|
Actors: Dick Van Dyke, Michele Lee, Mickey Rooney, Cornel Wilde
|
|
| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Comic |
|---|
Carl Reiner, one of the great writers of comedy and Mel Brooks's straight man through all the "2,000-Year-Old Man" routines, co-wrote and directed this interestingly bleak and humorous 1969 tale of a silent-film star whose ego outpaces his considerable talent. Related somewhat Citizen Kane style, the story opens at the funeral of Billy Bright, who narrates his story from the grave: superstardom, a loss of rhythm with the coming of sound film, drinking, womanizing, and a long, awful descent to the end of his life as a bitter, lonely old man. Very loosely based on the life of Buster Keaton (and it should not be equated with him in any great way), the movie flopped at the box office (van Dyke fans who probably expected a Mary Poppins chimney sweep were undoubtedly appalled), but is a minor, unknown classic, with excellent acting by the principals -- sort of Beckett in Hollywood. Steve Allen appears as himself, and Reiner has a "let's do lunch" cameo.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
|
| Analysis of The Comic |
|---|
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
books by breaking them down into many different literary
elements, all of which are searchable (click here). |
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1900-1920's
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Job:
- actor
Strong "rags to riches" component?
Yes
Druggie/Wino problems?
- alcohol
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- comedian
Age:
- long lived adults
Eccentric:
Yes
- emotionally unstable
- wild
Body type
- (man) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- all mixed up
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
|
| Most similar reviews by Gordonator ranking |
|---|
| The Perils of Pauline
starring Betty Hutton, John Lund, Billy De Wolfe, William Demarest
|
| Funny Girl
starring Barbara Striesand, Omar Sharif
|
| The Illusionist
starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell
|
| Man of a Thousand Faces
starring James Cagney, Jim Backus, Jane Greer
|
| The Unsinkable Molly Brown
starring Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell, Ed Begley, Jack Kruschen, Hermione Baddeley
|
|
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
|
