User Reviews

I can easily see why THE COMIC failed to find mainstream success in 1969. I don't think it would find it if it was released NOW. Billy Bright is a 100% unlikable protagonist who never realizes he is the author of his own misery and loneliness. He takes his friends and loved ones for granted, and yet decries them as selfish, even beyond the grave.

And yet Bright's tragedy is made mesmerizing by Dick Van Dyke's performance. Van Dyke mixes charisma, sleaze, and delusion, making Bright feel so authentic. I bet Hollywood has plenty of Billy Brights living there today. Perhaps he is always with us.

Visually, THE COMIC is unexceptional: overlit and shot like a TV movie. The story structure is uneven and lumpy, losing some steam in the second half. However, there's much to recommend and the final scene is one for the ages, up there with CITY LIGHTS and The 400 BLOWS.

I guess I am a bit of an outlier, but this is just not a good movie. It was actually a pain to sit through, but you know how it is, once you are engaged, you hope things get better.

It's a story of a silent screen star that is still around (as of 1969) but forgotten, and one of a man who, near the end, even admits the obvious fact that he was willing to give up the love of his wife for the love of an audience.

Obviously inspired by the fact that Stan Laurel lived in Hollywood and was actually listed in the yellow pages, and fans would occasionally call him or even drop in on him and he was reportedly very gracious.

The movie is interspersed with black and white vignettes of his old movies, but they don't look like old movies, just black and white silents that look like someone APING old movies.

I don't know where to begin on this movie. The central character is not very interesting. He spoils his own wedding by making it into a movie, but the production aspects of the films are never really explored, and when shown on screen, they are not believable. It looks like one of the outside scenes was shot on the backlot street of "The Partridge Family" or "Bewitched". In fact, it is kind of shot like a television show. Nothing goes deep. It is supposed to be poignant, but it misses the mark.

Dick Van Dyke SHOULD be perfect for this, but I fault the story and the direction. Carl Reiner could be excellent, such as in "Oh God", but here, he really stinks up the place.

The latter portion of this film is comprised of very unfunny scenes. "Billy Bright" is being conned by a phony goldigger of a woman and her mother who Bright is scheduled to marry, but keels over (with a white eyed goofy pratfall) with a heart attack. They try to marry him when he is in an oxygen tent, but he can't get the "I do" out.....hilarious fun, right?

Occasionally, the script attempts to inject some "realism" and topicality into the movie, but it doesn't work either. For example, Steve Allen plays himself hosting a talk show, and has the "forgotten" Billy Bright on, and cheesily shills for someone to give old Billy a part...in SOMETHING. I don't know if Allen realized how the script was actually mocking HIM, but he comes off as a boob. It may have worked to convey the fickleness of Hollywood and the pandering of a talk show host, but instead, the scene keeps going to shots of another guest bizarrely mugging the camera in reaction to Billy Bright's statements. The film is staged horribly and edited worse. The other example is Bright's son shows up, also played by Van Dyke, very gay, who of course is a fashion designer. Jeez.

There is a great foundation for the relationship of Bright and his friend "Cockeye", but it never really gels and Rooney's squinty weird eye mannerisms grow stale very quickly.

During this portion the Billy Bright character is at his worst on many levels. The makeup with the greasy comb-over is awful. Van Dyke constantly seems to be chewing his cud. When he eats it is gross. He is constantly coughing, snorting, and sounding like he has snot in his mouth. At the end he just stares blankly at a screen watching what was his "hit" movie from 1926, and as the characters on screen wave goodbye, he continues to stare unemotionally--we are supposed to find the connection between the characters saying goodbye as a metaphor for him saying goodbye to the old days--and be moved that--and maybe it would have worked if Van Dyke showed ANY emotion, but he just stares off.

There's a reason few people remember this movie. And you know what that reason is.

... but Buster Keaton wasn't one of them. This film shows the tragedy of the silent era stars that were so young at the transition from silent film to sound - in their 20's and 30's - that they could not fathom that they had become obsolete overnight. Thus they would make the mistake of walking out in a huff on contracts that the studios were only too glad to vacate and only after the Great Depression really hit hard did they realize that their time in the spotlight was over with their fortunes gone and many turning to drink as solace. Dick Van Dyke plays silent comedian Billy Bright whose life pretty much follows this composite trajectory. Van Dyke was great at physical comedy, so he is perfect in this part as a silent film comedian whose downfall is partly his own doing and partly just the result of the march of time.

The film starts with Billy's funeral in 1969 with him doing his own commentary on the poor turn out and the eulogy as he looks on at the proceedings. At one point Billy Bright thinks back on what a great funeral he would have had if he had died in 1929 instead of 1969 - throngs of fans crowding around the church, women throwing themselves at the coffin, and one can't help but think of Rudolph Valentino who was the great lover of the silent era and who died suddenly in 1926. Had Valentino survived into old age, would he also have wound up forgotten and alone, living in a cheap room in near poverty, setting his alarm for 4:30 in the morning to get a glimpse of one of his old films on TV?

So many compare this story to that of Buster Keaton, and there are several similarities between Billy's and Buster's stories in just a few ways. The combination of Keaton's failed first marriage and his downfall at MGM did lead him to nearly drink himself to death, and he was quite the womanizer in the last years of his first marriage. He also wound up in a disastrous second marriage that was the result of one of his alcoholic benders. However, unlike Billy Bright, Keaton had a happy ending. His third marriage was very happy, lasting 26 years and only ending with his death. In the late 40's revivals of his silent films - most prominently the artistically brilliant box office failure "The General" - won him a whole new wave of popularity with many appearances on TV, supporting roles in films, and live performances that continued until shortly before his death. At the end of his life in 1966 he was very much living in the present not his past and in fact often said he dreaded reunions with silent film stars because many of them seemed to be stuck in the 1920's.

I would highly recommend this one to people interested in the sometimes tragic life of the silent film stars, but don't think of this as Buster Keaton's biography - it is not.

Who better to play a silent movie comic than Dick Van Dyke? In the 60's, his Bert in "Mary Poppins" and his Professor Potts in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" were homages (with sound, song, and dance) to the great silent stars of their day. Even on his legendary TV show, he emulated the great men (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, etc.) who were the creative geniuses behind silent movie comedy. What sadly is missing is a decent script. All of the formula plot developments of real life entertainment bios are present. It starts off fine, with Van Dyke showing up in his vaudeville clown outfit for his film debut, and then being told he needs to change his look. Along comes leading lady Michelle Lee (obviously based on Gloria Swanson in her early days as a bathing beauty, or possibly Mabel Normand) whom Van Dyke ends up marrying. Their marriage is a disaster, thanks to Van Dyke's drinking, carousing and egotism. It's no surprise when she leaves him and asks Van Dyke to allow her second husband to adopt their son.

There are definitely some moments of greatness. The whole funeral set-up is a wise choice, and the scene where Van Dyke doesn't even recognize his own son is heartbreakingly poignant. However, the silent footage doesn't look like silent movies; It looks like the rare black and white films Hollywood was occasionally making during this time, and as a result, its homage to the silent era suffers because of it. Mickey Rooney is wasted as "Cockeye", Van Dyke's pal obviously patterned on Ben Turbin. When Van Dyke's Billy makes a brief comeback (thanks to a hilarious commercial spoof featuring "The Jefferson's" Isabel Sanford), there is so much potential to provide a life lesson for the down-and-out clown, but that doesn't happen. The film simply lumps to an unsatisfying conclusion that includes him about to marry an obvious gold digger with a nagging mama ("The Music Man's" Pert Kelton) and the brief presence of Van Dyke as Billy Jr., an effeminate clothing designer, "Madame Lucinda". Kelton's brief participation is ironic considering her character's daughter is based upon characters she played at RKO in the 1930's. However, the gay reference with Billy Jr. is somewhat offensive and absolutely unnecessary.

Michelle Lee does all she can with her winning smile and bright personality to add some sunshine, but her character is really underdeveloped. More of her would have been nice, especially some sort of conclusion to the long-divorced couple's relationship in their older years. Those looking for a look at Hollywood life in the early days won't get much, and even as a "Sunset Boulevard" rip-off, it comes up short. Van Dyke fans won't be disappointed by his acting though. He is brilliant. It's just too bad he didn't have a better movie to be brilliant in.

No doubt it's a sad movie. From the intro sequence, it sets its taste fine; a flashback story, about a once-famous, then-forgotten, movie star, told by his funny voice-over from the world of death. It's great. The thing is when the movie gave up this taste; it was where it collapsed.

The second act showcases the lead's prime. He's a successful comedian in the age of silent movies, who has problems as a husband. So far so good, especially when it enjoys us, and itself, with showing some of his silent comic shorts, mostly remakes of real ones, as a nice tribute to that movies' comedy and stars.

However, at that act something assured that the taste wasn't right, or well balanced. For clear instance, there are 2 situations. The first is about how the lead, mistakenly due to his drunkenness, bursts into the wrong home by his car. And the second is about kidnapping, mistakenly as well, the wrong son. These moments are performed with heavy amount of sorrow, through loud painful music score, as if they're cruel melodrama, not frank comedy. In fact, the movie couldn't decide which taste to choose, so it put the 2 together.

We didn't get to see the problems which these stars used to face in their line of work. Capturing evidences for pioneering is an enough honoring I believe. I couldn't understand well why that lead was a lousy husband. Was he a womanizer drunk; as we see in the second act?, or was he busy working all the time; as he says in the third act?! The movie - again - couldn't decide, so - again - put the 2 together!

Then, the disastrous third act. Yes, it's the unhappy end, but look how the things were made. Suddenly, the voice-over vanished, the comedy died, the son, played meaninglessly by Van Dyke also, is gay (??), the lead urinates in the bathroom (???), and his greatest movie ever, Forget-Me-Not, which is shown as our movie's climax, turns out to be an idiot one; where nothing is distinct about it, being way weaker than the ones that were shown earlier (I don't know why they didn't come up with more valuable material?!), and while you're not expecting, the movie ends!

The best of it is the dead lead's dream of dying while being on the top, done as another short from the silent cinema. That creativity was missed for the rest of the movie. At one moment, I imagined how it would have been better if situations, such as the meeting with the agent in the restaurant, were portrayed the same way; close to the spirit of a scene like spotting Van Dyke and Michele Lee in the bed. At least it could have been more memorable and funny.

Dick Van Dyke, who adores the silent cinema and its icons (Stan Laurel in specific), wanted to make a movie about their art, and unfair endings after the cinema had spoken. But sorrowfully, the script of Aaron Ruben and director Carl Reiner was poor, confused, and so uneven; with a third act that seemed made for another movie. So with the capacities and sincerity of Van Dyke, trying to make a sufficient elegy for a terminated age's artists, then it's a first rate disappointment. Pretty sad indeed!

I recall when this film was first shown in 1969, that excerpts of the "silent" film segments were shown on THE TONIGHT SHOW to give the public an explanation of what the spoofing was. The film is a spoof of "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde", but the spoof is also a salute to an early Stan Laurel satire (without Oliver Hardy) called "Dr. Pickle and Mr. Pride". Dick Van Dyke was a fan of Stan Laurel (and even a friend of his at the end of the latter's life) and he and Reiner was saluting Laurel and other silent clowns who in their heyday were great stars but who ended on a somewhat reduced level.

Of the great silent film comics, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd were the luckiest: both were very wealthy men at the conclusion of their lives, and had lived long enough to be recognized by their film peers. Less lucky than them were Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, and Oliver Hardy. Keaton had fallen on hard times due to studio hostility, alcoholism, and his wife Natalie Talmadge's messy divorce (in which she kept his two sons). However, in the 1950s he made a tremendous comeback, and was (if not as wealthy as Chaplin or Lloyd) recognized as a film genius. Stan and Ollie were in demand as entertainers until ill health began plaguing them in the 1950s (Laurel looks very bad in their last film ATOLL K, and Hardy suffered a heart attack before his death in 1957). But neither was impoverished - Laurel having been smart enough to have bought annuities in his heyday. As for the others, Harry Langdon was employed up to his death in 1940 as a gag writer (he even appeared in ZENOBIA opposite Hardy). Raymond Griffith's damaged voice prevented him from continuing as a comic actor in sound films. After a stunning "silent" performance as the dying French soldier in the trench with Lew Ayres in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, he became a film executive. One can also note W.C.Fields sound film career which is better recalled than his silent film career - and Fields died well off in 1946.

But what of Snub Pollard, Chester Conklin, Hank Mann, and Ford Sterling? There were large numbers of popular comedians in the silent period who did not remain public favorites after sound came in. Even one great comic, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, was not a favorite - although a murder charge can do that. Still Arbuckle was trying to make a comeback at the time of his death in 1933.

THE COMIC was an attempt to show what happened to these film originals due to their personal/private problems and the changes in the film industry (especially due to the coming of sound). Billy Bright (Van Dyke) is one of the great silent comics, but he has marital problems with his wife Mary Gibson (Michele Lee): His extra-marital affairs, and her attraction to film director Frank Powers (Cornell Wilde). Even the birth of a son does not help. On top of that, his films (while artistically great) begin losing money at the box office. He ends a failure in a business that requires money as a symbol of success. In the end he is living in a single room apartment watching his old films, living on his memories.

The films copy elements of the great comic films. His masterpiece, FORGET-ME-NOT, is about an innocent man sent to prison, and is somewhat reminiscent of Laurel & Hardy's comedies THE SECOND HUNDRED YEARS and PARDON US. But Mary appears in it as the heroine (like Harold Lloyd, whose wife was his original co-star), and her role is of a blind girl (reminiscent of Virginia Cherrill in Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, and the heroine in Harry Langdon's THE STRONG MAN). Part of the fun of the film is trying to second-guess the films that are the basis of Van Dyke and Reiner's spoofs.

With Mickey Rooney as "Cockeye" (a fond remembrance of silent clown Ben Turpin), THE COMIC is a good film, and Van Dyke's strongest dramatic part.

One of the cruelest industries is the acting profession. You could win an Oscar and within a few years after be totally forgotten. Again sitting around my house flipping the channels and fell upon this out-of-left field movie. There we see our leading lanky silver screen idol Billy Bright played by Dick Van Dyke in all his glory and fame. Making Silent pictures with his storybook Wife/actress Mary Gibson-Bright, (Michelle Lee). They have a Son, mansion, money and fame . What they don't have is a stable Marriage which falls apart quickly after the completion of their best work together Marigolds which was a box office smash. Billy is thrown out of his home and the downward spiral of the Movie Business shifts to talkies and some silent stars forbid changing with the times by putting pride in front of necessity. Billy is thrown into obscurity with his buddy Cockeye played by Mickey Rooney which brings the film forward 40 plus years. All in all this movie shows the cruelties and missed opportunities of Hollywood and it's business practices. Carl Reiner wrote this story which I took as a made for TV movie but when I learned it was an actual movie played in various theater's I was shocked. In some ways this role that Mr. Van Dyke had taken was in tribute to one of his mentors the late Buster Keaton. The story in many ways mirrors Keaton's roller-coaster career as an original silent star giant and then making bad business decisions. Then Buster trusts the Studio heads with scripts. They would make changes against Keaton's approval which cause him to drink excessively. Divorce and not being able to visit his two children were part of the fallout from grace. As far as the movie was concerned, one scene in particular caught my interest. It was the long awaited meeting of Billy Senior and his estranged fashion designer effeminate son in which Van Dyke Played dual roles. One thing I personally liked about this movie is the constant cameos by familiar actors. Pert Kelton, Isabel Sandford, Geoff Edwards, Steve Allen, Janine Riley, Gavin McCloud, Jay Novello and effervescent Fritz Feld. FUN FUN FUN POP!! This story will hold your interest if you love Hollywood history!