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1Michael_Welch
The great comic Jonathan Winters just died which is more important (to me) than Thatcher's demise.
Winters was a great improvisationist, the mentor for Robin Williams, and a helluva lot of fun to watch on the Steve Allen show, Jack Paar and many of the "variety" shows of the late '50s and '60s. Winters mesmerized me with his elliptical (and suggestive) allusions, plus his love of making "noise," imitating birds, machine guns, Rollo the robot, whatever.
I recall once on the Garry Moore show Moore "interviewing" Winters' "Maude Frickert," a drag stint edgy for tv then even post Uncle Miltie, and Moore simply got lost re Winters' riffs. At the close of the show Moore remarked that it was an experience to work with Winters because "you do one show at rehearsal and another when you film."
In his own short lived weekly in the later '60s I saw Winters in the middle of a monologue stop -- chuckle -- then confide to the audience "Told me a better joke than I told you."
He appeared in a few movies, most notably in Norman Jewison's underrated "The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming" and another underappreciated "Viva Max!" with Peter Ustinov and John Astin, two other "eccentrics." In films Winters usually played guys who were "in authority" at some level but perpetually perplexed. He had too a kind of semi rural "working class" quality from his native small town Ohio that turned on the skepticism based on bemusement of the "simple" re the "elite."
I never thought Winters quite achieved his "potential" -- his greatness seemed ever a bit "stifled" -- but I only had to see him in anything, in Tony Richardson's "The Loved One" for example, and even funeral homes were funny...
Winters was a great improvisationist, the mentor for Robin Williams, and a helluva lot of fun to watch on the Steve Allen show, Jack Paar and many of the "variety" shows of the late '50s and '60s. Winters mesmerized me with his elliptical (and suggestive) allusions, plus his love of making "noise," imitating birds, machine guns, Rollo the robot, whatever.
I recall once on the Garry Moore show Moore "interviewing" Winters' "Maude Frickert," a drag stint edgy for tv then even post Uncle Miltie, and Moore simply got lost re Winters' riffs. At the close of the show Moore remarked that it was an experience to work with Winters because "you do one show at rehearsal and another when you film."
In his own short lived weekly in the later '60s I saw Winters in the middle of a monologue stop -- chuckle -- then confide to the audience "Told me a better joke than I told you."
He appeared in a few movies, most notably in Norman Jewison's underrated "The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming" and another underappreciated "Viva Max!" with Peter Ustinov and John Astin, two other "eccentrics." In films Winters usually played guys who were "in authority" at some level but perpetually perplexed. He had too a kind of semi rural "working class" quality from his native small town Ohio that turned on the skepticism based on bemusement of the "simple" re the "elite."
I never thought Winters quite achieved his "potential" -- his greatness seemed ever a bit "stifled" -- but I only had to see him in anything, in Tony Richardson's "The Loved One" for example, and even funeral homes were funny...
2RickHarsch
From the age of five or so, when I first saw him tear apart the gas station...
3Michael_Welch
-- in "It's a Mad Mad Mad World," Stanley Kramer's odd salute to the comics of the silents to the '60s. Winters was again the ever puzzled truck driver scammed by "life"...
4RickHarsch
My father's perhaps greatest contribution to my world view.
5Michael_Welch
I'd ask you to "expand" on that if you would?!...
6RickHarsch
The odd combination of dignity and lunacy--and, if you will, the injustice leading to riotous riot (even if of just one). Remember, in that movie, at least as I recall it, his character was essentially a good guy.
7Michael_Welch
The movie was about the lure of avarice and oddly enough the old police chief trailing the wealth seekers, played by icon Spencer Tracy, succumbed too at the last. It's not a totally "successful" film (but Kramer as a director I think had lost his "edge" after "Judgment at Nuremberg") yet it can be still viewed with interest I believe.
But then I just enjoyed "Living in a Big Way," a somewhat obscure Gene Kelly pic from 1947, directed by Gregory La Cava doing a riff on his captivating classic "My Man Godfrey" from the '30s, and with the endearing Phyllis Thaxter and the stunningly beautiful Marie McDonald playing "the intelligent blonde" of all things!
Movies -- ya can't live wit' 'em, ya can't live wit'out 'em...
But then I just enjoyed "Living in a Big Way," a somewhat obscure Gene Kelly pic from 1947, directed by Gregory La Cava doing a riff on his captivating classic "My Man Godfrey" from the '30s, and with the endearing Phyllis Thaxter and the stunningly beautiful Marie McDonald playing "the intelligent blonde" of all things!
Movies -- ya can't live wit' 'em, ya can't live wit'out 'em...
