- Daily Variety "With equal measures of prickly wit, gleeful pride and bemused gratitude, Charles Nelson Reilly looks back at his life... in this thoroughly engaging filmization of his one-man stage show"
- Seattle Times
 "Like Julia Sweeney's "God Said Ha!," "The Life of Reilly "... is wickedly funny, warmhearted and wise."
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel "At first, the film's subject matter seemed like it would be something slight, or worse, terribly boring. And I couldn't have been more wrong."
- Washington DC Metro Weekly
 "(Reilly) is very much alive and in exceptional form, recounting his life's story with a flair and flourish, panache and pathos, wit and wisdom."
- About.com "It's an extraodinary and moving tale, at once hilarious and tragic."
|
- The Stranger (Seattle) Recommended! "Charles Nelson Reilly showed up on TV game shows in the '70s and in a few guest appearances on The X-Files, but who knew he could do this?"
- CinemATL
 "...anyone interested in getting to know Charles Nelson Reilly the actor and Charles Nelson Reilly the man will leave satisfied and humbled".
- Salon.com "Reilly is an actor of tremendous natural range with an extraordinary life story."
- Clizbiz "...there is no way to overstate this: the film is BRILLIANT."
- Communicatrix "...a hilarious, breathtaking telling of a fascinating life..."
- Hollywood Elsewhere "...an absolutely riveting performance from one of the most under-appreciated actors of his or any generation of the 20th century."
- Filethirteen "...simply jaw-dropping... about the most interesting one man show to ever be seen."
- Chlotrudis
 "Reilly relays his story with the passion, wit, and subtlety of a truly great actor."
|
- E-Filmcritic.com "Incredibly entertaining... I laughed... I cried. Really, I did."
- Documentary Insider "(The directors) use grace and honor to show Reilly’s story from top to bottom. I was actually moved."
- Film Threat
 "(The Life of Reilly) holds wrenching emotional power in its naked, warts-and-all history of one man’s life, spun into a monologue more riveting than all two hours and twenty-four minutes of “Transformers...”
- Notcoming.com "...a verbal testament to survival and success... While 'The Life of Reilly' is charmingly wistful and unassuming, Reilly himself is exuberance incarnate...".
- Indiewire "Reilly recounts his life with often dark hilarity'" (SXSW dispatch)
- E-Filmcritic.com "...touching and hilarious..." (Interview with co-director Anderson)
- The Washington Post "The Life of Reilly" finally gives this overlooked actor and teacher his due."
- The Austin Chronicle "Alternately funny, inspiring, and affecting..." (Review & Interview with the directors)
|
|
ROBERT WILONSKY:
One of the pleasures of doing this show is that I get to show you some things and show you some people that you may not know about just yet. Two of those guys are Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson, who have made a great documentary about the great Charles Nelson Reilly. I saw this film at the South By Southwest Filim Festival expecting to hate it. And yet I could not stop watching Charles Nelson Reilly on a stage talking about his life. His tragic, twisted, tremendous life. |
|
|
|
|
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
With equal measures of prickly wit, gleeful pride and bemused gratitude, Charles Nelson Reilly looks back at his life, and invites his audience to share the view, in this thoroughly engaging filmization of his one-man stage show. "The Life of Reilly" could score limited theatrical play in major markets, but probably will receive an even warmer reception as homevid fare to be savored by the millions who fondly recall him as a campy TV staple of the '70s and '80s.
Helmers Frank Anderson and Barry Poltermann wisely refrain from efforts to "open up" the stage production. Instead, they simply train their cameras on the casually-attired star as he offers a free-wheeling series of autobiographical anecdotes about his misadventures as talkshow gadfly, sitcom co-star, quiz show regular and, not incidentally, Tony Award-winning Broadway vet.
For auds who know him only from television, pic's biggest surprises may be Reilly's stories about studying acting under UTA Hagen -- with Jason Robards and Hal Holbrook as classmates -- and his own experiences as a thesping coach. (He nabbed a Tony nomination for directing Julie Harris in a 1997 revival of "The Gin Game.")
When he describes how he silenced a snooty talkshow guest by powerfully rendering a "Hamlet" soliloquy, Reilly gets a big laugh. At the same time, though, aud can't help wondering if maybe the irrepressibly comical Reilly always possessed under-valued (and seldom utilized) dramatic chops as an actor.
Except for some fleetingly serious scenes -- recollections of a troubled childhood, and miraculous escape from a 1944 circus fire -- the tone is light, bright and shamelessly dishy. There's a suggestion of still-simmering anger when he recalls a brutal brush-off by an NBC talent scout in the early 1950s: "They don't let queers on television." Ultimately, however, "Life of Reilly" is vivid proof that living well, and laughing heartily, can be the best revenge.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Remember that flamboyant, bug-eyed panelist from “Match Game” with the Elton John glasses, silk ties, and sailor’s cap? Maybe you caught the same seventies boob tube icon sitting across from Johnny Carson, during one of his 106 appearances on the “Tonight Show.” You know – the guy with three names. Aha! Charles Nelson Reilly! (Cue lascivious Reilly-patented giggle and the double-entendre of your choice.)
Like most people, you probably associate Reilly with this light, televised pop-culture fluff. Who knew he was a Tony-winning Broadway legend, or that the eccentric comedian had worked in film with director Elia Kazan (1957’s “A Face in the Crowd”)? “The Life of Reilly” exposes a popular artist’s less recognized - but perhaps more valuable - contributions to his craft. It also holds wrenching emotional power in its naked, warts-and-all history of one man’s life, spun into a monologue more riveting than all two hours and twenty-four minutes of “Transformers” overblown CGI chaos.
Based on a long-running, one-man stage act called “Save It For the Stage: The Life of Reilly,” this intimate expose by directors Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson chronicles the show’s final performance in 2004. The movie serves as a tight distillation of Reilly’s enthusiastic concerts, which would typically last three to four hours per night (the film, in contrast, runs 89 minutes; an upcoming DVD version will feature the entire show).
Wearing an oversized, mint-green shirt pierced by a red Aids-Awareness ribbon, Reilly initially comes across as tiny and frail (he died on May 25th, 2007, of complications from pneumonia). Then, his lion-sized storytelling prowess takes over. Like a determined Hogwarts wizard, this energetic wordsmith conjures forth tale after mesmerizing tale from a sparse, prop-less stage. Reilly reveals an amazing ability to draw us into his past, through hand gestures and comforting descriptions of familiar locales. Oh, look – there’s the neighbor lady! Can you smell the rye bread?
Reilly churns up a chaotic, conflicted picture of his upbringing. The entertainer’s father turns down a promising career opportunity that permanently costs him his self-esteem. Later, Reilly Sr. would look for used bottles of high-priced whisky, put “fifty-five cent shit” in the used containers, and stock them on the household shelves. Why? “So guests thought we could afford good liquor.” (And his mother? Uh, that’s another story too dark and complex to capture in a review.)
On June 6, 1944, a 13-year old Reilly narrowly escaped the harrowing Hartford Circus Fire, where 160 onlookers perished in the flames. “She lost her hair - and her mind,” Reilly remarks of an aunt who volunteered for lobotomy experiments. Christmas holidays were lonely, dismal events marked by his father drinking booze and breaking ornaments.
Despite these dire formative years, Reilly eventually found his salvation in acting, during the fifties. He reflects on attending thespian school with other future luminaries like Steve McQueen, Frank Langella, Jason Robards, and Jack Lemmon (whom he taught how to tie a tie). “We all had three things in common,” Reilly says of he and his classmates. “We wanted to be onstage, we had no money and we couldn’t act for shit.”
Reilly ultimately won a place in the pantheon of television, stage, and film (recognized with two Tony Awards and multiple Emmy nominations). But it was a hard-earned victory. While he doesn’t overtly lament it, we learn that his homosexuality (seldom proclaimed, but often implied through subtle jokes during his T.V. appearances) cost him support both at home and amongst the network brass.
“A father doesn’t like to see his only son sewing dolls,” recalls Reilly, whose poor eyesight limited his childhood athletic abilities. Later, he describes an early, crucial job meeting with the President of NBC Television, describing the executive’s “beautiful desk,” and “gold cigarette lighter.” Then came the boss’ crushing proclamation that they didn’t let “queers” on television. “It was a very short interview,” summarizes Reilly, before a long, telling silence.
“The Life of Reilly” ultimately presents its resilient subject as an unusually optimistic force of nature. Despite these rejections, this survivor reached out to others for decades as a supportive acting coach, film actor, television performer and director, game show presence, talk show guest, and voice-over for children’s cartoons. The closing passages of his monologue echo forgiveness towards complicated family members, suggesting a wise insight into the contradictory shape of human nature. Enduring friendships with fellow actors like Burt Reynolds confirm both Reilly’s value of others, and the admiration his cronies felt for him.
Convinced that Robin Williams’ lit teacher in “Dead Poets’ Society” was the ultimate embodiment of “Seize the Day”? Did Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School” rendition of Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight” give you goose bumps? Then check out “The Life of Reilly,” for a real-life example of carpe diem energy too pure and unrefined to be silenced by discrimination or negative family vibes.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Like Julia Sweeney's "God Said Ha!," Charles Nelson Reilly's "The Life of Reilly" is a filmed monologue (formerly a stage production) that's wickedly funny, warmhearted and wise. Reilly shares stories of his wretched childhood ("Eugene O'Neill would never get near this family!" he bellows, and he's not kidding) and long career in stage and television. Along the way, he treats us to a sidesplitting impression of Meryl Streep (watching footage from "Sophie's Choice") and to a generous tribute to those who shaped his eventful life. "Just get a bag and drop a dream in it," he says gently, "and you'll be surprised what happens."
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Charles Nelson Reilly showed up on TV game shows in the '70s and in a few guest appearances on The X-Files, but who knew he could do this? In an acclaimed one-man stage performance, he hits as many bittersweet notes as one-liners: the story of his father's missed chance at greatness and his consequent fall and institutionalization, his aunt's lobotomy, his mother's loudmouthed racism, and the hidden undercurrent of his own gayness. The documentary was shot during his last two performances in North Hollywood in October 2004. It's a needed, non-fleeting testament to one of the great obscure Tony winners.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
In Life of Reilly, Charles Nelson Reilly tells an anecdote that could have come straight out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A woman calls the theater where he’s performing his one man show and asks who’s playing Reilly. The box office happily tells her it’s Reilly himself. It can’t be Reilly because he’s dead says the woman. After a few futile back-and-forths, the box office finally acquiesces and concedes that Reilly is indeed dead adding that even in death “he still manages to come in every night."
A Tony award winner, Reilly’s public image has been effectively frozen in time and his career reduced to a few lines on a Trivial Pursuit card and the occasional clip on a VH-1 flashback special. And since the focus of most VH-1 specials is less about making poignant observations than giving obscure barely known (and thus cheap) comedians and actors the opportunity to make Oscar Night worthy cracks, we the public rarely get any true insight into why these people and shows have become so iconic.
And so Life, an elegantly filmed and edited version of Reilly’s self-penned one man show, is a captivating look into the life of a man who counts Charles Grodin, Jerry Stiller, Jack Lemon, Steve McQueen, Geraldine Page and Hal Holbrook as acting classmates.
Filling in the gaps and illuminating the dark corners of his past, Reilly gives a dynamic performance, demonstrating his impeccable timing and droll wit. Expounding on his childhood, Reilly drops depressing quotes from his mother like “I should have gave away the baby and kept the afterbirth” in one breath and in the next responds to the audience’s gasp with the pithy and funny “Well it’s that kind of show.”
Anyone expecting to hear stories about “Match Game” or gossip about posthumously outed stars will be deeply disappointed. However, anyone interested in getting to know Charles Nelson Reilly the actor and Charles Nelson Reilly the man will leave satisfied and humbled.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Gay comic, actor and ‘70s television staple Charles Nelson Reilly, who appeared on “Car 54 Where Are You,” “Match Game” and the “Tonight Show,” among other hits, brings his autobiographical one-man show to the screen. Captured on film when Reilly performed it for the last time in 2004, “Life” is funny, introspective and touching. Reilly’s brilliant acting and ability to examine and enjoy the absurd make the film well worth watching. A-
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Ever heard of Charles Nelson Reilly? Even if you only have a vague recollection of the TV star as that nutty, smart-aleck game-show contestant, try to include this surprisingly poignant filmed version of his stage monologue on your list of festival films.
And if you are old enough to remember him clearly, put The Life of Reilly on the must-see list.
At first, the film's subject matter -- the comedian I remembered from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir taking a nostalgic look at his own life -- seemed like it would be something slight, or worse, terribly boring. And I couldn't have been more wrong.
Reilly's theatrical performance is a joyous, frank and funny look back on a life full of the unexpected. His comic presence and first-rate storytelling ability shows him to be an honest-to-gosh performer -- not something I would have called him before seeing this film.
Reilly looks at his life chronologically, exploring an absurdly difficult existence in the 1930s in the Bronx and then Hartford, Conn. His recollections of childhood are filled with hilarious anecdotes, many concerning his racist, overprotective Swedish immigrant mother. He continues to entertain through his years of struggle in becoming an actor, and onward to his lifelong friendship with Burt Reynolds.
The biggest surprise is that Reilly doesn't waste time dishing on his game-show glory days. This tale is sharply focused on his personal life -- the loony mom, the tragic father, the bizarre extended family -- and nostalgically captures how families, and indeed neighborhoods, conducted themselves in the 1930s and '40s.
Really. See Reilly.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Those of us who are familiar with Charles Nelson Reilly think of a goofy guy on game shows, a regular 70's television icon. What we don't always realize is that Reilly is also a Tony-winning Broadway actor with an interesting story to tell.
The movie starts with Reilly discussing how people think he's dead. He certainly isn't. As Reilly tells the story of his life, you begin to think how you could never make this stuff up. It's an extraodinary and moving tale, at once hilarious and tragic; whenever the mood gets too serious, Reilly brings the humor back with a perfectly timed one-liner.
Though you might expect over-the-top silliness, Reilly's one-man show ala Spalding Grey is the work of an abundantly talented performer who displays the subtle and nuanced range of emotion you'd expect from a compelling life story.
In short, this film is touching and brilliant.
My advice? Go see it.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
“They don’t let queers on television,” said an NBC executive to Charles Nelson Reilly at his first big job interview in the early ’50s. Of course, Reilly didn’t simply make it onto television, he was freakin’ ubiquitous in the ’60s and ’70s, bringing his nutty laugh, bespectacled visage, and outsize personality to Match Game, The Tonight Show, Laugh-In, and too many other shows to count. Reilly turned his one-of-a-kind personal story into a monologue called Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly, which Frank L. Anderson and Barry Poltermann filmed during its final two performances in 2004. The result is a small movie with a gigantic personality at the center: Reilly focuses on his dysfunctional Bronx upbringing, but the real entertainment comes from simply watching him work. The fruity guy known for his sailor’s cap and pipe is actually a talented craftsman.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
DID YOU KNOW Charles Nelson Reilly was still alive? Don't feel bad -- I didn't either. In fact, according to Reilly himself, most people think the actor is dead. ''They call the box office and ask who's playing Reilly in the one-man show, Life of Reilly.'' When told that it's the actor himself, they respond, ''No, it can't be, he's dead.''
In Life of Reilly, a crisply filmed documentation of Reilly's final performance before retiring his four-year touring production, the actor -- best known as the man of sailor's caps and ascots and witty bon mots on Match Game and the flustered and flamboyant Claymore Gregg on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir -- is very much alive and in exceptional form, recounting his life's story with a flair and flourish, panache and pathos, wit and wisdom.
''I shoulda thrown away the baby and kept the afterbirth,'' he recalls his strong-willed mother growling at him, and the audience audibly gasps. Reilly just shrugs, earning a laugh with an off-the-cuff ''Well, it's that kind of show.''
Directors Frank Anderson and Barry Polterman make the most of the staged setting, enhancing Reilly's monologue with archival film footage. Even those who grew up with the unavoidable Reilly in the '70s, and may have dismissed him as a one-trick pony, will be impressed by the Bronx-born actor's armful of Tony nominations (for Hello, Dolly and directing The Gin Game) and his one big win (for How to Succeed in Business...), as well as his jaw-dropping roster of classmates in Uta Hagen's famed acting class, a list that included Steve McQueen, Jack Lemmon, Hal Holbrook and Fritz Weaver.
Though Reilly addresses his homosexuality, he does so only tangentially. Applying for a job at NBC in the late '50s, he's told, ''They don't let queers on television.'' There is no mention of a longtime relationship or, for that matter, much relating to his personal life at all. Aside from some pretty brutal memories from his horrific homelife as a child, Life of Reilly ultimately disintegrates into a Hollywood memoir, an actor's tell-all, revealing less and less as it goes on.
The schmaltzy surface-nature of the show, however, is redeemed by Reilly's performance -- so captivating, he could be reading the same entry from the phone book for 90 minutes and you wouldn't mind -- and by a final story in which Reilly comes upon a beach-bound pelican caught up in a fisherman's netting. It's a tale that stirs your heart and extinguishes any remaining memories of those silly blanks filled in by Reilly decades ago on daytime television.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
"The only help for mankind is laughter." - Mark Twain
"When I die, it's going to read, 'Game Show Fixture Passes Away'. Nothing about the theater, or Tony Awards, or Emmys. But it doesn't bother me" - Charles Nelson Reilly
Once in awhile you see a film and the subject makes you think "What were the filmmakers thinking?!" Which is precisely what I thought when I saw Civilian Pictures had made a movie about the life of 70s game show icon Charles Nelson Reilly. Admittedly I am too young to remember much of him. I remember his name. I remember his ridiculous Liberace-like wardrobe from game shows in the 70s. I remember how people would write into Parade magazine in the Sunday paper and ask if he was still alive. And thank God he is, or we would not have this wonderful film to take us on the journey through his life. But it is still one of the most intriguing and bizarre subjects for a film I’ve come across in years.
The Life of Reilly was CNR’s one man show. And it is precisely what it claims to be. Reilly takes the stage and begins to tell the story of his life. We hear about his Swedish mother who rarely went anywhere without her weapon -- a baseball bat. We hear about his father, his alcoholism and how he left his mother for "Miss Marion." We hear about how his mother refused to divorce his father, but he married Miss Marion anyway, rendering him a bigamist and Nelson Reilly the homosexual son of an angry Swede and an alcoholic bigamist.
Now if that is not a background rife with comedic material, what is?
Born in Brooklyn in 1931, Reilly grew up a sickly, terribly near sighted child who even as a kid could not hide the mannerisms stereotypically associated with homosexuality, thus earning him the unenviable nickname of "Mary." His family and neighborhood were filled with rich characters that he reveals to us by assigning them movie stars, as in "my upstairs Italian neighbor who hung out the window and yelled at us while we were playing stickball would be played by Sylvester Stallone." This gives his audience a real reference point to relate to, it draws the audience right into the story as if we are living it right alongside Reilly.
His first role was as Christopher Columbus in the school play when he was nine. His teacher told his mother that Reilly was the only true actor she’d ever known. When he was out of school, he enrolled in acting classes where his classmates included Uta Hagen, Steve McQueen, Hal Holbrook, Charles Grodin, Gene Hackman, Jason Robards, Jack Lemmon, and Geraldine Page. Reilly reports that all the students knew back then that Hagen held the key. Hagen went on to open one of the most famous acting schools ever. Of McQueen he said, "even back then I was old, but McQueen, McQueen was never old."
Reilly worked on and off Broadway, earning Tony Awards for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and Hello Dolly!. In his earliest interview for a job in television, he met with the then-head of NBC who told him he’d never be on because "they don’t let queers on television." Well Reilly really had the last laugh there as one night he realized that he was going to be appearing on game shows 27 times that week.
One of the many funny moments comes when Reilly discusses how he always wanted to open the Sunday paper’s magazine and find out someone had written in to ask a question about him. Then, one day in 1977, it happened. But the question was "Is Charles Nelson Reilly dead?' And how fitting that is, as even when I started to write this article, I was sure he was. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy he is not, it just strikes me as hilarious because over the years, apparently a lot of people wrote into a lot of newspapers to inquire about his reported death. His good friend Burt Reynolds took it all in stride — he had the articles blown up and framed for Reilly each and every time it happened.
If we were to compare The Life of Reilly to anything, it would be Robert Evans’s 2002 documentary, The Kid Stays In the Picture. Both films are full of Hollywood history and tell of lives richly lived. But Evans was all arrogance, cheese and bravado. Reilly’s film is far less self indulgent. You sense that Reilly truly appreciates all life has given him – the good and the bad. It is poignant, sweet, funny, and kind and will expose Reilly to a whole new generation. We can admire him for his self-deprecating humor and observations on his life and times, and not so much the Liberace-like wardrobe he sported on all those 1970s game shows.
The production values for The Life of Reilly are strong. Lighting works the shadows and angles well. The camera work is clumsy, but accurately and appropriately and purposefully clumsy. It contributes to the clumsiness and realness of his life because life is not eloquent for most of us. Life is real and life is clumsy and life rolls along with bumps in the road and tragedies to go with our triumphs. Reilly has lived a happy and heavy and fantastic life filled with great characters and experiences.
The Life of Reilly is an independent feature from Civilian Pictures. It will be doing the rounds of film festivals, having recently debuted at SXSW. When it comes to a festival or theatre near you, do yourself a favor and catch this funny and poignant look at an authentic life.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
|
|
Our Reviewer Says: Awesome! I laughed, I cried. Really, I did!
SCREENED AT THE 2006 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL: Charles Nelson Reilly was a familiar face in film and television during the 60's and 70's; he was most known for being a comedian and panelist on "Match Game." But he barely mentions any of that in his one-man stage show. That's because it's the least interesting part of his life.
Reilly has performed his autobiographical theater show "Save it for the Stage: The Life of Reilly" over 400 times. But directors Frank L. Anderson and Barry Poltermann bring it to a whole new audience, as they beautifully captured the stage production on camera, inserted in a bit of cinematic style and even animation, and then shared it with lucky audience members at the SXSW Film Festival.
I'll be honest -- I had no idea who Charles Nelson Reilly was before this film. And still, I don't really know the Charles Nelson Reilly that older generations or more pop culture-savvy folks know. Sure, after a little time at IMDB, I learned that he successfully moved on from his earlier years on TV and film to become a prolific voice actor. He's the Dirty Bubble in "SpongeBob SquarePants"! But whatever memories America has of him for his gig on "Match Game" or whatever nifty trivia one can dig up, The Life of Reilly is a story you simply can't search for on google.
Charles Nelson Reilly grew up in an admittedly kooky household -- his mother in particular was neurotic and oppressive, constantly telling him to save all emotions and family secrets "for the stage." And so he did.
It'd be pointless for me to do some sort of synopsis. Reilly is a master storyteller and comedian and it's best you let him do the talking. But I won't mind helping him clear the record about his life -- "Match Game" is not his crowning achievement. He is a revered theater actor and teacher who starred in the original "Hello, Dolly" and "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." Bet you didn't know that!
The Life of Reilly is the funniest, most poignant flick I caught at SXSW. Not only is it incredibly entertaining, but it's a wonderful illustration of the Art of Acting, which you just don't get very much of in your typical film, where even the best actors have to perform out of sequence and get upstaged by the set or the action.
This is a film that's easy-peasy for me to recommend to folks. It's a must-see if you're a fan of Charles Nelson Reilly, or if you have no clue who he is.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
I snorted up coffee at Charles Nelson Reilly's sweet and hilarious impression of Meryl Streep watching the rushes of "Sophie's Choice"...
Charles Nelson Reilly is still alive, dammit, and boy does he have a story to tell. You'd have to be a Broadway devotee of a certain age to remember Reilly as anything but the queeny, captain-hatted wisecracker on "Match Game," plus just maybe a comic character actor on various '60s TV series. But as his solo show "The Life of Reilly" (documented in a film of the same name) demonstrates, Reilly is an actor of tremendous natural range with an extraordinary life story.
Now in his mid-70s, Reilly cuts a commanding figure, spinning stories of his impoverished childhood in the Bronx and Hartford, Conn., his extraordinary career in New York theater, and his friendships with Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds, Hal Holbrook, Jack Lemmon, Jerry Stiller and other classmates in the glory days of Herbert Bergdof and Uta Hagen's acting studio.
He's too much a man of his generation and background to discuss his personal life, but along the way "The Life of Reilly" lets us know how much the world has changed. When Reilly first auditioned for NBC in the '50s, he tells us, he was dismissed: "They don't let queers on television." By the end of the next decade, he was one of the medium's most recognizable faces.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
The 'Life of Reilly' Pitch: Popular character actor and TV staple, Charles Nelson Reilly, delivers the final performance of his touching and hilarious one-man show.
Describe your movie using the smallest number of words possible.
Go to charlesnelsonreilly.com and view the trailer. Now!
Back when you were a little kid, and you were asked that inevitable question, your answer would always be “When I grow up I want to be a …” what?
I wanted to be an archeologist.
Not including your backyard and your Dad’s Handycam, how did you get your real “start” in filmmaking?
I was an extra in The Right Stuff. I wandered all over the set. I caught glimpse of Phil Kaufman being able to make an epic film without all the trappings that come with epic filmmaking.
During production did you ever find yourself thinking ahead to film festivals, paying customers, good & bad reviews, etc?
All the time.
How did this film get rolling at the beginning? Give us a brief history from writing to production to post to just last night.
Co-director Barry Poltermann called me with the idea. Within in a week, we were raising money and were into full low budget pre-production. Three months later we were rolling cameras over three nights at the El Portal Theater in Los Angeles. Then began a year-long process of shaping a very long (4 hours plus) stage show into a 90-minute motion picture, shooting original stop-motion animation, 16mm recreations of Charles’ childhood memories, searching for historical b-roll, doing score after score (the first few really sucked, one sounded like “march of the penguins“), and, of course, selecting and re-shooting television clips from the varied stages of Mr. Nelson Reilly’s career. Last time I looked, it was midnight. We were at the L’orange edit suite in Los Angeles. I had 1 hour to catch a flight home and Barry was still editing The Life of Reilly - 6 hours ahead of a flight to India where he was to begin work on another film. Last night I was pretty sure that we had finished.
If you could share one massive lesson that you learned while making this movie, what would it be?
Don’t tell anyone what you are doing. Keep it small. Avoid all “meetings“. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Go, go, go. Next project!!!!!!!!
What films and filmmakers have acted as your inspirations, be they a lifelong love or a very specific scene composition? Did you watch any movies in pre-production and yell “This! I want something JUST like this …only different.”?
I love Karel Zeman, Yakima Canutt, Kon Ichikawa, 50’s Japanese cinema the entire silent film era. We watched some “one man show” films in preparation for this. I don’t really enjoy watching anything in preparation for a project. I always get sucked into the story of what I’m watching and forget why I was watching it.
Say you landed a big studio contract tomorrow, and they offered you a semi-huge budget to remake, adapt, or sequelize something. What projects would you tackle?
No one in their right mind would offer me a studio contract. My co-director Barry Poltermann, however, is a different story. I think he would want to handle an insanely huge star-studded sequel to Some Came Running - which, of course, is already a sequel.
Who’s an actor you’d kill a small dog to work with? (Don’t worry; nobody would know.)
I love dogs, but I also love Dean Martin.
Honestly, how important are film critics nowadays?
A “buzz” has to start somewhere.
You’re told that your next movie must have one “product placement” on board, but you can pick the product. What would it be?
Easy. I grew up in the Philippines. Coca Cola is God. Also, as a player of Fessenden Pedal Steel Guitars, I would just have to insist…. I love products! Can I throw Fender in?
What’s your take on the whole “a film by DIRECTOR” issue? Do you feel it’s tacky, because hundreds (or at least dozens) of people collaborate to make a film – or do you think it’s cool, because ultimately the director is the final word on pretty much everything?
A “film by Terry Gilliam” used to be just that. Now, it’s “a film by Terry Gilliam and 400 scared shitless front office guys looking over his shoulder saying things like “Gee Terry, CG can really expand your vision“.” So, in certain cases, it’s of absolute importance.
In closing, we ask you to convince the average movie-watcher to choose your film instead of the trillion other options they have. How do you do it?
Go to charlesnelsonreilly.com! View the trailer ... again ... now!!!!!
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Like most of you, I know Charles Nelson Reilly from his 1970s appearances on THE "Match Game": permanently seated on the panel’s upper right-hand corner next to his foil, Brett Sommers, he was that decade’s Paul Lynde, only nastier, crankier, and arguably a more inspired improviser.
Hard to determine what’s more shocking: that Reilly is still alive (he’s in his early 70’s) or that he’s actually an accomplished stage performer, Tony award winner and acting teacher. This concert film is culled from the two final performances of “Save It for the Stage”, his one-man show that ran for a few years earlier this decade. It’s essentially Charles telling us his very curious life story, taking us from an eccentric, near-tragic childhood in the Bronx with his institutionalized father and outspoken mother to his discovery of a love (and talent) for acting. We hear of heady, early days spent in Manhattan studying with a luminous who’s-who of contemporary performers, initially being barred from working on the boob tube because of his homosexuality, and making a triumphant comeback later in his career, popping up on game shows, kids shows, sitcoms and even an episode of "The X-Files."
Reilly relays his story with the passion, wit, and subtlety of a truly great actor. He proves himself a master of language, tone, and timing, revealing punchlines at just the precise, unexpected moment. Although it clearly condenses what is usually a three-hour stage show, this film is a sympathetic document that fully captures its essence. Involving from start to finish, THE LIFE OF REILLY is a fabulous substitute for the now-defunct show, and you can’t help but chuckle at the on-the-street interviews that open the film, for many of those questioned about Reilly also thought he was dead.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
I had to get out of the convention center and get some fresh air. Free tacos are a great way to beat the blues; so luckily just across the street from the ACC at Brush Park the festival hosted a tex-mex dinner for badge holders. Nice. It was just the energy I needed to get me through my next film, The Life of Reilly. It’s basically a concert film of the imitable Charles Nelson Reilly’s final one-man show. The film has a lot of heart and is similar in tone to another film I loved, Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party . Director/editor Barry Polterman and director/music Frank Anderson used grace and honor to show Reilly’s story from top to bottom. I was actually moved.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
As With Music Festival, Film Spinoff Shares City's Sense of Laid-Back Cool
AUSTIN Badges? You bet we need those stinking badges.
Such is the mantra of South by Southwest, this city's 20-year-old music festival and its more recent offshoots, the South by Southwest film and interactive conferences, which have gained international renown as ultra-happening confabs of artists, audiences, journalists and hipster apparatchiks.
Like black-clad swallows returning to a Tex-Mex version of Capistrano, veterans of South by Southwest—or SXSW, or just "South by," as it's called by the true cognoscenti—flock every spring to this oasis of pop culture, liberal politics and Shiner Bock beer, soaking up just enough to hold them for another year. But they're not going anywhere without those all-important laminates hanging awkwardly around their necks from bright blue ribbons festooned with the BMI logo.
This March has been no different, as SXSW kicked off last weekend with the premiere of Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion" and the opening's sister event, the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards ceremony. Downtown at the Paramount Theatre, Austin's beautifully preserved 1915 movie palace, "Prairie" co-star John C. Reilly worked the enthusiastic crowd. Meanwhile, out at Austin Studios, a collection of soundstages and offices on the grounds of a former airport, Hall of Fame inductee Matthew McConaughey was treating guests—who gathered to eat steak and fries in a stifling hangar—to a 20-minute ramble that included Too Much Information about his very conception (let's just say Dad died with his boots on). Members of McConaughey's bewildered audience sported their own special Texas Film Hall of Fame badges; the event raised $384,000 for the Austin Film Society.
The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival was started 13 years ago by Louis Black and Nick Barbaro, both inveterate movie buffs who have managed to inject SXSW Film with the same cool that has made their music festival—which got underway Wednesday—an imperative for of-the-moment musicians and their most avid fans. (Black and Barbaro have day jobs as the editor and publisher, respectively, of the Austin Chronicle, an alternative newsweekly.)
Over the years, big-name filmmakers have chosen the venue for their premieres (Altman, John Sayles, Christopher Guest and Joel Schumacher among them), and it consistently attracts a quirky and absorbing lineup of features, shorts and documentaries. The festival's programming, as well as the cred of the music conference, has made it one of North America's best and most highly regarded second-tier festivals, a regional gem that may not be a frenzied market on a par with Sundance and Toronto, or a hushed cinephile retreat like Telluride, but has its own cachet nonetheless.
"We started a film festival to show the films we loved," recalled Black, who estimated that registration increased by 50 percent this year. He pointed out that SXSW is for film lovers, whether they're in or out of the film business. "When people say, 'You're the next Sundance,' I say, 'I hope not.' I love Sundance, but I want to do what we do."
On the first Saturday morning of the film festival, the badge-holders' line snaked around the block outside the Alamo Drafthouse theater for a screening of "Wide Awake," Alan Berliner's smart, funny, densely layered journey through his battles with insomnia, as well as his own psyche. The film was preceded by a hilarious trailer telling patrons not to talk during the movie "or Ann Richards will take your [rear end] out." (That homegrown effort proved to be far superior to the irritating "official" SXSW trailer produced by the Independent Film Channel; with its pseudo-edgy electric guitar music and lame animated hot dog smoking a cigarette, the promo is proof that there's nothing less hip than a corporation trying to be hip.)
"Wide Awake," which will eventually be shown on HBO, is among the festival's high points, which also include "The Notorious Bettie Page," starring Gretchen Mol and directed by Mary Harron, "Maxed Out," James D. Scurlock's riveting examination of America's debt problem, "East of Havana," a documentary about Cuba's rap scene, and "The Life of Reilly," a performance film about Charles Nelson Reilly's one-man show that finally gives this overlooked actor and teacher his due. (This year's jury award winners were the documentary "Jam," about a Bay Area man trying to revive roller derby, and "Live Free or Die," a comedy by two former "Seinfeld" writers about a would-be career criminal in New Hampshire.) The festival will close today with a screening of Paul Weitz's "American Dreamz."
Still, good films aren't enough to make a great festival. What makes SXSW great are the ineffable things—the warm weather; a dip in the freezing cold natural spring just minutes from downtown when that weather gets too warm; the breakfast migas at Las Manitas; getting your hair styled at a funky South Austin salon by the same woman who was scheduled to cut rock legend Roky Erickson's later that day; buying a portrait of Hank Williams by former Mekon Jon Langford at the folk art gallery Yard Dog; the music at the Continental Club; the music at Antone's; the music at Stubb's -- that make it a culture unto itself.
"People used to ask Orson Welles what films influenced him," said Black, "and he would say, 'Stagecoach,' 'Stagecoach,' 'Stagecoach.' " When people ask me why South by Southwest has succeeded the way it has, I say, 'Austin, Austin, Austin.' "
If Sundance has become an orgy of swag and celebrity, SXSW has become a more low-budget version thereof. (This year's SXSW swag bag included such humble offerings as a fake "Maxed Out" credit card, a Clif Bar brownie and a guitar pick.) It's altogether possible that, when you grab a quick between-film helping of tortilla soup at Guero's (in Austin, everybody comes to Guero's), you'll be sitting right next to Lyle Lovett—who looks just like Lyle Lovett, only sexier.
Festival-goers are likely to be as thrilled by a sighting of the hundreds of bats that fly out each evening from under the Congress Avenue bridge as they are by catching a glimpse of Ray Romano, whose "95 Miles to Go," a documentary about his stand-up comedy tour, made its world premiere here this week.
And if no one stops and gawks at "East of Havana" producer Charlize Theron—the epitome of SXSW glamour wearing skin-tight jeans tucked into black stiletto-heeled boots—while she chats in the Paramount's sound booth, it's not because they're jaded. It's just a measure of the laid-back vibe of SXSW, and Austin itself.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
I could have spent the entire weekend posting from the film side of the annual spring-break multimedia orgy South by Southwest, which wraps up Sunday; God knows there are dozens, if not hundreds, of pasty-faced folks doing that very thing after every panel, after every screening, after every party. But the film fest–which begins earlier each year, with more screenings taking place on Friday this year than ever before—is best digested as a whole than regurgitated in pieces; how else to process seeing one of the year’s better rock docs (loudQUIETloud, about the 2004 reunion of the Pixies) immediately after one of the worst movies ever made (Andy Dick’s directorial debut Danny Roane: First Time Director, autobiography that’s thinly veiled in a thin layer of alky vomit)? No way in hell Sundance would have taken this one, or allowed a drunken Dick to hump the faces of poor volunteers at the post-screening Q&A session.
Wait, sorry. I am writing this in the lobby of the Four Seasons, and at 3:27 p.m. this very Monday Marley Shelton (Sin City) is behind me, talking to some pretty 20s-to-50s women who were just chatting about “Ashlee’s new tattoo.” (Actually, I think that is Ashlee…Simpson, c’mon.) Now they’re discussing Shelton’s starring role in the new Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez movie that starts shooting here on Thursday, Grindhouse, an homage to 1970s sexy slasher pics. It occurs to me you could just blog from the Four Seasons bar all week; two seconds ago, some fratty-lookin’ dude was on his cell yelping about his movie’s rave on Ain’t it Cool News (Jesus…) and New Line’s interest. Me, I don’t even think the phone was on. Or real. (He’s gone now–with probably the biggest deal and best film of the fest, so what do I know?)
So, then, back to business.
SXSW film fest saw a huge jump in registration this year; it’s up 50 percent, to some 10,000 badge-holders this annum, according to film-fest director Matt Dentler. It’s taken on the hipster cache of Sundance, without all the product placement, or Toronto, without all the studios pimping Oscar product. (And Sundance gets Paris Hilton, while SXSW has 24’s Xander Berkeley; I’ll take the latter.) No matter the throngs it’s still a laid-back festival, a party without much of a hangover the next day; just ask Sam Shepard about his SXSW next time you see him. And unlike it’s big-bro music fest, which celebrates its 20th birthday with its Wednesday kickoff, the film fest is still a place where unknowns can show up to peddle product they think will make them famous. (If nothing else you can keep score at a film fest easier than at a music fest; bands are signed for $10.5 million, after all.)
There are half a dozen films likely to get bought after their SXSW debuts—movies such as Fuck (a thoughtful, dirrrrrty essay movie featuring Hunter S. Thompson’s last filmed interview), doc-makers Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob’s Al Franken: God Spoke, the Austin-made deadpan comedy Gretchen and the Pixies movie oughta leave the festival with at least some distributor interest; in a just world so too would The Life of Reilly (a one-man show featuring Match Gamer Charles Nelson Reilly) and Darkon (a bi-polar epic doc about live-action role-players).
There is no doubt some company will also bite on the fest’s best doc entry, Maxed Out, about folks who drown in debt and the credit card companies who prey off them. It even has a Dallas connection: It was directed by James Scurlock, who lived in the Uptown area a few years back, launched a trade mag for restaurant investors and returns every so often to write in a friend’s apartment. The movie will infuriate and depress; if you don’t cut your MasterCard to pieces after seeing this, you either don’t have a credit card or own the Dallas Mavericks.
But here’s what makes SXSW so swell: Yesterday, after a day of screenings and interviews, some colleagues and I were taking a cab to a party being hosted by Todd Wagner and the Landmark-Magnolia folks—a packed wingding of movers, shakers and other movie-biz heartbreakers. One of our companions was running down his roster of movies seen during the day, one of which was Gretchen. He said he’d seen it and hated it, dismissing it as some Napoleon Dynamite knock-off. “You talkin’ about Gretchen?” asked our cabbie. “I was in it.” We all prayed, then and there, for a violent car crash. Like the Andy Dick movie.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
"The Life of Reilly" You may remember Charles Nelson Reilly as the funny guy on 70s game shows. No, he’s not dead but people always assume he is, which propelled him to do a stage performance of his life. Not only did the show receive rave reviews but he performed it over 400 times in five years. The film documents the final show and there is no way to overstate this: It is BRILLIANT. Though Reilly is one of the world’s busiest actors and widely revered as a dramatic instructor, few know this. Be prepared; Reilly will blow your mind with his talent.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
Outside of plain old good times, the chief feature of SXSW seems to be overwhelm. There are more great films crammed into a ten-square-block area than I could possibly hope to see in 30 days, much less four. (The 2006 SXSW Film Festival stretches from March 10 to the 17th, but The BF and I were only there for the part that overlapped with SXSW Interactive.)
Then there’s the waiting time that eats into your movie consumption. Some of the theaters are tiny, and even with the magic badge that grants you first access, you need to queue up at least an hour in advance to gain entry. (Film passes, at $65 each, get you into a separate queue that gains admission after the Badge People enter; individual tickets put you at the very back of the bus.) The weather was lovely for the festival this year—unseasonably warm for the first three days—and we met some terrific people waiting in line, but still: every minute you’re standing in line is a minute you’re missing another panel or meetup or film.
Which brings me back to one of the Real Things I Learned at SXSW: a festival, much like money or alchohol, brings out the truth in people. My particular truth? I lack the easygoing gene. I’m not particularly good at going with the flow, and when faced with the possibility that one of my plans might fall through, I react with a mix of anxiety and crushing disappointment. I do not know why I didn’t learn this particular truth about myself 10 years ago when I would break out in hives everytime I had to improvise at a Groundlings Sunday Show performance—oh, wait…yes, I do. I am an uptight control-freak asshole.
Anyway, what was fascinating to me about the film part of the SXSW equation was that it was my first experience with buzz—or the first time I was able to watch buzz play out in almost real time, because of the compacted time frame the festival provides.
Example: we were fairly interested in seeing Darkon, the feature documentary on a Baltimore-based live action role playing group, when we first looked at the schedule. (Well, The BF was, anyway. He’s got better film-dar than I.) But after two days of hearing people talk up Darkon, we put it on our must-see list. It did not disappoint. The filmmakers, who spent a year filming the players on and off the battlefields of Darkon, winning their trust and gaining access to some pretty intimate details of the players’ lives. As a result, the film offers a fascinating look both on the nature of the outsider (live action role playing is hardly a mainstream pursuit) and the basic human need for drama, connection and expression. There’s a sideshow factor, too, of course—it’s hard for most of us to relate to a group of grownups spending their weeks duct-taping their plywood and styrofoam shields for a weekend of ye olde combat and a chance at grabbing an imaginary slice of land in an imaginary realm. On the other hand, it’s no weirder than scrapbooking, shopping or—let’s face it—blogging as sport, so maybe I should lay off.
There was more fine, outsider action at The Last Western, a feature documentary about the rise and fall of a small “Western” town on the edge of the Mojave desert. Pioneertown was a fully-functioning Western movie set built by the Hollywood studios to facilitate filming. It was abandoned by the studios with the falling fortunes of the B-Western, but a number of inhabitants stayed on, creating a sort of Western Island of Misfit Toys. While a bit incohesive as a film, The Last Western does a fantastic job telling the stories of the individual dreamers, outcasts and iconoclasts who populate Pioneertown.
The residents of Small Town Gay Bar are outsiders for a different reason. Choosing to remain in their small, Bible Belt towns for whatever reason (this is never really explored or explained in the film), these gay men and women are (barely) tolerated at best, persecuted or killed at worst, and severely isolated at all times. Small Town Gay Bar is a fascinating look at the need for community and how it will out (no pun intended). The filmmakers do an incredibly thorough job interviewing the various denizens of small town Bible Best gay bars past and present, as well as showing the pressures they face from the community at large and a few especially vocal, intolerant entities in particular.
There are mainstream outsiders, too, of course. In the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, they were called “Democrats”, and they struggled mightily to find their collective voice and make it heard. Al Franken: God Spoke documents the plight of American liberal Al Franken, as he worked to save the American people from four more years of tyranny, lies and land-grabbing by the administration in power. I won’t lie to you: while often outright hilarious, Al Franken: God Spoke was the most depressing movie I saw at SXSW by a long shot, and I saw movies about gay men in the Bible Belt and transgender males in prison.
Oh, yes—what’s more fun than being a liberal in new millenial America? Being an enroute, transgender male in the U.S. penal (!) system. Cruel and Unusual is a look at the special degradation and horror the pre-surgical transgender male undergoes in prison. Aside from the obvious nightmare of having to be some bad man’s girlfriend, incarcerated transgenders are routinely denied treatment for their medically-recognized condition, suffering physical withdrawal and severe depression as a result of going off their hormone meds cold turkey. For its important message, I wish I could give Cruel and Unusual the unqualified thumbs up. Unfortunately, I came away feeling that while the subject matter is compelling, the film itself didn’t have a point of view other than “this is really awful.” I hope it finds life on public television as a special, where its mere reportage quality would serve the community, but I can’t really recommend it as a film.
I can, on the other hand, heartily recommend The Life of Reilly, a filmed version of actor/teacher extraordinaire Charles Nelson Reilly’s electrifying one-man stage show. Most of us of a certain age know Reilly as a mainstay of 70’s crap TV. (Most of the rest of you don’t know Reilly at all, which a funny montage in the movie takes pains to point out.) But Charles Nelson Reilly had a major career as an off-Broadway and Broadway actor before his TV years, and an active life during and after as one of America’s preeminent acting teachers (he took over Uta Hagen’s class when she died). Reilly is smart and funny and a consummate performer; while there are a few awkward “openings up” in The Life of Reilly, for the most part it is a hilarious, breathtaking telling of a fascinating life and a great insight into what makes performers tick.
My chief issue with Tales of the Rat Fink, the story of kar kulture icon Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, has to do with the opening up of its story. Director Ron Mann is known for his iconoclastic takes on documentary subjects, but there were so many crazy elements in Tales—animation, talking cars, strange interstitial bits—the end result felt a little disjointed. According to Mann, there was virtually no archival footage of Roth; when Roth died shortly after Mann started the project (it was shelved for some time), the director had to come up with some alternate way of telling the story. To be fair, the cut we saw on opening night had been rushed through to make the premiere, but I think there are structural issues beyond tightening up a few odd editing gaps. To be even more fair, I am on my third Toyota Corolla, which is to say I am so not a kar person. If you like kars—or cool illustration, which Ed Roth is also known for—you’ll probably love it.
The only narrative film we saw during our entire SXSW trip was The Notorious Bettie Page. We were mainly interested in seeing films that we weren’t sure would get distribution, and Bettie is scheduled for release in April. But we thought it would be fun to see at least one biggie before the general public, since that’s part of the thrill of the festival. For a thrill—and a fairly risque, fairly thrilling subject—The Notorious Bettie Page was pretty disappointing. The acting was solid and the cinematography was gorgeous (at least, I thought so—The BF was less impressed). But the script was pretty lame—lots of bad dialogue and a cringe-inducing first fifteen minutes—and the whole thing came off as more of a made-for-TV biopic than a great narrative film.
[ back to top ]
---------------------------------------------------
When you were young and growing up gay in suburbia in the 70's, there were two men on television who let you know you were not alone. They weren't openly gay but their wink, wink, nudge, nudge sensibilities made it perfectly clear to anyone who wanted to notice that they were different in their own way. One of these men was Paul Lynde. And the other was Charles Nelson Reilly. Lynde had the edge. Reilly was far more subtle and not quite as dark. Both men were hilarious and let you know that it was not okay to be different but, in fact, being unique could work to your advantage. This was not lost on me.
Reilly was best known for his work on TV's game show "Match Game," which ran for several years in the 70's, but he also guest starred on nearly every sitcom that ran that decade. And in addition to these, there was "Ghost and Mrs. Muir" reruns, Sid and Marty Kroft kids shows like "Lidsville," and a whole slew of commercials for Bic Banana pens. It was Reilly who taught me how to spell banana. With his trademark laugh as the exclamation point, he pointed out the advantages of the disposable ink pen while shouting out "B-A-N-A-N-A" in a voice so distinguishable from the other clatter on TV, you just had to look up and take notice.
Reilly is a hero of mine, a unique voice in a time when being "different" could get the shit beat out of you, a individual in a world that seemed to insist on conformity. It wasn't until years later that I realized just how important the man was, not only to me, but to the cultural history of the late 20th century.
"The Life of Reilly" is a filmed version of Reilly's long running one-man stage show called "Save It for the Stage," a phrase his mother used on him when he acted up in his youth. The play, and this film of it, is not what I expected. Reilly spends a long time talking about his childhood and his unusual family, many of whom had severe mental conditions. Reilly also talks about going to New York and beginning his long and distinguished stage career. And, finally, there is mention of his work as a theater acting teacher. These are areas of Reilly's life that seem almost unknown to the general public and his illumination of them is not only interesting and compelling, it funny as hell.
Reilly isn't just a pop culture icon, he is a founding member of the pop generation. The way he references pop culture, actors, directors, writers and artists to tell his tales here seems revolutionary. He describes his father for us in a few words and then opens us up to understanding the man even more by saying, "If this were a movie, he would be played by Hume Cronyn." The filmmakers show us a clips of Cronyn in an old black and white movie and immediately we understand what he is describing to us. He does this again and again in the performance to not only create an effect but to help his audience relate to his take. It's a wonderful and fun device that never ceases to draw us in.
When it comes to his TV career, Reilly says very little. And when it comes to his sexuality, he says even less. These aspects of his life are touched upon briefly, but not in the anecdotal ways in which we might hope. There are no hilarious stories about getting drunk with Richard Dawson and Brett Sommers while filming "Match Game." There's no mention of his work on "The X Files." And not once does he mention coming out, his first sexual experiences, his lovers or his partner. There is a minor mention of homophobia in his early TV career and he discusses how adults would talk about how he was "odd" as a child but little more is mentioned about this. It's slightly frustrating.
But CNR is a man from a different age than me. He comes from a time when gay men were closeted and quiet. Even with his hilarious use of innuendo and his seemingly "open" persona, the man just may not be comfortable talking about these things. He developed this show when asked to speak at schools about his career in show business, so maybe he didn't feel it was appropriate to discuss his sexuality in performance. Perhaps he feels it is the only normal part of his life and it isn't as compelling as the stories of his youth. Perhaps parts of it are too painful for him to relive. Whatever the reason, Reilly doesn't discuss his homosexuality here. It's easy to forgive this when you are familiar with his body of work. Early in his career, he tells us, a TV executive says "We don't queers on television." He doesn't have to tell us how wrong this man was. His whole career negates not only this one man's hate and homophobia, but a whole generation's. If it weren't for CNR and Paul Lynde and men like them, who knows where we would be now. Could there have been a "Real World?" A "Will and Grace?" A Logo network? Charles Nelson Reilly isn't just a gay man from the 70's. He was our mascot.
It doesn't matter what is missing here really, because what is here is simply jaw-dropping in its interesting qualities. Reilly's father's work as a artist for Paramount pictures, his father's meeting with Walt Disney, his mother's racism and craziness, his aunt's lobotomy, his survival of a circus tent fire as a child, his impressions of a young Hal Holbrook in a Mark Twain wig and on and on and on. Reilly is a hoot. He makes us guffaw nearly every time he opens his mouth. And when the topic on which he is speaking turns serious, he makes us laugh through the tears. His public speaking abilities tinged with the high art of showmanship and his thespian prowess make him one of the most interesting people to ever grace the stage alone. Fuck Holbrook as Twain. Fuck Robert Morse as Capote. Charles Nelson Reilly as himself is about the most interesting one man show to ever be seen. What a talent. What a life. What a hoot!
Charles Nelson Reilly - you're still a God amongst men to me and undoubtedly to a whole generation.
Note:
The one man show seen here was filmed over three nights in 2004. Reilly actually hadn't done the show for a while and was a bit ill but still puts on a performance that is astounding.
[ back to top ]
|
