The World's Greatest Sinner

You may not remember his name, but actor Timothy Carey has one of those lugubrious faces that once seen, you're not likely ever to forget. No actor in Hollywood had a visage like Timothy Carey. His career as an actor spanned nearly half a century. His first acting part was in 1951 his last role was in 1990. In all, he appeared in a mixture of shorts, feature films and television shows: 87 titles in all. In the late fifties, Timothy Carey decided to make his own film. He would write the screenplay, play the lead character and direct it himself. That film was "The World's Greatest Sinner" In it, Carey plays a disgruntled insurance salesman named Clarence Hilliard, who quits his job to go into politics. First he forms a rock band, which in turn becomes a religious cult; where everybody has to address him as God Hilliard. Eventually he manages to form a new Political Party. Considering "The World's Greatest Sinner" was made in 1962, it was quite daring for its time, especially when it came to the scenes of older women being seduced by the Clarence Hilliard character to get them to hand over their savings. (Six years later, Mel Brooks treads a similar path in his film "The Producers" by having one of his characters romance older women for cash).

"The World's Greatest Sinner" reminded me of another, similar film, Elia Kazan's "A Face In The Crowd." which came out in 1957. The Kazan film is about an itinerant drifter named Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, who is plucked from an Arkansas jail, and ultimately rises to great fame and influence on national television. He soon discovers that fame has a price, and eventually his world come crashing around his ears. If Timothy Carey didn't go and see this film, he would have most certainly known about it. After all, both films explore the same theme, namely megalomania. "A Face In The Crowd" was distributed a major Hollywood studio. On the other hand, Timothy Carey distributed "The World's Greatest Sinner". He also funded the film entirely out of his own pocket, so it's no wonder the film took three years to finish. And, as the film never had an official release it quickly disappeared from sight. That said I found "The World's Greatest Sinner" extremely tiresome. The main problem being that Timothy Carey the director was at a loss on how to control Timothy Carey the actor who has a penchant for over acting. So we are subjected to Carey bellowing out his lines in scene after scene, or throwing back his head and laughing maniacally: "The World's Greatest Sinner" runs for just eighty-two minutes. The camera work is appalling, many of the shots are too dark, or poorly lit the film so it seems to run for twice that length. Additionally, the editing is so erratic it is hard to follow the plot. It's just a shame that a director of the calibre of, say, an Elia Kazan wasn't given the opportunity to direct "The World's Greatest Sinner" and turn what to me is at best a curiosity, into a film of some substance.

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.

Well, I FINALLY saw this last night. So weird. So bizarre. So timely. Yes, completely camp. The acting, old-timey film with it's technical gaps, music. The script still fits in today. Politics and religion in the spotlight. So ahead of it's time. Really keeps ones attention though. Tim Carey was born to play this role.

I watched mostly for the Frank Zappa soundtrack, but was a memorable film experience that I'm glad I had.

I also really miss the days when this website let you write a review that didn't have to be ten lines long. Yes, I've been here that long, but one could also argue long enough to actually do the correct thing here and just write a longer review. I feel ornery. Today.

"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.