Name: Martin Scorsese on Letterman, February 18, 1982
Uploaded: 2015-12-06T19:36:14.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Martin Scorsese on Letterman, February 18, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-12-06. Transcript available. Not seen since its only broadcast.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Martin Scorsese on Letterman, February 18, 1982' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-12-06. Transcript available. Not seen since its only broadcast.

Thank you very much. Paul Schaefer in the band. Welcome back to the show.
Martin Scorsese is one
of the movie world's really distinctive directors. His list of credits include
Raging Bull, Taxi
Driver, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and The Last Waltz. His
latest to be released
shortly, I'm guessing, The King of Comedy stars Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis.
Would you please
welcome Martin Scorsese certainly is a very impressive list of work that you've
been responsible for
responsible yes well i've certainly meant that in a good way oh i know i know
oh you must be quite
proud of those no i guess i am the uh yeah they are mine oh yeah these are
yours yeah um the first
time oh actually we never met before but i did want to mention this that we
have been in the same room
before it was um in toronto no no don't stop please don't tell that story this
was uh on a television
show you were there with robbie robertson that's right yeah and i was there i'm
not sure why some
sort of a mix-up uh and you remember it's coming yeah you guys were talking
about the last walls yes
the last walls now do you remember who else was in in that room no about eight
topless women
no i don't remember any of them no that was that was a strange period and we
don't remember anything
of it plus once you're out of the country anything goes yeah one day in toronto
let me tell you
uh you're but you're uh back here in the united states you live in new york
city yes and uh trying
to trying to uh any any particular part that you live in well we moved downtown
downtown being the
oh what they call tribeca area this means nothing to anyone uh watching outside
of new york so
uh sort of where the island well sort of the island sort of comes to tip and a
point and the whole
thing and then this it's where the dutch was settling and then the british
bought it and then
the uh well whatever it goes on like that yeah it's really old new york it's
kind of nice it's
a where an old warehouse district yeah and you work down there as well huh yeah
what is it you have
your uh editing facilities or whatever yes and uh basically it's really to uh
it's really a work room
where we put uh a whole series my god we have collected over the years a number
of um
posters for example film posters um oh maybe seven about four thousand of them
now cataloging them
archiving them and we keep moving from place to place so you see these things
have to be constantly
we worked on books of films films of books other uh scripts of in other words
really trying to build a
library how does it get to be that directing movies is more to you than just a
job i mean did this start
very early your interest in in collecting and seeing a lot of movies or did you
come to it later well
no i went to i uh practically spent most of my my time uh in movie theaters how
i mean how did that
happen uh well it wasn't allowed to play any sports so because of asthma sort
of thing in the 40s uh how
old were you then oh i was about uh three years old i'm completely um that's
all i can remember is movies
so you instead every morning you get up and go to a theater and spend the day
there my father would
take me or somebody would take me i forget whom but i would go in and see these
things yeah and color
and the use of color and the black and white and the westerns i love the
westerns i was allergic to
animals too so i couldn't go near the horses um what were you yes as a kid and
even now what were your
favorite kind of films well i i loved westerns i love westerns uh now and i i
love science fiction
and horror horror films to me the most fascinating i just love them very much
um somebody once wrote
i think a british critic is that if you don't really understand or appreciate
the the the the horror
film the horror genre you really have no understanding of love of film itself
of course it's a very inside
thing in the sense you're what's what's so important about really loving film
itself it really doesn't
matter you can live without film but the idea is it's in a sense a horror film
shouldn't be uh um
dispensed with as as junk or trash that's one of the uh one of the things i'm
talking about archiving
the idea of collecting articles and building a library i don't know give us in
your estimation the best
horror film because you're right most of them are lumped into the area of b or
c films what would be a really
good horror film oh that's that's a hard one uh because horror films naturally
uh uh for example
there are supernatural films about the supernatural ghost stories one film
called the uninvited were ray
moland and gail russell directed by lewis allen uh stella by starlight is the
theme song that's where
it comes from and it's a beautiful film and still very chilling very strange um
and now of course we're
going into different uh different phases of uh horror films the uh electronic
effects oh no you're right
yeah david kronenberg's films david kronenberg uh is the director his latest
film uh is called scanners
i like that very much but his earlier films even better a little hard to take i
can only see them
once i can only see them once that's right but he's the easy quite
extraordinary quite extraordinary we
have to uh interrupt here when we come back we'll talk about uh your films uh
martin scorsese
Thank you.
Martin Scorsese is here.
A little later, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and of course Tony Clifton will be joining
us.
Do you object to talking about your movies?
And by that I mean the one that's yet to be released but has already created a
lot of interest and anticipation?
The King of Comedy?
Yeah.
Actually, the King of Comedy was in preparation while we were mixing Raging
Bull.
Mixing Raging Bull, this is how it became a very difficult process, the mixing
of the film.
The sound was very complicated.
Yes.
We didn't realize it.
It became 16 weeks scheduled and by God we were one week overdue in the
theaters.
Yeah.
And actually your morning program used to keep us going.
And it was really almost a mutiny for my people.
Yeah.
We sent you something.
Very nice.
Yes.
It was very nice of you.
Very upset because we didn't know what to do.
Yeah.
There was nothing to do.
Yeah.
I had a year and a half of nothing to do.
Yes, but it was gone, you see.
Yeah.
I mean, even if we took the TV back into the room with us, it didn't work.
Still wouldn't work.
It didn't work.
It didn't work.
So then in certain regard, we're sort of responsible for the success of Raging
Bull.
I think so.
Is that the point of this?
Yes.
Eventually we finished the film.
Eventually we finished it.
We have some, I guess we're going to look at some photographs of the principles
of your
new movie, The King of Comedy, and we're going to ask you to describe what we're
seeing here.
Well, the fellow on the left is Jerry Lewis, and the fellow on the right is Bob
De Niro,
and they're in Sardi's.
You don't really want to know the plot of the film.
Well, now they're in Lindy's.
It's the same still.
It's the same still.
Two guys just go restaurant to restaurant.
No, tell them what the plot is, yeah.
Well, the plot is basically about a young guy who wants to be a comedian, a
stand-up talk
show host, comedian, whatever, and who idolizes the character that Jerry Lewis
plays, called
Jerry Langford, and becomes, in a sense, friendly with him, but more friendly
than he realizes,
in a sense.
The Langford character is just being polite, and automatically he thinks he's
made a great
friend, and it's his opening into show business.
This is the big time.
This is it.
And the series of normal rejections, which is say thank you very much, call
back next week,
or the stuff material is not good enough, but keep working where you're playing.
We'll go and see you.
These are rejections which he takes quite seriously, and eventually winds up
kidnapping him to get on a show.
Yeah.
I have two questions about this.
That's...
One, everybody, I guess, has asked you now about the casting of Jerry Lewis,
himself being a director.
Oh, yeah.
Was it difficult to direct a director in a film?
No, no, you see, we had talked about Jerry for about two years, actually, on
and off, and in a sense, it was very helpful.
Sometimes he would be able to help me when I was in certain situations, body
movement, the sun is coming up, and you had to rush and keep...
And actually, he was quite good to work with.
Yeah.
What was it like De Niro and Jerry Lewis?
Well, that was fun.
Yeah.
That was fun.
See, the film is not really a comedy.
It's...
In fact, they're...
It's humorous, but not really a comedy.
But working together, the improvisations together were quite good.
Bob and him.
Yeah.
Wonderful.
Geez, I really appreciate you being here, and you mentioned that you're off to
work now.
You work at Nice?
Yes.
Well, it's a great pleasure for me to have you here, and I appreciate the favor,
and the movie will be out...
Sometime.
Christmas.
Christmas, I think.
Christmas, yes.
Christmas.
Well, that'll be terrific.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thank you.
We'll be right back with the world premiere of Nightcap Theatre.