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Reviews
M*A*S*H, Tootsie & God: A Tribute to Larry Gelbart (1998)
Caduceus Wild
Larry Gelbart is one of the few, authentic geniuses ever to toil in the rag and bone shop of American mass entertainment. From the literate whimsy of "Duffy's Tavern" to the excoriating outrage of "M*A*S*H"; from co-authoring, with the late Burt Shevelove, the funniest musical comedy script ever written ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum") to writing alone what may be the second funniest ("City of Angels"); from the ridiculously sublime (Sid Ceasar) to the sublimely ridiculous ("Oh, God!," "Tootsie," "Movie Movie"); from the most screamingly hilarious theatrical farce of the 1970s ("Sly Fox") to the dizzyingly word-playful "Mastergate"; from the riotous, rueful hilarity of "Barbarians at the Gate" to the deeply disturbing black comedy of "Power Failure" and "Weapons of Mass Distraction." Few screenwriters since the heady days of Billy Wilder, Samson Raphaelson, and Preston Sturges have had Gelbart's literacy or sure comic touch. Whenever you hear a cliche beautifully malapropped, mangled, or port-manteaued in the mouth of a comic character, chances are Larry Gelbart wrote it. He's non pariel. This splendid tribute will help explain why.
Hot Millions (1968)
A bloody miracle
If there were two more charming performers than Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith appearing together in a more charming movie in 1968, I don't know who they were. I first saw this delightful little satiric gem 25 years ago at the age of 16, and I consider any year in which I have failed to sit down to watch it again a wasted one. It's intelligent, quirky, neat, wistful, sweet, gently subversive, and utterly enchanting. The romance of these two social misfits is both richly comic and terribly moving - never more so than in Maggie Smith's desperate attempt to bring up the right card in the deck, a scene that's both ruefully funny and a perfect thumbnail portrait of heartbreaking loneliness. And that final freeze-frame on the anxious, concerned, loving face of Ustinov as he asks, "Are you all right?" - has anyone ever made the look and sound of devotion so perfectly and nakedly honest? I would never want to know anyone well who didn't love this movie.