Posted 6:01 PM by Gene

As the saga of ROWLINGCORP comes to a tiresome CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED pause (we do NOT say conclusion) we ask, in twenty years what will people miss from not having it? We have an allegory (surely ROWLINGCORP would understand THAT word): we're approaching eighty years since the first of Busby Berkeley's Warner musicals. They are as frivolous and escapist as ROWLINGCORP's machinery, though perhaps not as DARK; and few people watch them anymore or even know who Berkeley was, but they're saved for posterity by the brilliance of his filmic imagination, and by Harry Warren and Al Dubin's songs. The surface-similar Wizard of Oz has its own glories but further survives on the strength of an inspired ensemble cast and especially the transcendent Judy Garland. Lacking Berkeley, Judy and songs (but not lacking HARRY P., who seems to grow uglier by the day) we ask, without a push from the cultists what will linger it in the memory?

We must note a PEOPLE WARNER predecessor made the Berkeley spectaculars and that it now owns Oz. As the movee excretion biz achieves total irrelevance it may flailingly attempt further sequels, but this is as inadvisable as remaking Oz. One thing's clear: We hope the moron Mr. BEWKES ultimately loses His job for it, though with so many reasons to fire Him that may be a tough one.

(Mogul's Friend link via AHTSJournal)