THE KING OF COMEDY (1983) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Martin Scorsese Writer: Paul D. Zimmerman Starring: Robert DeNiro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott, Tony Randal, Ed Herlihy, Lou Brown, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Victor Borge, Liza Manelli, Martin Scorsese, Catherine Scorsese
"The King of Comedy" is a very un-Scorsese-like darkly comic satire on fame and the obsession with those who have it. Simply put. While underrated because it's not as powerful as his other films, and also because it miserably bombed at the box office (my friend told me a mere 3 million, while he usually grosses a healthy 30 to 40), it's still a great film, just not as absolutely amazing as it could have been.
"The King of Comedy" deals with a kind of incarnation of Travis Bickle: Rupert Pumpkin (Robert DeNiro), a flamboyantly confident wacko who feels he has a natural knack for comedy, although you wouldn't know it when you met him. Instead of coming off as a funny guy, he's merely creepy, with a giant grin on his face, and a little moustache (which he dug up for his character in "Copland").
In the first scene, we see him outside waiting for autographs from any or all of the guests of a hit late night talk show, hosted by a Johnny Carson incarnation, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). Jerry is a quiet and somehow beaten man, who was probably a riot back in his younger days, but is now rather bitter. Yeah, he's still funny, but it's more in that kind of cynical way. On this particular night, Jerry comes out to go to his limo, but stumbles upon a little problem when an overly obsessive fan (Sandra Bernhard) climbs into his car with him. He gets out, waiting for security to drag her out of the limo, then hops in. Unfortunately, so does Rupert.
Sounding like the typical I-wannabe-a-star kind of loser, he tells him he wants to have a shot doing his stand-up on his show. Jerry hears him out, then tells him to call his office. Rupert bugs him a bit more, then lets him go. Of course, we all know he didn't really mean for him to call him. He just wanted to get rid of this wacko. But Rupert didn't.
Rupert seems to plaster himself inside the reception room in his office, handing one of his supervisors his demo tape, and even saying he'll wait in the room over the weekend, until Jerry listens to it. Of course, she's the one who listens to it, disses him, and Rupert's obsession grows and grows. He's not aware of his lack of sanity; he's too confident in himself and his act, which is funny because his comedy is all about how horrible his youth was. And when nothing else seems like it's going to work (since he's too impatient and too old to just build himself up from nothing, and earn the shot on the show), he goes for the extreme way.
He and Bernhard, who has other reasons for doing it, decide to kidnap him on one of his walks through the streets. This is one of the things that got to me: why does he do this? In one scene where he does it, it starts off seeming like a dream of his to walk down the street and joke with some of the "plebians," but then turns into reality as people diss him for him dissing them, and he is soon being followed by Bernhard.
But anyway, they do it sucessfully, and he's soon using him to get his spot on the air. Instead of being manic or something, it has a cool kind of darkly comic presence, with several subtle jokes tossed in (like a guest appearance by Scorsese). The ending is brutally satirical, as it is often realistic, although a tad on the ridiculous side. I know that doesn't make sense, but just bear with me on this one.
What's wrong with this film is it seems to be missing something. Yes, it's sucessful in its satire, but it's just...I dunno. Maybe it was the lack of cool Scorsese touches, like tricky camera movement, dramatic edges rounded out with the soundtrack, etc. The last half of the film is not exactly riveting, but it's satirical enough. And the comedy is mainly chuckles, although I did laugh out loud during some of the lines in the comedy act.
Oh yeah, the comedy act. This is what really got me. The way it's presented, we feel uncomfortable laughing with it, mainly because we've gotten to know how mentally ill this character is. And when he talks about some of the more heinous parts of his childhood, I started to think that he's not really exaggerating, as much as grinning at them. DeNiro also plays it perfectly, not actually having superb comic presence (his writing hints at a little touch by Woody Allen, but he seems to deliver them like a vaudevillian), which is right for the character, methinks.
And I wanted to mention that the whole spiel between Lewis and Bernhard results in one of the creepiest and most horrific scenes I've ever seen. And there's not even any kind of Scorsese-esque violence in it or anything bad like that. Just imagine Bernhard sitting on your lap and you get what I'm talking about (*shudder*).
As far as acting, DeNiro is wonderful as the self-obsessed Rupert. He's too blind to see how screwed up he actually is, and he does this awesomely. Also, Jerry Lewis gives an amazing performance. Most of us are used to him being the predecessor to Jim Carrey. I mean, I saw two minutes of one of his flicks with Dean Martin, and that high-pitched voice of his is STILL stabbing at my brain like the knife in "Psycho." Here, he's quiet, and bitter. I mean, it looks like someone gave him some prozac or something - he's SOOO calm. If that's what he's really like nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised.
Anyway, "The King of Comedy" is not the masterpiece it longs to be, but nevertheless is a very underrated flick in Scorsese's oeuvre. While he would perfect his comedy in "After Hours" a year later, this still shows that he has a good knack for some comedy with substance.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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