The Great Man

When I was a kid in the 1960's, my father came back from Las Vegas smitten with a singer he had seen in one of the casino showrooms. Her name was Julie London.

I hadn't seen or heard of London again until I saw this film on TCM one night. I immediately agreed with my father. She, and the rest of the cast, were great in this movie.

Ed Wynn, who I also remember from my childhood as a comic fool on 1960's TV, turns in what in my opinion was an Oscar winning performance as the oddball manager of a religious radio station in a small town. His son, Keenan Wynn, turns in his usual loud, braying performance as an abrasive talent manager. And Jose Ferrer was impeccable as the man in the middle, who has to decide between honesty and cash.

I agree with another reviewer that the sound quality was terrible. I watched it with closed captioning, and the word "(unintelligible)" popped up more often than it should. But it doesn't distract from the context, which is fascinating. I highly recommend this forgotten gem.

This is a very interesting film for a variety of reasons. In many ways, it's a CITIZEN KANE knock-off, but sometimes in reverse. We see the reporter who is putting together the story of the great man, but we never see the great man himself. As in "Kane," the ex-wife is an alcoholic singer. There is also a "Rosebud" of sorts-a deathbed obscenity. Well worth watching!

Just as Charlie Kane was based on William Randolph Hearst, great man Herb Fuller was based on TV and radio icon Arthur Godfrey. I believe several of the story lines in Great Man paralleled events in Godfrey's life. The one that stands out involved a `boy singer' that was fired by Herb Fuller. In real life Arthur Godfrey fired `boy singer' Julius LaRosa. I have heard that Godfrey – the `old redhead' was none too pleased with Jose Ferrer's film.

There is a brilliant scene in the film where the hard-boiled, cynical reporter Joe Harris (Jose Ferrer) meets a former employer of great man Herb Fuller, the guy who gave Fuller his start in broadcasting. Harris and his secretary make fun of Paul Beaseley (veteran actor Ed Wynn, who only has this one scene), a doddering old bumpkin who owns a small radio station in New England. Beaseley tells a story that reveals the two sides of Herb Fuller – a folksy, down-to- earth radio personality that people love on the one hand and a mean-spirited, drunken rat bastard on the other. At the end of the scene Beaseley says something like, `I know that some people find me ridiculous' and Harris, no longer mocking Beaseley, replies, `Mr. Beaseley, I don't find you ridiculous at all'. This is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.

A radio broadcaster and news commentator named Herb Fuller is injured and later dies in the hospital with word according to his doctor Edward Platt that aren't fit for broadcast. The radio network that he worked for has a vested interest in the personality of Fuller and what do they do. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance editor Carleton Young had the ready answer about when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

Entertainment journalist Jose Ferrer is chosen to host a special radio tribute broadcast and it's put out through the grapevine that Ferrer could be the replacement for The Great Man. All Ferrer has to do is put together a show that fosters the legend of the late Mr. Fuller.

Easier said than done because all Ferrer comes up with in talking to those around him is what a no good rat this guy was. The man had not a sincere bone in his body, a two perfect two faced Janus with one face for the public and a completely different one for those who knew him.

Ferrer who directed this film as well as starred in it made sure that the supporting cast was a good one with some unforgettable roles. Ferrer the director was not interested in this being simply a star vehicle for the actor. He got some great performances out of people like Dean Jagger as the network president, Keenan Wynn as the manager of the late Mr. Fuller and Ferrer's manager, Julie London as Fuller's ex-wife, a drunken washed up nightclub singer and Ed Wynn as the eccentric radio station owner where Fuller got his start.

Keenan Wynn is especially interested. He's working on one grand agenda of his own. He's as cynical a human being as has ever been portrayed on the big screen, but in a really key scene with Ferrer he puts the final kibosh to the legend of Herb Fuller and shows he's got a really good reason for his cynicism. It's one of Keenan Wynn's best moments on the big screen.

The Great Man has been compared to Citizen Kane and rightly so. Unlike Kane where those who are digging for the facts are bland and faceless with the accent on the recollections by the survivors of Charles Foster Kane and the portrait they create of Kane in their flashbacks. Here we have no flashbacks, the accent is on how Ferrer deals with them giving them the real story on the legend and what he will do with it. The following year Elia Kazan in A Face In The Crowd took a different approach. We see the legend of Lonesome Rhodes built up by Andy Griffith and how it destructs in the end with Patricia Neal seeing it as a public duty.

Citizen Kane, A Face In The Crowd, and The Great Man and for that matter The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are all really about the same topic, the difference between public personalities and the private lives behind them. The Great Man for some reason has been sadly neglected unlike the other three films. That is a pity because it is a film with great performances and some interesting things to say.

Jose Ferrer should be better known as a director. Yes, it has some of the plot of Well's Kane, but it has more of the feel of a Jack Webb flick, he himself a greatly under rated director. Even Julie London, Webb's wife is in it.. Hard boiled hero, quirky supporting characters that are given a rounded humanity, and a great cast. See this film when it plays on Turner. And check out Webb's non Dragnet films; 30, the DI, Pete Kelly's Blues and The last time I saw Archie.