Peter O'Toole, who's been known to take an occasional drink himself, probably had a lot of experience to bring to the part of Alan Swann, swashbuckling movie star of bygone years who's gone to seed. O'Toole has a tax problem and he's agreed to do an appearance on a top rated television comedy show of the Fifties to satisfy Uncle Sam's lien on his future income and to avoid deportation. But by now he's a boozy shadow of his former self and the star of the show Joseph Bologna assigns his most junior writer, Mark Linn-Baker to keep him in reasonable condition to perform.

As it turns out it means bringing O'Toole into his world which is Jewish Brooklyn of the Fifties, something I'm somewhat familiar with myself. Baker and O'Toole become a marvelous comedy duo themselves here. I'm surprised they did not team to do a whole lot more films than this.

O'Toole's performance succeeds on a lot of levels. Yes it's pretty funny, sidesplittingly funny at times. But there's also an element of sadness in it as well. You see in film clips the man O'Toole once was and now only commands attention by making a public spectacle of himself at times. I knew someone like that in my life, one who hardly had any kind of a career, but also HAD to be the center of attention at all times and usually did it by getting riotously drunk and acting abominably dumb. He had a certain charm and could get away with it, a lot though not the way O'Toole does.

Based on Mel Brooks's recollections of having to work with Errol Flynn, the film lets you know it's Flynn were remembering. Note the almost step by step choreographed duel recreation of Flynn and Basil Rathbone's final duel from The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Joseph Bologna is great as the egotistical comedy star and the Brooklyn vignette has a great performance by Lainie Kazan as Baker's most Jewish mother and Lou Jacobi as his most Jewish uncle.

Still it's what goes on and what's between O'Toole and Baker that makes My Favorite Year an all time comedy classic.

1954 is Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker)'s favorite year. He is a lowly junior writer on NBC's top rated The King Kaiser Comedy Cavalcade. King Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) is a bombastic tyrant. Sy Benson (Bill Macy) is the head writer who always bows down to Kaiser. Benjy is in unrequited love with production assistant K.C. Downing (Jessica Harper). Legendary actor Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) is coming to guest star on the show. However he's a hopeless drunk. When he shows up plastered, Kaiser commands to replace him until Benjy pleads for his childhood hero. Kaiser puts Benjy as Swann's handler. Also union boss Karl Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell) is angry at his parody and starts causing trouble with the show.

Inspired by Errol Flynn's appearance on 'Your Show of Shows', this is a great insightful period piece on a certain era of television. It has some good laughs. Linn-Baker is good as the young hopeful writer. Joseph Bologna is terrific as essentially Sid Caesar. However this is all about Peter O'Toole and he is amazing. It works even better because he is that legend. He does great drunk acting and with great charisma.

I remember seeing a clip of this on the Academy Awards many years ago. Peter O'Toole has always been a favorite, but I had never seen this movie. There are numerous moments that work, but the overall editing and plot don't hand together at times. Still, O'Toole had a sparkle that was always there and he is at the center of this entire film. Nice work by some of Hollywood's best character actors.