The Dick Cavett Show : Robert Altman /Mel Brooks/Peter Bogdanovich/Frank Capra

Old meets new Hollywood on Dick Cavett, January 21, 1972. With directors Frank Capra, Mel Brooks, Robert Altman and Peter Bogdanovich in a single episode. Another show that displayed marvelous interactions took place when the line up was Mel Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman and Peter Bogdanovich. Any one of them would be a treat to watch but having them all on the same set at the same time was nothing short of perfection. Sometimes a couple of the men would hold back and have a smoke, other times the debate would get rolling pulling everyone into a lively discussion. Separately they were fantastic, but together you got the feeling of listening to some funny and interesting after dinner conversation at a cocktail party. Altman (M*A*S*H) seems soft spoken and shy. Brooks - as outrageous as possible - had directed only two films when he appeared here, he talks about The Producers while slipping into a Bogart imitation from The Caine Mutiny. The former movie critic Bogdanovich also had only two films under his belt at this point, he discusses shooting The Last Picture Show in black and white. Frank Capra, the grandfather figure, tells a story about how he "fixed" Lost Horizon after a disastrous preview by simply burning the first two reels.