The Comic (1969) The late great comedy writer-director Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke thought of this obscure film they made together as a "lost" movie.......ignored by audiences and short changed by its studio, Columbia, which couldn't wait to stick it on a drive-in double feature and forget about it.......
We hate to be the one to disagree with those two mighty talents, but when we finally caught up with "The Comic" we fully understood why it arrived in theaters stillborn and instantly forgotten.....
Ambitious in conception, but crude, cheap and artless in execution, it did nothing but leave a sour taste in our mouth while checking our watch to see how much time we'd wasted on it......
What Reiner and Van Dyke attempted to create here was a sprawling Old Hollywood tale of the rise and fall of a silent film comedian.......(whose rocky, ragged backstory they took mostly from the real life of Buster Keaton)
They'd hoped to evoke the long ago era when Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and others convulsed America in guffaws with their one reel silent slapstick comedies, filled with intricate balletic physical humor that's still stunning to look at today.
But Reiner, primarily a straight ahead, go-for-the-joke sitcom director, possessed no real cinematic skills to bring any sense of style, artistry or subtle subtest to this story.
"The Comic", with the exception of its clever re-creations of silent one-reelers, looks like a backlot, slapped together made-for-TV movie, like a low-budget variety show with delusions of profundity.
'Billy Bright', the silent movie star played by Van Dyke, is a egotistical jerk from the moment we set eyes on him, so powerfully consumed by his own self-regard that his grim path through life is pre-ordained. For the rest of the film, we follow the ups and downs of his career as he's undone by booze and infidelity to his long suffering wife. (Michelle Lee)
All the dramatic scenes play like hastily staged TV skits minus the laughs, but as we previously mentioned, there's one genuine highlight - an extended collection of Billy Bright's greatest slapstick hits. Reiner and Van Dyke's adoration of these classic comedians and their riotous work is lovingly rendered in this sequence.....(we especially admired the one where Billy Bright causes no end of chaos by strolling down the street without realizing there's an entire coat rack stuck on his back....)
Without any ability to make itself look like a real movie, the film turns downright bizarre in its final scenes depicting Billy's slide into old age and obscurity.......including a distasteful moment in which Billy can barely mask his contempt and disgust when he briefly meets his long estranged son (also played by Van Dyke) who's presented as a mincing, gay fashion designer.
While here at BQ, we always pride ourselves on seeking out long lost films that might deserve your attention.......in this case we found one you can easily skip. But if you should come across it, we'd recommend at least watching those black-and-white one-reeler imitations, for which we'll hand out this film's one and only star (*)
Fast forward through the rest of it.
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