Encino, CA - While Charles Nelson Reilly is beloved for his time on Match Game, there’s more to this actor than Dumb Dora answers. He was the toast of Broadway with roles in Hello Dolly and Bye, Bye, Birdie and won the Tony for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Later in life he directed several plays on the Great White Way. While many actors sum up their lives in thick tomes, Charles created a one-man show. He was a stage performer so this was the best way to distill his experiences for an audience. The Life of Reilly captures his final performance before his passing in 2007.
After playing the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release, Life of Reilly is finally out on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. You can take Charles every where. In edition to the feature film, there’s tons of bonus features including...
After playing the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release, Life of Reilly is finally out on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. You can take Charles every where. In edition to the feature film, there’s tons of bonus features including...
- 1/21/2011
- by UncaScroogeMcD
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...
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...
- 10/13/2010
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
L'Orange Films/Civilian Pictures
NEW YORK -- Those who recall Charles Nelson Reilly merely as a kitschy comic television personality who frequented game shows, sitcoms and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show will be surprised by the emotional depths and warm humor of The Life of Reilly.
This filmed version of the one-person stage show performed by Reilly for several years before his death this year has an inevitably static quality, but it also offers a revelatory portrait of a multitalented entertainment figure.
Looking and sounding frail -- the film was shot during his final stage performances, when he already was quite ill -- Reilly offers a wonderfully entertaining account of his life and career. He concentrates less on his well-known stints on such television shows as Match Game and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir -- in which he exploited his quivering voice and fussy mannerisms to great comic effect -- than on his childhood years and early success on Broadway.
He relates stories about his upbringing by his supportive if bigoted mother -- "Save it for the stage" was her mantra that propelled him toward a life in show business -- and embittered father, not to mention an aunt who ultimately was lobotomized. He proudly describes his first experience performing in a grade-school production of Columbus the Man, of which faded home movies are included here.
He goes on to amusingly describe his experiences studying under Uta Hagen in a class that seemingly included every acting luminary of the next few decades.
He touches little on his personal life and gayness, saved for a pointed anecdote about being told early in his career by a television executive that there was no place for homosexuals on television.
Despite his obvious infirmities, Reilly infuses his performance with a great deal of energy -- frequently shouting his lines for emphasis -- and, of course, perfect comic timing. It's fortunate that we have this filmed record -- directed by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson -- of a memorable solo performance by a true show business original.
NEW YORK -- Those who recall Charles Nelson Reilly merely as a kitschy comic television personality who frequented game shows, sitcoms and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show will be surprised by the emotional depths and warm humor of The Life of Reilly.
This filmed version of the one-person stage show performed by Reilly for several years before his death this year has an inevitably static quality, but it also offers a revelatory portrait of a multitalented entertainment figure.
Looking and sounding frail -- the film was shot during his final stage performances, when he already was quite ill -- Reilly offers a wonderfully entertaining account of his life and career. He concentrates less on his well-known stints on such television shows as Match Game and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir -- in which he exploited his quivering voice and fussy mannerisms to great comic effect -- than on his childhood years and early success on Broadway.
He relates stories about his upbringing by his supportive if bigoted mother -- "Save it for the stage" was her mantra that propelled him toward a life in show business -- and embittered father, not to mention an aunt who ultimately was lobotomized. He proudly describes his first experience performing in a grade-school production of Columbus the Man, of which faded home movies are included here.
He goes on to amusingly describe his experiences studying under Uta Hagen in a class that seemingly included every acting luminary of the next few decades.
He touches little on his personal life and gayness, saved for a pointed anecdote about being told early in his career by a television executive that there was no place for homosexuals on television.
Despite his obvious infirmities, Reilly infuses his performance with a great deal of energy -- frequently shouting his lines for emphasis -- and, of course, perfect comic timing. It's fortunate that we have this filmed record -- directed by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson -- of a memorable solo performance by a true show business original.
- 11/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The South by Southwest Film Festival, which runs March 10-18 in Austin, will kick off with the North American premiere of Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, an adaptation of Garrison Keiller's radio show, and will conclude with the closing-night feature American Dreamz, a satirical look at politics and pop culture directed by Paul Weitz and starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid and Mandy Moore. The festival's Spotlight Premieres section will include several features about real-life figures. The lineup includes Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page, about the '50s pinup model; Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus' Al Franken in God Spoke, about political commentator Al Franken; Tom Caltabiano's 95 Miles to Go, which follows comedian Ray Romano on a stand-up tour; Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson's The Life of Reilly, in which Charles Nelson Reilly performs his one-man show; Ron Mann's Tales of the Rat Fink, a look at hot-rod designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth; and Harry Moses' Who the $#%& is Jackson Pollock, about painter Jackson Pollock.
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