Even before he began making films, Peter Bogdanovich wrote profiles and conducted interviews with many of the directors and stars of Classic Hollywood. His work in the field of Cinema history is absolutely essential. With this film, he brings together his work as a filmmaker and a historian of the medium in a fast-moving comedic concoction based on stories he heard from pioneering early directors Allan Dwan and Raoul Walsh about the chaotic early days of silent movie-making. Starring Ryan O’Neal as the lawyer who bungles his way from gag-writer to film director, Burt Reynolds as the handsome movie star who stands in the way of O’Neal’s romantic aspirations, and a cast of dozens, including Tatum O’Neal, Brian Keith, John Ritter, and the largest number of “who’s that guy again?” character actors this side of a Preston Sturges movie. Unlike, AT LONG LAST LOVE, NICKELODEON did not incur the wrath of the keepers of middle-brow taste so much as their total apathy. Audiences stayed away in droves, leaving it for subsequent generations—ours for instance—to rediscover.

Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022) was a true, dyed-in-the-wool cinephile who made the leap to become a canonical film director. This three-film series, programmed by AFS Founder and Artistic Director Richard Linklater, pays tribute to the late master by presenting three of his films. One is a recognized classic (WHAT’S UP DOC) and the other two were savaged (AT LONG LAST LOVE) or ignored (NICKELODEON) upon release.