By what name was The Life of Riley (1949) officially released in Canada in English? The Life of Riley starring William Bendix as lovable, blundering, Chester A. Riley, was a radio situation comedy broadcast during and after wartime 40s. I was thrilled to find IA, where I can find some of those classics. Nevertheless, this Life of Riley series with Bendix was a ratings hit, ranking at No. The till doesn't ring as precisely, and what works and where the values are require more discernment. I planned the whole thing. About 40 percent of the dead that we're taking care of are cremated, and every family is asked if they'd like to come with us to the crematory. Gillis: Don't argue, because I hate family arguments. Cast & Crew Read More Irving Brecher Director William Bendix Chester A. Riley James Gleason Gillis Rosemary Decamp Peg Riley Bill Goodwin Sidney Monahan Beulah Bondi Miss [Martha] Bogle Film Details Genre Comedy Release Date Mar 1949 Premiere Information There is a fee. When families come in and have their loved one cremated, do you talk to them about going with you to the crematorium? Old newspaper photos show a crew digging a coffin-sized hole in the parking lot of the dealership, and then Digger, dressed rather casually in black slacks and a white shirt, clambered down into the hole. . In many ways they're all replicated by this journey that we take between the living and the dead when someone dies, this procession. Stevenson's ne'er-do-well son Burt, meanwhile, is cornered at the picnic by a thug named Norman, who demands that he repay a $25,000 gambling debt. Director Irving Brecher Writers Irving Brecher Groucho Marx (story) Stars William Bendix Rosemary DeCamp James Gleason See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 10 User reviews Photos 10 Top cast Edit series from October 4, 1949, to March 28, 1950. Brecher then saw William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942). Everything seems to fall into place. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. Do you speak French? Peg Riley: Yeah? It follows the changes in our species, certainly in our culture. The Press-Scimitar told why: It seems the police got a warrant for one Herbert ODell Smith, 46, wanted in Atlanta on a charge of non-support filed by his wife. When he finally crawled out his hole, Digger promised customers, Ive got to attend to some personal business, but Ill be back, folks, and will finish the job. Later, he told reporters, Thats the way the cookie crumbles. Well, read it closely, and what I've written is that as long as they deal with it, I don't care what they do. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . Peg Riley: Well, of all the revolting ideas! An unrelated radio show with the name Life of Riley was a summer replacement sh, Many,many, many years ago when I was in grade five I had as a teacher an American Christian Brother named Bro. I think we're among the first couple generations for whom the presence of the dead at their funerals has become optional, and I see that as probably not good news for the culture at large. So this pilgrimage, this journey that we go on, replicates in many ways other journeys that we see in life, from infancy to toddlerhood, from toddlerhood to teenagers to adulthood, the journeys we take in life in our heart, in the life of our mind, the life of our spirit. Chester A. Riley: The baby announcements? Chester A. Riley: Yes. She has her picture on the front page. At weddings people are forever weeping at what is supposed to be a joyous event. And a narrative is nothing other than a journey. in Literary Quotes in Movie Quotes in TV Shows He had a very good sense of that. Chester A. Riley: [on the phone] What is it, a boy or a girl? I'll be the dead guy, and the dead say nothing. I always knew I'd bring up my daughter to be somebody someday. It was just doing the next right thing. He was Herbert ODell Smith, and he conducted this buried alive stunt, along with countless other feats of endurance, across the South. 1 A reader named Ronnie Bierbrodt, who obviously did more research than I did, even turned up his obituary and a copy of the memorial booklet given out at his funeral. It's Prell! 16 in its first season, with four of its six seasons in the top 30, and ran for a total of 217 episodes. The program was broadcast live with a studio audience, most of whom were not aware Brown played both characters. MUSIC: THEME FILLS A PAUSE, THEN FADES OUT ANNCR: He's a man who's understood In Brooklyn or in Hollywood. But then I can read the work of Barbara Brown Taylor or St. Paul or C.S. Chester A. Riley: I don't think you heard me, peg. See production, box office & company info, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". Up until a couple generations ago, humans were the species that dealt with death, the idea of the thing, by dealing with their dead, the thing itself, so that the way we processed mortality was by processing mortals from one place to the other, one station to the next in this little pilgrimage between as they were to how they are to what we hope they'll be. "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. I think it suggests that we're going to get from one place to the other, whatever it is that we have to do to process this new reality, to get the dead to the edge of their changed role and get the living to the edge of this new changed life that they're going to lead without this person in their lives anymore. So yeah, I do find that people who have dealt with their dying -- whether it was taking them to their chemotherapy or sitting those weeks through hospice care, or checking in those weeks through hospice care, because we can't always be physically present -- those people who were thoroughly engaged with this are thoroughly engaged with the rest of it. And I'm, along with the next guy, as interested in those cartoons as everyone else is. Bareiss, Warren "The Life of Riley" Encyclopedia of Television Months after my father died, I can remember this wave of feelings that would come over me, catching me at the most unpredictable times, this wallop of him being dead, him being gone. Why would he leave his wife? However, it came to an end after 26 episodes because Irving Brecher and sponsor Pabst Brewing Company reached an impasse on extending the series for a full 39-week season. As far as I can tell, he performed it in Memphis only twice, but one of those events made the news because the police were summoned to dig up Digger. It's not that you don't want to see them dressed up or laid out or with glasses on, or too much makeup or their hair done in a clumsy way. I see it all as part of the one journey, all as part of the one pilgrimage. I got my picture in the paper! CONTINUES IN BG SINGERS: Riley, Riley, what a pal! Simon Vanderhopper: Mr. Riley, you're not angry? Well. 461. So I'm interested in it. Dwarf Mr Snow, Fred's Tie Dye, Saucy Mary, Sweet Scarlet, Kangaroo Paw Green, Idaho Gem and Banana Toes are just a few of the varieties one gardener is growing in a 4x8 bed of "bulletproof" tomatoes. The program even utilized a stable of so-called "silent" characters, individuals referred to often but never actually heard. Quotes.net. He had a new book out about God not being great. And they open your mouth. Everything seems to fall into place. Sometimes it's as simple as going up the street, down the block, into the church, out of that building, over to the bridge, over the river, over to the graveyard. It was later reused by Benjamin J. Grimm of the Fantastic Four. His frequent exclamation of indignation"What a revoltin' development this is! "My helpers had me out in minutes, thank heavens," he told reporters. Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down." Another gardener is pla, Growing Peppers in Your Garden: Tips, Hardening Off and Soil Mix, Growing peppers is a great way to spice up your garden. Despite Gillis' accusations and Peg's doubts, Riley goes along with the wedding plan until Junior uses the Stevensons' intercom to eavesdrop on Burt's room. Then, his wife Peg receives a phone call from Sidney Monahan, a former flame from Brooklyn, their home town, and Riley impulsively invites him to dinner. On the day of Babs's wedding, which is to take place at the Stevenson mansion, Riley becomes annoyed and hurt when Gillis, his best friend and co-worker, snubs him because he is sure that Riley "sold" his daughter to get the promotion. But it's not just my job. A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. When the film opened in New York at the Loew's Criterion theater in April 1949, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times turned his nose up at it writing, "As one whom domestic expediency occasionally compels to bear with the Friday night bull-bellowing of one Chester A. Riley on the radio, this reviewer can state with fair authority that no artistic advantage has been gained by making this same Mr. Riley and his family apparent on the screen." Peg Riley: Then I've been in love with you the whole time. He would have probably had a difficult way of managing some of the changes that we see nowadays. One of my favorite old time radio characters (other than Jack Benny) was Digger O'Dell "The Friendly Undertaker". When he heard the sad news about his wife, said a newspaper, Diggers own heart broke like a clod of dirt. I know his nickname was Digger, but thats just mean. It seems "Digger O'Dell" was a "friendly undertaker" character in The Life of Riley , a radio soap opera that aired back in the 1930s, but that still doesn't explain the curious popularity of the name, if you ask me. After roaming around the park a bit, I found the plaque has been carefully preserved and moved to a better (and more visible) location, bolted to a wall towards the rear of the new Veterans Plaza area of Overton Park. Chester A. Riley: Their gonna slit my throat from ear to ear and rip out my tonsils, and she says there's nothing to it! Get Ready for a New Season of Gardening -Choose from Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, Zinnias & More! And oftentimes I'm impressed by how people will wrap their existential concerns about a dying parent in the prearrangement conference. So everything is weakened; weakened and tightened at the same time. interview with the film's producers|credits|privacy policy|journalistic guidelines And does the rise in cremation in America parallel changes in demographics? It seemed like an appropriate time for this sainted woman. He never acted this way before. https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_life_of_riley_107479, https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_life_of_riley_quotes_107479. I never felt better. Peg Riley: Well, he's always been so bright. If you don't pay attention Peg Riley: Well, I'm trying to tell ya, he just moons around the house! But even people who do not believe or claim no religiosity or no particular faith, they are not without some text, some book they regard as, if not holy, it is the handle they're trying to hold onto to get through this. Do you hear that, Peg? So I took The Flotsam Family script, revised it, made it a Brooklyn Family, took out the flippancies and made it more meat-and-potatoes, and thought of a new title, The Life of Riley. Comedy Romance A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. I cant say what finally happened to Digger. The crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people we inspect, unannounced, a couple times every year. The Life of Riley was the initial release of Brecher Productions, Inc. William Bendix first played "Riley" in the popular NBC radio series on which this film was based, and John Brown played "'Digger' O'Dell" in the series. . He'll never amount to anything. I got my picture in the paper! The Life of Riley was an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a 1950s television series, and a 1958 comic book. What are you doin' here in the park? 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