Enter Laughing

Carl Reiner's debut feature 'Enter Laughing' deserves to be better known than it is. Very sweet, likable and often funny, it almost makes you wish a TV series had resulted from this where you could follow the further adventures of David Kolowitz as he continues his acting pursuits.

There are many fine performances from a standout cast but the highlight is Elaine May who is funny, sexy and charming as David's acting counterpart. Michael J. Pollard is also impressive in his too brief role.

The film has some minor flaws. It struggles to escape its stage origins and at times feels like a recording of a play instead of fully cinematic piece. It doesn't have a great 1930s feel to it, partly because of budget constraints and partly because several of the actors (especially Nancy Kovack) have 1960s hairstyles.

But overall, 'Enter Laughing' is a charming film, well worth seeking out.

A terrific movie whose human and humorous story is enlivened by an ensemble company of great character actors at the top of their form: Shelley Winters as the archetypal manipulative mom, Jack Gilford as the tough but sympathetic boss, Ferrer and May, Richard Deacon as the long-suffering stage manager, Michael G. Pollard as the best friend, and Don Rickles as the put-upon Harry Hamburger.

But Ferrer gets two of my favorite lines in all of cinema. Walking by as Rickles and Santoni exchange pants -- don't ask -- he says, "We don't GO for that sort of thing." And, forced to complement Santoni after a disastrous performance, he mutters to himself, "Thank God I'm an alcoholic!"

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.

Enter Laughing is based upon a book written by Carl Reiner on his own experiences breaking into show business. You would think that this would be hysterical, a worthy rival to the producers. But, this film declines to go in that direction. Instead, it is an delicately balanced blend of slapstick, satire, and pathos that suffers a bit from being a bit too gentle with its lead character.

A huge problem is the miscasting of Reni Santoni as Carl Reiner. Rob Reiner was in the film in a minor role. It remains a mystery to me why Rob was not given the lead; he is much more suited to it than the gentle Santoni.

Nevertheless, the supporting cast is terrific, most especially Elaine May, Jose Ferrer, Janet Margolin, Jack Gilford, Don Rickles, Nancy Kovack, David Opatoshu, and Shelley Winters. And, it will make you smile and titter, but not guffaw.

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."