It's the funeral of forgotten silent film era comedic icon Billy Bright (Dick Van Dyke). It is lightly attended by old colleagues. The movie goes back to the beginning when he left Vaudeville to go into the moving pictures. Frank Powers is the director. Mary Gibson (Michele Lee) and Martin 'Cockeye' Van Buren (Mickey Rooney) are his co-stars.
I really love Chaplin-like melodrama during the silent era. The moustache talk is great and kidnapping the wrong son is absolute perfection. The older Billy has one main issue. Why would a young girl try to marry a poor old man? It makes a little more sense if the mom tries to marry him. At least, give the girl a drug problem or something. He could be feeding her habit. As it stands, she has nothing to gain from marrying him unless he still has money. His home certainly doesn't look like it. On the other hand, I love his relationship with Cockeye and their game on the Walk of Fame. More could have been done with the son and I'm uncertain about playing duo roles. It's a showy scene rather than a poignant scene. It needs to be a poignant scene. This is an early directing effort from Carl Reiner who also co-wrote the movie. It's really good.
I really love Chaplin-like melodrama during the silent era. The moustache talk is great and kidnapping the wrong son is absolute perfection. The older Billy has one main issue. Why would a young girl try to marry a poor old man? It makes a little more sense if the mom tries to marry him. At least, give the girl a drug problem or something. He could be feeding her habit. As it stands, she has nothing to gain from marrying him unless he still has money. His home certainly doesn't look like it. On the other hand, I love his relationship with Cockeye and their game on the Walk of Fame. More could have been done with the son and I'm uncertain about playing duo roles. It's a showy scene rather than a poignant scene. It needs to be a poignant scene. This is an early directing effort from Carl Reiner who also co-wrote the movie. It's really good.