Enter Laughing

"Enter Laughing" is a delightful film based on Carl Reiner's book about his own early show business experiences.

The 1967 film stars Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jose Ferrer, Jack Gilford, Don Rickles, David Opatashu, Janet Margolin, and introduces the attractive Reni Santoni as "Don Coleman," aka David Kolowitz.

The film I believe is supposed to take place in the late 1930s - the first frame is a 1938 Photoplay cover of Tyrone Power - but in all honesty, the clothing and atmosphere only suggest that era.

David is a young man living at home, and his parents want him to be a pharmacist. He's not thinking about much of anything except getting laid.

He works for a more than tolerant boss (Gifford), flirts with a beautiful secretary in the building (Nancy Kovack, who became Nancy Mehta) and sneaks time on the phone with his girlfriend (Margolin) and imitating Ronald Coleman to her.

David decides to try acting and goes to a drama school audition. The school is actually a playhouse run by the seen better days Harrison Marlowe (Jose Ferrer) and his too old to be an ingenue but she's one anyway daughter Angela (Elaine May) starring in a play currently running.

At the moment, they're short a leading man. Looking over the prospects - "Clark Baxter," "Spencer Reynolds" and "Don Coleman," she wants Coleman. Unfortunately, David (as Coleman) auditions by reading the stage direction "Enter laughing" as a line.

The hilarity then begins, with David trying to learn an entire script in two days, never having acted before, trying to find his way on stage and being literally thrown on by the stage manager and practicing love scenes with Angela.

The cast is a riot, and if Santoni is a bit wrong for the role, so be it. He has a sweetness and a guilelessness that come across very well. He went on to enjoy a prolific television career and today, at 69, he's still working.

The acting is great, with Elaine May hilarious as Angela, Shelley Winters and David Opatoshu wonderful as his long-suffering parents and Gifford as his boss. Ferrer as the insufferable Marlowe is perfect.

The comedy remains fresh after 40 years. Recommended.

This film is a classic thanks to a superb and wonderful cast, headed by newcomer then, Reni Santoni. Unless you've had an interest in becoming an actor, you probably won't enjoy the film as much. However, if you ever wanted to be a famous actor or a famous "somebody," this is your movie. The story is set back in the late 1930's about a young man just out of high school who decides he wants to be an actor. His parents, of course, are dead set against the idea. They want him to go to "pharmacy school" to become a druggist. David (Reni Santoni) is determined to become an actor even if it kills him. He starts going to acting school at a local run-down theatre owned by Jose Ferrer. There he begins acting lessons with instructor Ferrer and his daughter Elaine May, in some of the film's funniest moments, as they prepare David for his debut on stage. This is a great film with a great cast that includes Shelley Winters, another then newcomer Don Rickles, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Janet Margolin, Rob Reiner, and the very pretty Nancy Kovack. The finale of the film had me rolling on the floor with tears in my eyes from laughing so much. The previous reviewer criticized the casting of Reni Santoni, but this was perfect casting in every way. I love the film and highly recommend it.

This is a poignant, funny, coming of age film, based loosely on Carl Reiner's introduction to show business during the depression. Teenage David decides to become an actor to the dismay of his mother, played superbly by Shelley Winters, as an ever-suffering Jewish Mom ("Whatever makes you happy"). There are great performances by Jack Gilford as David's old-world boss, worried that he may be mixed up with an Italian girl ("Wanda, I think", he tells David when she calls). Mel Ferrer and Reni Santoni have a hilarious scene, on which the title is based, where David is given the stage direction "Enter Laughing", and does his best to comply, with no success. It brought tears to my eyes. Elaine May sets up punch lines like a pro, and Janet Margolin is adorable as the girlfriend, and Don Rickles has a nice, small role, that suits him well.

The screenplay sounds like it was written by Neil Simon. It should have gotten more recognition. Well Worth seeing.

The first few minutes of this movie were nearly perfection. And while the level of humor couldn't be sustained all the way through, since there had to be more dramatic and romantic moments in the middle, there is some truly great material here. The play within a play was the funniest I had seen since "Noises Off"--David may have entered, but we were the ones laughing.

All of the leading performers did such a good job it's hard to single anyone out. One exception is the actors in the play, but then they were supposed to be bad, which means they were good. The first actor to speak in in the play, however, did an excellent job.

Because of my familiarity with these people, I felt Don Rickles and Jack Gilford stood out. I actually did not know Jack Gilford for years except as the man in the Cracker Jack commercials, but I think he did a fine job here. Don Rickles only had two scenes, but his performance in one of them was one of the best of the movie. Hilarious. And he and David set up one of the best quotes.

Jose Ferrer also made an impact. Yes, he had good reason to yell half the time.He did it very well. Overall, his may have been the standout performance.

I didn't recognize Rob Reiner, son of director Carl, and forgot to look for him until I saw the closing credits. Fortunately, this was on my TiVo. He was one of those auditioning for the role David got. Only a couple of lines, but he was pretty good. No sign he would become great, but looking at him a second time, he could have done more.

This movie had lots of great music, like so many of the era. People just don't know everything Quincy Jones was capable of.

This was a real winner.

I've seen this movie several times over the years. There are a lot of good, dependable familiar-face comic actors in this. I never heard of the lead, Reni Santori, before or after, but he was quite OK. Shelley Winters plays his mother. Mr. Santori wants to become a Great Actor and attends a joke of an acting school headed by Jose Ferrer and his not-quite-young daughter, Elaine May, and they provide the funniest parts. Poor Former Great Actor Jose Ferrer is a cynical, washed up, bitter drunken individual who, faced with his paying client, looks on aghast while he auditions (under the name of 'Don Coleman'). And he sips from a straw from a pocket flask and mutters, 'AND THEY WONDER WHY I DRINK!'. Supposedly set in the 30's (in no way that I can detect) because it is based on Carl Reiner's memoirs from that time. The opening night performance is equally hilarious. Otherwise, the in-between parts, the mundane romance bits, kind of drag on, but when it's funny, it is FUNNY. Well worth a look.

"Hello......you."