Ingmar Bergman Meets Bob O'Bradovich

As a huge fan of the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, I was once told that there existed a great old short film parody from the 1968 called "The Dove." I found out about it many decades ago when I was casually chatting with a fellow film fan in one of those late, great NYC poster shops that smelled of dust, cigar smoke and old paper. He told me it's a legendary film among Bergmaniacs, that it parodies "The Seventh Seal" (Death plays tennis!) and the cast recite their lines in ridiculously fake Swedish, like Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin once did in an equally wonderful Bergman parody on SCTV. Well that sold me. I NEEDED to see this film. But how? Despite all the repertory film theaters near my old Upper West Side apartment, I had never seen this one listed in a program. That lucky day finally arrived when a friend lent me a copy of the film. To my delight, it was everything I imagined it to be. Funny, biting and even reverential towards to the man, the myth and the legend. What I was NOT prepared for was the closing credits, which I always watch. To my utter shock, delight and thrill, none other than Bob O'Bradovich had done the makeup. That I wish I could have leapt up and screamed was an understatement. More than anything, I wanted to go running to my father and have him tell me all about this shoot, which took place when I was probably four years old. But I couldn't. By the time I had seen this film, he had passed away. But I was also left with many more questions. Why hadn't he ever mentioned this film to me, knowing that I had discovered Bergman's films in college? Did he have to watch "The Seventh Seal" to get an idea of Bengt Ekerot's stunning makeup playing "Death"? Surely he must have enjoyed working with a young Madeline Kahn, in her debut? I have to think that this project simply got lost to time. He was an exceedingly in demand makeup artist at the time, and this was probably a one off project, thinking it would go nowhere. Little did he know.  If he were alive, I would tell him how richly satiric the film is, what a great job he did with Death's makeup and, incredibly, that it was nominated for an Oscar for Live Action Short Subject at the 41st Academy Awards in 1969t. But alas, I cannot. I can only write a blog entry on his website. Still, I know he'd be delighted.