The World's Greatest Sinner

Recommended to me by a complete and utter "World's Greatest Sinner" fanboy, I decided I should check it out. He said something like, "If you're a fan of insane acting performances you will not be let down." Hell, I love insane acting performances! Probably more than the next guy. F that, way more than the next guy! So, the WGS Fanboy, or he may be a Timothy Carey fanboy....anyways, WGS/Tim Carey fanboy called me out pretty much. So, the next chance I had, I popped on The World's Greatest Sinner. And I'll tell you what, it was most definitely an insane acting performance. One so great, that it made the movie. It is the movie.

The film is simply about a tired Insurance Salesman who just doesn't want to do what he does anymore. He wants to be a somebody. And does he ever. He strives for power, and before he knows it, he has it. Watching Carey's character evolve from an everyday joe shmoe to uber-personality is basically the premise here.

The film itself is a smart flick. Some other comment said it was ahead of it's time, but it's not really that, but it's more of a timeless film. People don't change in the way Carey's character did in just one period. Carey's strive for power and attention is a trait humans have had and probably will have until we expire as a species.

I had no clue who Timothy Carey was prior to watching TWS. I heard he was a regular as a supporting character in a few Kubrick films. So, heading into this film, I didn't know what the dude even looked like. And boy oye oye, after seeing this film, I'll never forget. Timothy Carey is a tall, foreboding and masculine figure that delivers a style of acting which is just 100% unique. His tedious and realistic approach at acting is kinda bizarre to watch. But like I just said, it's unique. At times, with those sullen looking eyes and his relaxed way of talking, I almost thought he played his character drunk the entire film. But, when he has a scene where he needs to show emotion and energy, he's all over it. Simply put, if Carey didn't cast himself as the lead in his film (wrote, directed, acted etc.) this movie would have been in no way on Earth as entertaining.

The World's Greatest Sinner is only a fantastic movie, because at that time, The World's Greatest Under-appreciated Actor was in it. It's a film that's different, realistic and true to the bone. Definitely a flick I'll be recommending to my more accomplished movie-going friends.

If only because Tim Carey made this film nearly single-handedly on and off over three years, it would merit study. But The World's Greatest Sinner has so much more than that to recommend it! How can you fault a film about an insurance salesman who quits his job to become a rock star, changes his first name to "God", and run for President?

So much has been written about The World's Greatest Sinner that it is hard to separate it from its own mythical standing.

Timothy Carey portrays Clarence Hilliard, an insurance salesman who abruptly quits his job in a spectacular fashion. Sitting at home, contemplating his life, he wanders the town and comes across a Mexican rock and roll band. Intrigued by the spectacle and its effect on the gathered audience, he begins formulating his future. With help from his gardener, he puts on a fake goatee and carries a guitar with him as he stands on street corners, preaching his message of "every man is his own god" and soon finds himself with an ever-growing audience eager to hear more. He changes his name to "GOD" and begins his ascent into the world of politics.

TWGS was made at a time when independent films made without the financing of a studio simply didn't exist. There were no kickstarter campaigns, film schools, underground distribution networks, etc. The film pre-dated the exploitation boom of the mid to late sixties and existed in a universe where so-called underground films were still called "art" films and screened alongside nudie pictures and European imports. Carey wrote the screenplay in 1956 and spent the next 5 years gathering funds and shooting haphazardly whenever he could afford to. Many of the people involved with the movie never received payment for their involvement (most notably a then-unknown Frank Zappa, who wrote and performed the title song and score, and later badmouthed the film on The Steve Allen show in 1963, calling it "the world's worst movie.") Tim Carey originally wanted another director along the lines of John Cassavetes or Stanley Kubrick to direct the movie, but realizing that he could not afford to hire anyone, took to directing it himself. He also cut and edited the movie and handled all of the post-production work. He was never satisfied with the movie and continued editing it up until his death in 1994.

Carey never found a proper distributor for the movie and it was only screened a handful of times in 1963. A later cut of the film is the one that most people have seen, having floated around as a bootleg on VHS and later shown on TMC in 2008. This version had a color title sequence and the hand-colored ending sequence that Carey felt was integral to the film. His son, Romeo Carey owns the rights to the film and has stated that he will one day release the original director cut of the movie, but it still remains unviewed since its original screening.

Critics panned the movie unanimously, which is probably what made it impossible to find a distributor. It was called "vile", "anarchic", anti-religious, amateurish and just plain "stupid." John Cassavetes loved the movie however, calling it one of his favorites.

Nowadays, many agree with Cassavetes, who stated that the movie was just too ahead of its time to be understood by audiences of the early 60's. He may have been right, but as Romeo Carey pointed out, the movie was not ahead of its time, it was in fact a time capsule that captured a unique look at an America that was stuck between the rise of Elvis and the birth of Beatlemania. The country was getting over the Korean War and had yet to experience the polarization of Vietnam. Beatniks were about to become hippies and the "I Like Ike" republican era was giving way to Kennedy's comparatively liberal generation. If anything, TWGS is a documentary of an America in flux.

Critics of the time also scoffed at the notion that a rock and roll-styled punk would ever garner a religious following or ascend into the political machine with such ease. It wasn't long before people like Charles Manson and Jim Jones were recognized as the type of "rock star guru" that could influence, and even brainwash, their followers. The slogan "man is his own god" would become pervasive in a few short years, and groups like the Church of Satan and The Nation of Islam would loudly proclaim that same message. The irony was not lost on Carey himself, who insisted that the film was just as relevant in 1993 as it was in 1963.

For all of its faults, including poor editing, shoddy audio and subpar performances from some of the supporting cast, it still feels like a sort of autobiographical documentary- not quite out of step with A Hard Day's Night or D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back. And it goes without saying that Carey's performance in the title role is untouchable. Nobody but him could have pulled it off. It's like watching a train wreck slowly unfold; you're pretty sure how it's all going to end but you can't stop watching while it happens.

I'm not usually so pompous when describing movies, but TWGS is a movie that opened my eyes to something I can't quite put my finger on.

Recently I had the privilege of viewing a poor quality bootleg videotape of this film. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

For starters, I'm not one to typically enjoy cult classics or films that are in the "so-bad-they-are-good category." My initial attraction to this film was based on one thing - Timothy Carey.

I first learned of Timothy Carey when I purchased a Stanley Kubrick DVD of "The Killing". Carey has a small but important role in this film, and the minute he first appeared on screen I knew there was something special about this guy. There was a magnetic bizarreness to him that simply transcended the role. The character he played didn't have to be creepy, but Carey _was_ creepy. The weird way he looked with his eyes almost always at half mast, the way he spoke with his peculiar voice and heavy New York accent, and his unconventional looks (like a bizarro version of John Turturro) all worked together to really pique my curiosity about him.

Well, onto the Internet I went. I found out more about him. He made a living generally playing seedy characters in supporting roles in all movies he appeared in, except for one. "The World's Greatest Sinner" would be not only his sole staring role, but also the only movie he wrote, produced, and directed. And never released.

Once I got a chance to watch the bootleg, I could see why it never received a proper release in its day.

Carey plays an insurance salesman that is seemingly depressed and bored with his job and life and decides to change. He gets inspired by rock-n-roll, becomes a rock star of sorts, a preacher, a politician, and finally sells himself as God to his cult of followers.

This movie has some pretty dark humor, at least one shocking scene (even by today's standards, never mind 1962), and takes some potshots at organized religion.

Maybe the thing that struck my the most about this movie is it's vitality. It feels fresh, which is so different than how many older movies hold up. This is because this film was and continues to be so far ahead of its time.

If you are a fan of cult movies, I urge you to track this film down. If you are a fan of offbeat actors, ala Dennis Hopper, Crispin Glover, etc., I urge you to track this film down.

It certainly is a sin that this wonderful movie is not available through normal channels.

"The World's Greatest Sinner" is a failure, but a glorious failure. Tim Carey had a huge idea. A fantastic idea. But working without a budget and outside the Hollywood mainstream doomed that idea and turned it into one of the most ambitious and frustrating B-movie projects I have ever seen.

The problems with this film are many. The editing and sound are horrendous from start to finish. Abrupt doesn't begin to cover most of the transitions. Unrelated shots pop up in the most unnerving places. The soundtrack is either loud to the point of distortion or so low and garbled as to be nearly unlistenable. Which, in most cases, should kill the movie before it starts. But in this particular case the problems almost work as high art, keeping the viewer in a state of confusion that mirrors the confusion of Clarence.

The acting is spotty. Tim Carey is totally over the top and melodramatic throughout, but oddly compelling. The supporting cast runs the gamut from horribly amateurish to passably good, and in two cases (the old woman follower and Clarence's "publicity man") very good.

The word that is most often used to describe this film is "surreal". And it's appropriate. The jump cuts, odd camera work and overall feel of the film make it a truly unique experience to watch. And the Frank Zappa soundtrack add mightily to the whole otherworldly tone of the film. The soundtrack was performed by The Pomona Valley Symphony Orchestra, who seem to be having quite the struggle to play Zappa's score. The score fits the film very well, overall. Shows that Zappa could have been a great film composer if his interest had lain in that direction.

I see similarities between "Sinner" and Elia Kazan's "A Face In The Crowd". One man's ascension to power while descending into a personal hell. While "Crowd" is, clearly, a massively better film, Carey's idea and vision for "Sinner" could have, with more talent, enough budget, and better character development made a film to equal Kazan's.

Ultimately "The World's Greatest Sinner" is certainly interesting, and well worth a watch but ultimately exists as a frustrating textbook example of the worst case scenario of indie films:A fantastic idea frustrated at every turn by the realities of filmmaking.