Associates will inform you Michael Schlesinger’s greatest ardour amongst his many film loves was for Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” or as he known as it, “THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE.” However luckily for cinephiles, his efforts elevated or caused many essential movies throughout his profession at United Artists Classics, Paramount, and Sony Repertory.
He died January 9, 2025 in Los Angeles at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, the place he was being handled for a uncommon and aggressive type of most cancers solely just lately identified. Although he was a behind-the-scenes government little identified by the general public, he made a huge impact professionally earlier than he retired in 2012. He then started one other profession as a director, initially of comedy shorts, then final 12 months together with his function debut “Rock and Doris (Attempt to) Write a Film,” which premiered on the Palm Springs Worldwide Comedy Pageant.
His passing has introduced out an outpouring of grief and remembrances, finest seen on Fb, from pals, a lot of whom shared his ardour for film comedy and traditional Hollywood movies, however all of whom bear in mind a vibrant, vocal, and enthusiastic character. His shut pals ranged from administrators like Joe Dante (“Gremlins”), movie curators and restoration professionals, writers, and others with a typical thread: a ardour for traditional studio movies, usually by way of a shared enthusiasm for movies starting from the classics to forgotten B-movies like “Sh! The Octopus,” a 56-minute Warner Bros. comedy from 1937 now accessible on DVD in no small half as a result of he championed it.
Michael Schlesinger was born in September 1950 in Dayton, Ohio. His curiosity in movies included not simply comedies however the classic monster films, shorts (particularly the Three Stooges and Looney Tunes cartoons), and extra.
After graduating from Ohio State College in 1972, with a long-term aim of a inventive movie profession, he initially labored in Cincinnati for impartial regional distributor Tri-State Theaters. Throughout this era, he co-partnered in an area repertory theater and hosted traditional films on a TV station.
Although his transfer to Los Angeles was supposed to spark a inventive profession, his in depth data of movie led to a job with United Artists Classics of their repertory movie division. (Within the Seventies, all studios had divisions that oversaw distribution of older titles, each 35mm and 16mm, together with theatrical.) One key mission he was concerned in was the 1988 theatrical reissue (with new prints) of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 “The Manchurian Candidate.”
On the behest of then Paramount Footage Distribution head Jeff Blake, he then moved to that studio. After championing a profitable fiftieth anniversary launch of “Citizen Kane,” a bunch of filmmakers attempting to revive Orson Welles’ partially accomplished “It’s All True” sought out Paramount, which then owned the rights to the remaining footage, for assist in restoring. He finessed this over the objections of some doubtful executives (Blake had left for Sony) and although the entire movies received acclaim and awards, it price him his job there.
Blake then introduced him to Sony, the place he flourished with a freer hand. His oversight included a 70mm restoration of “Lawrence of Arabia,” the unlikely studio launch of the low-budget horror homage “The Misplaced Skeleton of Cadavra,” and the U.S. model of “Godzilla 2000” (he personally supervised the dubbing) which grossed $10 million in broad home launch. His friendship with the late director Budd Boetticher made his concerned with the discharge of his traditional Nineteen Fifties Westerns on house video a labor of affection.
After retiring, he solely beame extra lively. Continuously doing voice commentaries for DVD, he additionally directed and wrote a collection of self-produced comedy shorts earlier than his function debut final 12 months.
For over 50 years he was a significant determine at traditional movie festivals Cinevent in Columbus and Cinecon in Los Angeles. All of the whereas, he delighted in actual friendships with movie figures, usually veteran and typically forgotten, who he featured in his social media.
Memorial plans will likely be introduced at a future date.
A resident of the Sherman Oaks neighborhood in Los Angeles, Michael leaves no quick survivors, however a wealth of pals a few of whose tributes are reprinted under:
“A mensch for all seasons.”
– Larry Jackson (government, producer – “Bugs Bunny Famous person”)
“He was a real soldier of the cinema and such a *joyful* warrior it’s been onerous to think about him confused or in ache or, now, gone. Film-lovers owe him a ton—the re-release of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and the expanded ‘Main Dundee’ to call simply two milestones he made potential, although he not often took credit score for them. An enormous loss.”
– Michael Sragow (critic)
“I hardly knew him however I loved the hell out of him. So witty and enjoyable to learn. And he knew a lot in regards to the films. When somebody like Mike dies quite a lot of movie historical past dies with him. Individuals simply don’t have that form of data anymore, not to mention the love of movie that he had. He’d change into a obligatory common supply of enjoyment and data for me on FB and it’s terribly unhappy that he’s gone.”
– Tim Hunter (director – “River’s Edge”)
“One in all my oldest and dearest. And one of many causes I’m nonetheless on Fb. Certainly a mensch. We often traded our favourite closed caption errors. And I LOVED his puns. One of many few movie-mad guys who additionally appreciated stay theater.”
– Meredith Brody (author and critic)
“The unique film child Mike Schlesinger has sadly left the constructing. He’s undoubtedly seated within the entrance row of the massive theater within the sky making ready to observe IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.”
– Alan Okay. Rode (historian and writer, “Michael Curtiz: A Life in Movie”)
“At any time when I had a ebook signing, Michael would present up. I might have been joyful to provide him a signed copy. He all the time insisted in shopping for. That’s the kind of man he was.”
– Scott Eyman (historian and writer, “Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Yr Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart,” himself A good friend of Michael’s for greater than 50 years)