Review: Charles Nelson Reilly Shines in "The Life of Reilly" - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Zoneboy · 10-13-2010, 11:28 PM

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There's a reoccurring joke in The Life of Reilly, the new film version of 70s game show icon Charles Nelson Reilly's one-man stage show Save it for the Stage where everyone think he's already dead.

In fact, Nelson Reilly died shortly after the filming of this movie, just out on DVD. The film is literally his last performance.

But what a performance — and what a legacy.

Unless you were gay in the 1970s, it's hard to understand the very weird phenomenon of flamboyant, coded-gay comedians like Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly, both of whom were most famous for being "television personalities" who appeared on game shows and talk shows.

How was it that these comedians were allowed to so wildly camp it up in an era when homosexuality wasn't discussed and an actor's career was over if he came out? The bargain they made with the world was that they were allowed to allowed to be as "gay" as they wanted — providing they never actually came out, and all their gay jokes were coded with plausible deniability.

Some gay and bisexual men of the era found great comfort in these campy figures, seeing some form of themselves acknowledged and even sort of accepted for the first time. Others dismissed these men as participating in some kind of gay minstrel show, allowing themselves to be objects of scorn and ridicule for laughs.

My personal opinion is that these folks operated under very unforgiving rules that they did not write and, like most of us, they did the best they could under the circumstances. In retrospect, it seems very obvious that these men were very important cultural "stepping stones" on the way to full gay equality — and not to be too pretentious about it, maybe they were even sort of Christ-like figures, suffering the indignities of 1970s homophobia so that we all might eventually find more acceptance.

So who was Charles Nelson Reilly really?

In The Life of Reilly, we learn that first and foremost, he was an actor — a comic actor, but definitely an actor (and not a comedian). The line between "characters" and "real people" is thin for Nelson Reilly — so thin that each time he introduces a new figure from his past, he also names the actor who would "play" him or her.

But the point isn't that these people are mere characters in some performance of his life; the point is that great stage characters, to Nelson Reilly (and all good actors), are as real as people.

Nelson Reilly's early years were almost unimaginably tragic, full of alcoholism, mental illness, poverty, and death. His mother was a racist witch who openly discouraged his dreams.

"I spent my adolescence in an Ingmar Bergman film," he quips at one point. And in one of the funniest sequences in the film, he describes his extended family members, how each of them was either very eccentric or outright (literally) insane. Then he recounts how he once overheard the neighbors talking about him as a child as "odd."

"How do think I felt being the 'odd' one in a family like that?!" he rages. The jokes here — and there are plenty of them — are bittersweet, laced with anger and despair.
Later, after being encouraged to become an actor by a kind teacher, Nelson Reilly finds himself in an acting class taught by Uta Hagen. He reads a long list of his fellow unknown students, and it's an astounding who's-who of some of the greatest actors of his generation: Jason Robards, Geraldine Page, Hal Holbrook, Jack Lemmon, and on and on.

It might be strange to think of the campy joke that we know of as Charles Nelson Reilly being surrounded by great actors such as these, but by this point, we know that he is much more than the game show icon he would become. Now he just needs to convince everyone else.

It's not easy. He's told flat-out by the president of NBC, "They don't let queers on television."

But through the sheer force of his will (and obvious acting talent), Nelson Reilly proves everyone wrong, finding great success on television as a comic actor (and also on stage, winning a Tony for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and originating a role in Hello Dolly!).

At one point, Nelson Reilly tells us how one time when he appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (which he did a total of 106 times), a pretentious fellow guest asked him, "What do you know about Shakespeare?"

To hear Nelson Reilly tell it, he then proceeded to give what must be the greatest come-back in the history of The Tonight Show: he stood and flawlessly performed a long Shakespearean monologue, concluding with, "That's what I know about Shakespeare!"

Charles Nelson Reilly was a joke, but it was a conscious one, one that he was most definitely in on. His greatest character was clearly the larger-than-life version he created of himself. But it absolutely was a performance — as measured, and as difficult, as Shakespeare, but also just as convincingly "real."

As a film, The Life of Reilly is pretty bare-bones. There's some archival footage, but it's mostly just sometimes shaky cameras trained on Nelson Reilly's last, breathless stage performance, sometimes zooming in uncomfortably close. Meanwhile, Reilly's complete stage performance, Save it for the Stage, was some three hours long, but was edited down to 90 minutes for the film (the entire performance is included on a separate DVD, and it's here he talks about his close, life-long friendship with Burt Reynolds and the career fall-out from having done all those game shows).

In other words, the film is sometimes a little messy and a little meandering. Then again, so was his life.

Charles Nelson Reilly, the campy king of 1970s talk shows, was an extraordinary man who led a pretty amazing life. Who knew?

Now we all know. And that's a really good thing.

BillCullen1 · 10-15-2010, 04:37 PM

I'm wondering if The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and his kiddie show Uncle Croc's Block are mentioned. I think the first one should be if it's not. Charles also took time out from Match Game to star on Broadway in God's Favorite, a Neil Simon play that did not do as well as some of his other plays.

He was also an accomplished stage director in his later years. Also, unlike someone else on these boards, I don't think Tattletales was a sham because he was on it.

I liked what CNR once said on Body Language: "On Match Game we just sat down and wrote answers, and we got the same money."

10-13-2010, 11:28 PM	#1
Zoneboy RIP, I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU :( Moderator Forum Superstar Join Date: Jul 13, 2003 Location: AT HOME WISHING ALL THIS WAS JUST A DREAM AND THAT I'LL WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE. Posts: 34,345	Review: Charles Nelson Reilly Shines in "The Life of Reilly" Link There's a reoccurring joke in The Life of Reilly, the new film version of 70s game show icon Charles Nelson Reilly's one-man stage show Save it for the Stage where everyone think he's already dead. In fact, Nelson Reilly died shortly after the filming of this movie, just out on DVD. The film is literally his last performance. But what a performance — and what a legacy. Unless you were gay in the 1970s, it's hard to understand the very weird phenomenon of flamboyant, coded-gay comedians like Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly, both of whom were most famous for being "television personalities" who appeared on game shows and talk shows. How was it that these comedians were allowed to so wildly camp it up in an era when homosexuality wasn't discussed and an actor's career was over if he came out? The bargain they made with the world was that they were allowed to allowed to be as "gay" as they wanted — providing they never actually came out, and all their gay jokes were coded with plausible deniability. Some gay and bisexual men of the era found great comfort in these campy figures, seeing some form of themselves acknowledged and even sort of accepted for the first time. Others dismissed these men as participating in some kind of gay minstrel show, allowing themselves to be objects of scorn and ridicule for laughs. My personal opinion is that these folks operated under very unforgiving rules that they did not write and, like most of us, they did the best they could under the circumstances. In retrospect, it seems very obvious that these men were very important cultural "stepping stones" on the way to full gay equality — and not to be too pretentious about it, maybe they were even sort of Christ-like figures, suffering the indignities of 1970s homophobia so that we all might eventually find more acceptance. So who was Charles Nelson Reilly really? In The Life of Reilly, we learn that first and foremost, he was an actor — a comic actor, but definitely an actor (and not a comedian). The line between "characters" and "real people" is thin for Nelson Reilly — so thin that each time he introduces a new figure from his past, he also names the actor who would "play" him or her. But the point isn't that these people are mere characters in some performance of his life; the point is that great stage characters, to Nelson Reilly (and all good actors), are as real as people. Nelson Reilly's early years were almost unimaginably tragic, full of alcoholism, mental illness, poverty, and death. His mother was a racist witch who openly discouraged his dreams. "I spent my adolescence in an Ingmar Bergman film," he quips at one point. And in one of the funniest sequences in the film, he describes his extended family members, how each of them was either very eccentric or outright (literally) insane. Then he recounts how he once overheard the neighbors talking about him as a child as "odd." "How do think I felt being the 'odd' one in a family like that?!" he rages. The jokes here — and there are plenty of them — are bittersweet, laced with anger and despair. Later, after being encouraged to become an actor by a kind teacher, Nelson Reilly finds himself in an acting class taught by Uta Hagen. He reads a long list of his fellow unknown students, and it's an astounding who's-who of some of the greatest actors of his generation: Jason Robards, Geraldine Page, Hal Holbrook, Jack Lemmon, and on and on. It might be strange to think of the campy joke that we know of as Charles Nelson Reilly being surrounded by great actors such as these, but by this point, we know that he is much more than the game show icon he would become. Now he just needs to convince everyone else. It's not easy. He's told flat-out by the president of NBC, "They don't let queers on television." But through the sheer force of his will (and obvious acting talent), Nelson Reilly proves everyone wrong, finding great success on television as a comic actor (and also on stage, winning a Tony for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and originating a role in Hello Dolly!). At one point, Nelson Reilly tells us how one time when he appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (which he did a total of 106 times), a pretentious fellow guest asked him, "What do you know about Shakespeare?" To hear Nelson Reilly tell it, he then proceeded to give what must be the greatest come-back in the history of The Tonight Show: he stood and flawlessly performed a long Shakespearean monologue, concluding with, "That's what I know about Shakespeare!" Charles Nelson Reilly was a joke, but it was a conscious one, one that he was most definitely in on. His greatest character was clearly the larger-than-life version he created of himself. But it absolutely was a performance — as measured, and as difficult, as Shakespeare, but also just as convincingly "real." As a film, The Life of Reilly is pretty bare-bones. There's some archival footage, but it's mostly just sometimes shaky cameras trained on Nelson Reilly's last, breathless stage performance, sometimes zooming in uncomfortably close. Meanwhile, Reilly's complete stage performance, Save it for the Stage, was some three hours long, but was edited down to 90 minutes for the film (the entire performance is included on a separate DVD, and it's here he talks about his close, life-long friendship with Burt Reynolds and the career fall-out from having done all those game shows). In other words, the film is sometimes a little messy and a little meandering. Then again, so was his life. Charles Nelson Reilly, the campy king of 1970s talk shows, was an extraordinary man who led a pretty amazing life. Who knew? Now we all know. And that's a really good thing.
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10-15-2010, 04:37 PM	#2
BillCullen1 Game show fan Frequent Poster Join Date: Feb 05, 2010 Location: New York Cuty Posts: 171	I'm wondering if The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and his kiddie show Uncle Croc's Block are mentioned. I think the first one should be if it's not. Charles also took time out from Match Game to star on Broadway in God's Favorite, a Neil Simon play that did not do as well as some of his other plays. He was also an accomplished stage director in his later years. Also, unlike someone else on these boards, I don't think Tattletales was a sham because he was on it. I liked what CNR once said on Body Language: "On Match Game we just sat down and wrote answers, and we got the same money."