By Ray Bennett
Carl Reiner greeted me in his hotel room in Toronto and said, ‘Steve Martin is your No. 1 fan.’
Performers become fans of critics, of course, only when we write something they like. Their film ‘All of Me’ is an agreeably silly piece of nonsense in which the soul of a bitter old woman named Edwina, played by Lily Tomlin, intended for a beautiful young woman named Terry, played by Victoria Tennant (pictured with Martin) is transferred instead into the body of a young lawyer played by Martin. Edwina controls the right side of his body and he controls the left so that for him just to walk down the street is like a three-legged race on two feet. I thought his performance was hilarious and wrote that he was the funniest physical comedian since Charlie Chaplin. ‘He loved that,’ Reiner said.
Martin and Reiner, joined by Lily Tomlin, were in town for the Toronto International Film Festival in 1984. Tomlin did not recall that she had written to me years earlier when in the Windsor Star, I wrote a rave review of a TV special that included a negative remark about her previous specials. It didn’t occur to me that, coming from Detroit across the river, someone she knew might see it. Her note was curt: ‘What do you mean, out of her depth?’
Martin did not recall us meeting before. The memory of how I introduced Martin Short to Steve Martin still cracks me up. It was backstage at the live ‘The Pee Wee Herman Show’, long before the Tim Burton movie, at the Roxy Theatre in May 1981.
My friend Anne Lockhart, who starred as Sheba in the original ‘Battlestar Gallactica’ and has been the PA voice on ‘Chicago Fire’ throughout its run, had worked with Herman on Steve Martin’s third NBC TV special and when the show was over, she took me back to meet them.
I was chatting with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters when I noticed Martin Short nearby with Steven Kampmann, who would go on to co-star in “Newhart”.They had worked together in Canada on “SCTV” and at “Second City” in Toronto where my friend and longtime colleague Bruce Blackadar, who covered nightlife amongst other things for The Toronto Star, had introduced me to Martin Short. I turned to say hello to Short and gathered that they hoped for an introduction.
I beckoned them over and declared, “Steve, Martin – Steve Martin’. Still gives me a chuckle.
Reiner and Martin’s first comedy, ‘The Jerk’, was a hit but their second two – ‘Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid’ and ‘The Man with Two Brains’ flopped with critics and audiences. That was about to change with ‘All of Me’ and Reiner knew it.
They came up with the idea of ‘Dead Man Don’t Wear Plaid’, a private-eye parody in which Martin’s scenes were intercut with scenes from old movies. ‘It was,’ Reiner said, ‘the best idea for the sheer fun of making a picture I’ve ever had. I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy making a movie more.’ The film did not do well but Reiner said he knew why: ‘Steve was a comedy hero to the kids for a long time. They loved “The Jerk” but then he gave them “Pennies From Heaven” and they were so surprised and disappointed that they didn’t come out to see it even though it was quite an interesting picture.
‘Then we did “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”, which was a sophisticated comedy. It was funny but the kids who were his biggest fans didn’t know Alan Ladd and all those people. Steve had left the kids twice to wonder about him. When we came back with “The Man With Two Brains’, they did not trust that he would be the same Steve Martin even though he was. If that picture had come out right after “The Jerk”, it would have been a big hit. I think now he’s back where everyone can enjoy him. He’s still funny but what happened is that along the way he did “Pennies From Heaven” and he became an actor.’
Reiner said that when he was hired to direct ‘All of Me’, he was given a list of four or five comedians to choose from: ‘We decided that Steve might be the most interesting because he has that physical ability.’
If there was a concern about Martin, it was his ability to carry off a romantic leading role besides the comedy, Reiner said: ‘He has very deep feelings about women, you know. He is a lover but he’s also very private so he had to show that leading-man quality. And he did. One time, I was watching a scene from “All of Me” on the Moviola when he has on a tuxedo and he’s running around looking silly for a few minutes. Then he’s seen in repose and I said, “My god, that’s Cary Grant!” He really looked like Cary Grant. Steve has grown into his own skin, I think. This picture came along at a good time for him and for me, and I think for the audience too. Steve Martin never ceases to surprise me. He never plays it safe. If he thinks a joke has been done before, he’ll say let’s do something else. He always goes for the non-cliché.’
Martin told me he did not wish to denigrate the earlier films he’d made with Reiner ‘but I had always hoped for a funny comedy. That’s what I kept looking for: a funny comedy. I think “All of Me” is one that works best. It certainly qualifies to a certain standard that I’ve always hoped for. I feel that it has a cohesiveness that the other pictures don’t even though I like my old films. This one is solidly built where the others were still experimental.’