Hollywood or Bust (1956), The Girl Can't Help It
(1956), Will
Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) |
| Recommended: Artists
and Models (1955), Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958) |
| Links: [
IMDB ] [ All-Movie
Guide ] [ Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[ Michael
Barrier Interview ] [ Salon:
Kitsch is Bustin' Out All Over ] [
Chicago Tribune Article (2006) ] [
The New York Sun Article (2006) ] [
Village Voice Article (2006) ] [
Slant Magazine
Article (2006) ] |
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Books:
[
Cheerful Nihilism: The films of Frank Tashlin
] |
| DVD's:
[ Amazon
] |
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"Lately
respected comedy writer and director, who started out as a
cartoonist. His work with Jerry Lewis
has been especially highly regarded; while his exuberant style
and ability to follow a gag through to its ultimate outrageous
conclusion suggest an affinity more properly with silent comedy
than with the sophisticated restrictions of sound." -
(The International Encyclopedia of Film, 1972) |
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"His characters
were cartoon-like grotesques (frequently played by the likes of
Bob Hope and
Jerry Lewis),
and his stories
basically ragbag strings of gags rooted in slapstick and sexual
innuendo, but there is a genuinely frenetic energy and anarchic,
even surreal irreverence in his best films; sadly, his later
work was increasingly marred by
Lewis'
penchant for maudlin sentimentality, and in the 60s he seemed
simply to lose his way." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999) |
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"Tashlin's
films are intermittently and inorganically funny; the humor
comes in splashes and quickly dries up. Sometimes his gags are
actually destructive of visual continuity and can only be ended
with a fade-out and a fresh start...The tone of his satire is
momentarily much more mordant than the sentimental form of the
finished films allows. Why should Jerry
Lewis live happily ever after when Tashlin sees him as a
demented creature, driven by pathos in one direction and the
American success motor in the other?" -
David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002) |
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"Originally a cartoonist, Tashlin is to the 1950s what Preston
Sturges is to the 40s. Tashlin's comedy reflects a fascination
with machines and fantasy. To paraphrase Andrew Sarris, if Jerry
Lewis hadn't been around to star in his comedies, Tashlin would
have invented him." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"There's
always been some moron-who usually went by the name of
'producer' - who would have to justify his existence, and
interfere." -
Frank Tashlin |
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