If I were to make a list of my ten favorite actors of all time, Peter O’Toole would definitely be on it. This masterful British actor of Irish origin is one of those who never managed to win an Oscar, and he did not succeed even though he was nominated for best actor eight times. The penultimate nomination was earned by O’Toole for his role in the comedy drama in which he played a character that somewhat resembles him in real life. Just like his character in “My Favorite Year” Alan Swann i O’Toole loved to drink well throughout his life and his adventures with colleague Richard Harris are already legendary.
The time of action of “My Favorite Year” is 1954, and Swann is a former big movie star whose career is irresistibly reminiscent of that of Errol Flynn. Swann also starred in action adventures in his youth that the audience devoured, but his glory days are long behind him and no one has hired him for a long time. Young television scriptwriter Beny Stone (Mark Linn-Baker, who later became famous as Larry in the comedy series “Complete Strangers”) is a big fan of his anyway, and at his insistence the production of the popular comedy show Comedy Cavalcade will hire Swann. But on the very first day, Swann will appear at the studio dead drunk, and it is Beny who will be tasked with looking after the aging, eccentric actor with serious alcohol problems.
And although O’Toole is brilliant as usual and it’s a pleasure to watch him as a grown-up movie star who actually lives in fear and killing in alcohol and running away from reality are actually some kind of defense mechanism for him, it’s almost a typical comedy of the kind he was filming at that time Mel Brooks. This is not surprising because Brooks was one of the producers, while the co-writer of the film is Brooks’ frequent screenwriting collaborator Norman Steinberg. After the initial mistrust and continued escapades, Alan will gain trust in young Beny and a friendly relationship will begin to develop between them and, as is customary in similar American light films, they will learn something from each other. With, of course, a handful of funny situations.