{"id":10355,"date":"2022-03-17T19:48:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T19:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10355"},"modified":"2022-03-30T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:20:12","slug":"recalling-carl-reiner-and-his-favourite-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10355","title":{"rendered":"Recalling Carl Reiner and his favourite film"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 The late American comic and film director Carl Reiner, who was born 100 years ago today and died in 2020, made some classic comedies but he told me \u2018Dead Men Don\u2019s Wear Plaid\u2019 (above) was his favourite.<\/p>\n

The 1982 black-and-white picture starred Steve Martin as a private eye whose scenes with Rachel Ward (pictured below) were intercut with those from old movies featuring stars such as Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Brian Donlevy, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Charles Laughton, Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was,\u2019 Reiner said, \u2018the best idea for the sheer fun of making a picture I\u2019ve ever had. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever enjoy making a movie more.\u2019<\/p>\n

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We were speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1984 where his film \u2018All of Me\u2019, again starring Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin (photo below), was a big hit. It was a return to form for the two who had followed their initial box office smash \u2018The Jerk\u2019 with \u2018The Man With Two Brains\u2019 and the private-eye parody, which did not match Reiner\u2019s earlier success with the marvellous farce \u2018Where\u2019s Poppa?\u2019 and the George Burns hit \u2018Oh, God!\u2019<\/p>\n

Reiner was quite clear on why their second two films, both of which are both clever and hilarious, were flops with critics and audiences. \u2018Steve was a comedy hero to the kids for a long time,\u2019 he noted. \u2018They loved \u201cThe Jerk\u201d but then he gave them \u201cPennies From \"\"<\/a>Heaven\u201d and they were so surprised and disappointed that they didn\u2019t come out to see it even though it was quite an interesting picture. Then we did \u201cDead Men Don\u2019t Wear Plaid\u201d, which was a sophisticated comedy. It was funny but the kids who were his big fans didn\u2019t know Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Edmond O\u2019Brien and all those other people. Steve had left the kids twice to wonder about him. When we came back with \u201cThe Man With Two Brains\u2019, they did not trust that he would be the same Steve Martin even though he was. If that picture had come out right after \u201cThe Jerk\u201d, it would have been a big hit. I think now he\u2019s back where everyone can enjoy him. He\u2019s still funny but what happened is that along the way he did \u201cPennies From Heaven\u201d and he became an actor.\u2019<\/p>\n

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When he was hired to direct \u2018All of Me\u2019, Reiner was given a list of four or five comedians to choose from. \u2018We decided that Steve might be the most interesting because he has that physical ability but it\u2019s not exclusive to him,\u2019 Reiner said. \u2018It\u2019s an ability that Robin Williams possesses. Richard Pryor, being one of the great pantomimists in the world, would have been magnificent in it. Dick Van Dyke, when he was younger, I would have thought of immediately.\u2019<\/p>\n

The filmmaker said that if there was a concern about Martin, it was over his ability to carry off a romantic leading role besides the comedy. \u2018Steve has very deep feelings about women, you know,\u2019 Reiner said. \u2018He is a lover but he\u2019s also very private so he had to show that leading-man quality. And he did. One time, I was watching a scene from \u201cAll of Me\u201d on the moviola when he has on a tuxedo and he\u2019s running around looking silly for a few minutes. Then he\u2019s seen in repose and I said, \u201cMy god, that\u2019s Cary Grant!\u201d He really looked like Cary Grant.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 The late American comic and film director Carl Reiner, who was born 100 years ago today and died in 2020, made some classic comedies but he told me \u2018Dead Men Don\u2019s Wear Plaid\u2019 (above) was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1263,2257,1770],"tags":[5191,5187,5189,5188,5190,5186,5192,3130,2101],"class_list":["post-10355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","category-tiff-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-all-of-me","tag-dead-men-dont-wear-plaid","tag-rachel-ward","tag-the-jerk","tag-the-man-with-two-brains","tag-carl-reiner","tag-lily-tomlon","tag-steve-martin","tag-toronto-inernational-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10365,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10355\/revisions\/10365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}