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 a video of a longer performance, a tour of his house and a commentary track with Burt Reynolds, Anne Meara, Jerry Stiller and the late Dom DeLuise. This is a testament to a comic genius who immortalized in his upper corner seat on the Match Game set. Only thing it’s missing is Weird Al’s tribute song CNR – which I’ll include here:
I had a chance to swap email with Barry Poltermann. He co-directed the film with Frank L. Anderson. Poltermann has served as editor on Chris Smith’s legendary American Movie and Collapse.
PARTY FAVORS: What is your first memory of Charles Nelson Reilly?
POLTERMANN: Wow, hmmm. Well, I remember watching The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on TV when I was very young, and he was a regular on that. So that would have to be it. But the thing about Charles in the ’70s was he was one of those actors who was just in the ether… I bet to most people that grew up in that era he was just ubiquitous… like polyester… he just was everywhere.
PARTY FAVORS: How did you meet Charles Nelson Reilly?
POLTERMANN: We called him out of the blue after hearing that he was doing a one man show. The show had gotten great critical acclaim on the theater circuit around 2001. We’d heard about it, and somewhere along the line we got the idea of doing a Swimming to Cambodia style treatment of a Charles Nelson Reilly play. We thought that seemed like a funny idea. So, we called his agent and he set up a lunch meeting at the Polo Lounge…which is near Charles’ house in Beverly Hills.
PARTY FAVORS: What was the first thing that struck you about him as he talked?
POLTERMANN: That he was the same guy I remembered from the ’70s… the same crazy, goofy… kind of sly and well… naughty, I guess. He looked old now… which made sense as he was now in his 70s, but I hadn’t seen him for years and didn’t even recognize him when he came into the room. But when he started talking and telling stories, the energy returned… the humor, the charm. It was one of the best days of my life… fun as hell as he told one story after another. We eventually went back to his home and watched several hours of video tapes of him doing the show in dinner theaters and such over the years… all these grainy, lock down videos. And still the show was fun and entertaining.
PARTY FAVORS: How many times did you watch his one-man-show before you figured out how to visually capture it?
POLTERMANN: We got our hands on all of the video copies of the show that we possibly could from Charles or other friends and digitized them all to create an advanced edit of the show for story. Charles had so many different shows he did telling so many different stories that we had a wealth of material to work with Basically we cut several hours of raw material down to a 90 minute cut that was the distilled essence of the stories we wanted to focus on, ordered the way you see them in the finished movie. Then we transcribed it and storyboarded it. Ultimately the storyboards were a waste of time as Charles simply never hit his marks or did things in a way we could plan around, but the script was very valuable. We were able to cover all kinds of inserts, stories and pieces that he didn’t do live in order to sharpen the story and focus his three hour plus stage play down.
PARTY FAVORS: What did you want the film to feel like?
POLTERMANN: I mentioned Spalding Grey before… Swimming to Cambodia. We studied that and Stop Making Sense prior to shooting. But in the end, it is much more raw and hand held, which I like. It’s as if you did a raw, handheld version of Stop Making Sense with Charles Nelson Reilly instead of the Talking Heads.
PARTY FAVORS: Did you determine before or after the filming as to what moments could use outside illustration?
POLTERMANN: Both. We created several elements, such as the Pelican sunset at the end, and shot them with Charles during the initial week of shooting. But many of the illustrations were done later during editing. For instance we had generic fire elements for the shoot to project, but ended up getting actual footage from the Hartford Circus Fire so we integrated that later. The Christmas In Connecticut animation and Columbus the Man play footage were ideas we had during editorial. It was mostly in editorial.
PARTY FAVORS: What were the key moments on the production?
POLTERMANN: Deciding to go handheld was big. It was a necessary reaction to the fact that Charles’ would never hit a mark or do anything in the same order. It was impossible to plan anything. He was so free form that we began to look at it as a documentary of a performance, instead of a filmed performance. If that makes sense… just capture what he does as best we can and then we’ll make the story work in post. It had to be kind of abstract as we had to cut to close-ups from different nights when he was standing in a totally different part of the stage and still make it work. So we decided to let it fly and let Charles be Charles.
Another big moment was when it started raining on the last night. It was really unusual that it would rain in LA in October… and rain was always Charles’ good luck sign. He spoke about it often. How rain would make things OK. And things had not been going well for Charles, performance wise. But then it started to rain, and he pulled it all together. It was dramatic and kind of perfect in a way that was vintage CNR.
PARTY FAVORS: This film captures his final stage production. How was it emotionally for the crew when it came to being a part of such a moment?
POLTERMANN: It was emotional but not especially so, in that nobody really felt this was a “final performance” or thought Charles was going to pass away soon. At the time it seemed emotional only to the degree that we had captured a piece of theater history. But the rarity of it… its specialness, really wasn’t apparent at that time. Nobody really even thought Charles was all that sick. He kept saying that he was sick and “it will all be over soon” and stuff like that, but everyone who knew him said, “Oh he’s always like this.”
PARTY FAVORS: How much of a struggle was it for him to finish it?
POLTERMANN: In retrospect I believe it was a big struggle. And he acted like it was a big struggle. But again, we didn’t take him at face value. Everyone who knew him well said he was a bit of a diva-hypochondriac and not to take his complaints all that seriously. So when he went on and did such an awesome show that final night it almost confirmed that he was fine. He’d be back. He’d say, “This is my last performance.” But I remember saying to him more than once that he’d be doing the show again soon, that nobody could keep him away from the stage. It turns out I was wrong on that one.
PARTY FAVORS: Was it a sense of relief when you decided that the DVD would contain the long version of the performance? Or was it equally painful in the editing room to trim down the theatrical version? Had you edited down the 2001 videotape performance as a rough idea before filming him?
POLTERMANN: I had never seen the 2001 version until we did the DVD. In fact, I cut it together myself for the DVD, which was the first time I saw it. We debated putting the long version on in its entirety, as… well, it’s really long! But in the end, it’s a great companion piece and a completely different experience watching it that the film version.
I think that you really need to be a big CNR and / or theater fan to enjoy the long version. I get one of two reactions… some people say, “Good lord, I got 20 minutes into the video version and had to turn it off it was so meandering…” or “You really butchered a brilliant performance. How could you have left out X, Y &Z? I mean, I could watch Charles all night.” There really is no in-between.
PARTY FAVORS: How much input did he have shortening the performance?
POLTERMANN: Not much… although he knew ahead of time what we were intending to use based upon what we’d storyboarded. He did send over notes and ideas once he saw the cut, but they were mostly about what he wanted to put back in not what he wanted to take out!
PARTY FAVORS: What part was the last to be spliced out?
POLTERMANN: The last chunk that we removed (other than trims here and there) was a piece on Mae West. The Mae West stuff went on quite long originally and we trimmed it to a mere mention.
PARTY FAVORS: Did you end up wondering what would have happened to Charles if his father had taken the job working for Disney?
POLTERMANN: Actually I am embarrassed to say that I never did. Life is life… all those choices make the person and the story, and it is, as they say, written. I don’t usually spend a lot of time on those sort of ruminations.
PARTY FAVORS: Are most people amazed to discover he had two different lives on each coast: On the West coast he was the outrageous comic personality. On the East coast he was the Tony winning stage performer/director?
POLTERMANN: I think most people know him as “the Match Game guy” if they know him at all. Even worse, they usually say, “He was that guy on Hollywood Squares, right?” Even getting the credit he was least proud of wrong! So most people are amazed to know he had this background, yes. It goes from “Oh yeah, I remember that guy” to “WOW! Who would have thought.”
PARTY FAVORS: Will anyone ever make a film about Charles, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise? Or is that enough for a mini-series?
POLTERMANN: Oh god I’d love to make that movie! Maybe a dramatization of the making of Cannonball Run II?
PARTY FAVORS: What was it like to work with Dom on the commentary track?
POLTERMANN: Two of our producers, John Murphy and Adrian Selkowitz, recorded that interview with Dom so I am sad to say I never actually met him. He was included via the miracle of editing.
PARTY FAVORS: Did Burt want you to capture his one man show?
POLTERMANN: If he did I would have to break my vow to never shoot another one man show!
PARTY FAVORS: Did Charles tell any great stories about people thinking him and Brett Somers were secretly married?
POLTERMANN: He really didn’t talk much about Match Game. If you brought up the topic he quickly either moved on or told you a story about how great Mark Goodson was to him or how talented Gene Rayburn was on Broadway. He didn’t gossip about Match Game. He honestly didn’t seem to feel it was an important part of his life and seemed confused as to why others did.
PARTY FAVORS: Do you think that Charles’ profile has eclipsed Paul Lynde thanks to the fact that they destroyed most of the master tapes of Hollywood Squares?
POLTERMANN: Interesting… do you think his profile has eclipsed Paul Lynde? Maybe. And I didn’t know that about Hollwyood Squares. That’s crazy. Think about what those Match Game reruns have made over the years. I think YouTube is being kind to Charles… if you mean keeping his memory alive. Not just Match Game but also Tonight Show clips, where he is always very funny. He’d probably hate that fact that the most watched clips are Match Game (I think he’d prefer that the Goldiggers skits were popular… him and Marty Feldman… those are as brilliant as The Goon Show and pretty much forgotten).
PARTY FAVORS: Were the two rivals or good friends since they shared so many traits?
POLTERMANN: Charles never said a bad word about anyone, but there are certain people he chose not to talk about, and Paul Lynde was one. He would say things like, “He was not a happy person” and leave it at that. I don’t think he liked him at all.
PARTY FAVORS: When you were promoting the movie, did people confuse the two men?
POLTERMANN: Yes, it was not uncommon for people to say “oh yeah, the guy from Hollywood Squares” when we said it was a film about Charles Nelson Reilly. It was very common.
PARTY FAVORS: How did you and Frank Anderson end up directing the film?
POLTERMANN: I really liked the idea of working with Frank on the film. I’ve known him for many years, we’ve done music videos together and commercials before. He writes music, does animation, shoots… and he loved CNR. So it was an easy choice and made working on the film a lot more fun. It seemed like such a crazy idea that I wanted someone to work with who thought it wasn’t so crazy, and Frank was it.
PARTY FAVORS: Do you sense that in the future Life of Reilly will be performed by other actors like An Evening With Mark Twain? What actors do you think can tackle the role?
POLTERMANN: Wow, these are interesting questions. I hadn’t thought of that. I edit a lot for my friend Chris Smith and we did a film last year called Collapse and we’ve talked about someone doing that as a one man show but I really think that only Charles could pull off The Life of Reilly. Maybe I am wrong. Who would be good in it? Maybe Rainn Wilson? He likes the movie a lot. That would be fun to see.
PARTY FAVORS: What sort of age range have you found attracted to the film?
POLTERMANN: While younger people really love the film, I must admit that the natural audience is older. Forty something and older. People who actually remember Charles, even if only vaguely.
PARTY FAVORS: How do you feel with the responsibility of keeping his legacy alive?
POLTERMANN: I love it. I couldn’t be happier. Charles deserves it. We used to joke when we were doing the film that we wanted to do for CNR what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash. We haven’t pulled that off, at least not yet… but follow CNR on Facebook/cnreilly or Twitter/cnr! We are doing our best to keep his legacy alive within social media.
PARTY FAVORS: Do you think a guy like Charles Nelson Reilly could survive in today’s Hollywood where being slightly tipsy on TV turns into a week of headlines, Entertainment Tonight specials and cries for a trip to rehab?
POLTERMANN: I don’t think that being tipsy is considered fun or funny in the way it was in the 70’s. I don’t see any Foster Brooks types out there entertaining us. Or Dean Martin’s. It’s too bad… I kind of miss that politically incorrect debauchery.
PARTY FAVORS: What is the most powerful thing Charles told you that changed your outlook on life?
POLTERMANN: Don’t be afraid to dream. As Charles says, get a bag. Just get a bag and drop a dream in it. You’ll be surprised to see what happens. That’s the power of Charles. Dream big, and make it happen.
If you’re addicted to watching Match Game on GSN at 11 a.m. (EST), make sure you get the film. Life of Reilly can be bought at amazon on both DVD and Blu-ray. It’s also available for download at iTunes. Now let’s have Charles Nelson Reilly sing us out:
DVD SHELF
Mannix: The Fourth Season brings more private eye action from Joe Mannix (Mike Connors). The man takes the abuse for another 24 cases. “A Ticket to the Eclipse” has another of Joe’s Army buddies visiting. This time the guy turns out to be a mass murderer on a hot streak. The cops don’t want to deal it. Darren McGavin (A Christmas Story and Kolchak: The Night Stalker) guest stars as guess who. “The Other Game in Town” goes Vegas when a gambler with a major debt dies. Trouble comes when he’s spotted at his funeral. The guy’s widow wants this straightened out. How does Rich Little work his way into this mess? “Deja Vu” predicts Mannix’s demise with Sid Haig (Devil’s Rejects) being a key to the fatal fate. Did you know Mike Connors played basketball on UCLA? He used his Westwood connections to get Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Gail Goodrich in “A Day Filled with Shadows.” This boxset contains another amazing season from the best athletic TV P.I.
Greek: Chapter Five, The Complete Third Season brings together the 20 episodes that aired on ABC Family. The series explores the members of the frats and sororities of Cyprus-Rhodes University. There’s plenty of relationship mischief as college life intersects with frat relationships. There’s lots of breaking ups and cheating. Rusty has to keep up his GPA or there will be no more Greek games for him. The big ugliness comes when the Gamma Psi house gets torched. Most old frat houses are amazing tinderboxes from all the hard liquor that’s soaked into the wood floors. Another frat gets pinned for the arson. Seems that somebody might be going from their junior year at CRU to their freshman year at the State Pen. If only frats were this cool, I would have thought about pledging instead of merely using them as free beer hot spot.
Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature: Sci-Fi Classics gives a taste of the film icon’s directorial work from the late ’50s. Don’t think that this is a massive butt-numbing marathon. Each black and white film is barely over an hour long. The triple features runs shorter than a piece of Oscar bait. Attack of the Crab Monsters really has monstrous crabs. A military unit and scientists land on the island to investigate what happened to the pervious occupants running atomic tests. The new group get stranded on the desolate rock when things explode. They fear for their lives as the giant crab monsters emerge. The highlight is Russell Johnson as part of the team. That’s right, the Professor from Gilligan’s Island is stranded on a tropical island. On top of that, he’s put in charge of repairing the radio. He was typecasted before he made it to TV. And he has the same radio issues without Gilligan screwing things up.
Not of This Earth brings a mysterious man to a doctor’s office in search of fresh blood. He’s not a vampire. He’s an alien with the ability to control people. He gets Nurse Nadine Storey (My Three Sons‘ Beverly Garland) to visit his house for frequent transfusions. He also gets his blood more directly from guests. He’s got an evil plot brewing. Nadine turns out to be humanity’s last hope. Corman regulars Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze get tangled in the intrigue.
War of the Satellites rockets up the thrills. Something in space isn’t happy that we’re looking to launch a satellite into orbit. The United Nations isn’t backing down from these alien bullies. We’re going to put up that satellite with the help of Susan Cabot (The Wasp Woman) and Dick Miller. Don’t get confused wondering if Michel Fox is really Michael J. Fox. This isn’t quite as exciting as the previous two titles, but makes for good snuggling in the backrow of the Bijou. The boxset includes a fine tribute to Roger Corman featuring Peter Fonda, Joe Dante and others. The big treat is dozens of trailers from Roger Corman’s directorial career. Get a glimpse of his work from a diverse career that ended in the early ’70s when he went full time into production.
Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Double Feature – Up From the Depths / Demon of Paradise is a twin bill about bad resorts in Hawaii. The joy to Roger Corman during this era is that he didn’t make cookie cutter remakes. He had people twist them up just enough so you didn’t think you were seeing the same film. These two movies are both about Hawaiian resorts that become attacked by prehistoric monsters, but they’re not the same aquatic beasts. Up From the Depths. unleashes a dino-shark from the sea floor after an earthquake. His first order of business is to eat a researcher. There’s more tasty treats since it’s high season at a resort run by a guy who looks like the lawyer on Scrubs. He thinks the carnage that washes ashore is chum from Sam Bottoms’ fishing boat. The star of Apocalypse Now gets off the boat mainly to con tourists. The hotel doesn’t want people to think there’s anything wrong. Ultimately the hotel owner comes up with a gimmick to keep the guests from fleeing – a fishing contest.
Demon of Paradise is basically the same film except with enough alterations to make it look like a while new film. This time it’s locals fishing with dynamite that cause something wicked to escape from the bottom of the ocean. But instead of merely a fish, this is a reptileman ready to attack the posh hotel. People aren’t safe by just staying on the beach and watching the aqua-mayhem.
This is a lower budget translation of the story. The resort looks rather rough like it was filmed at a Boy Scout camp after a typhoon. Strangely enough Demon was made in Hawaii while Depths was shot in the Philippines. There’s enough differences in the two films to make it a fun double feature. There is a Grindhouse Experience that allows you to feel like you’re getting a full show including old cinema clips with upcoming trailers.
James Clavell’s Shogun takes us back to that glory time when network television dared to do big projects in the mini-series format. Over the course of five nights, NBC took us to Japan in the 17th Century in epic style. You know it’s epic since Orson Welles is the narrator. A Dutch ship with a English pilot (Richard Chamberlain) ends up being taken captive by the locals. He quickly learns that the Japanese aren’t tourist friendly. They don’t even like each other as one guy gets his head whacked off for not bowing right. However his biggest enemies on the island nation are Portuguese priests that are ticked off that their secret island has been exposed to a heretic. Chamberlain has a doomed romance with his female interpreter (no laughing). The big discovery isn’t Japan, but John Rhys-Davies. This is the first major role for a man who ought to have his own convention. The most shocking thing from the mini-series is the introduction of a golden shower on network TV. Chamberlain gets used as a urinal by one of the locals. The bonus features include a documentary about making the series, historical featurettes and a commentary from director Jerry London about making the 9 hour movie.
Hot In Cleveland: Season One continues Betty White’s mega-hot streak in 2011. How did Betty White not get named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year? She made Facebook cool. She made Saturday Night Live funny. She made me buy a Snickers bar. She elevated this TVLand original sitcom to hit status. The show has three former sitcom starlettes (One Day at a Time‘s Valerie Bertinelli, Frasier‘s Jane Leeves and Just Shoot Me‘s Wendie Malick) get stuck in Cleveland when their flight to Paris gets diverted. Why do they stay in the Mistake on the Lake? Cause the guys appreciate their hotness. Plus it’s much cheaper than France without so much ass pinching. Betty White is the caretaker of the large house they rent. She’s the swizzle stick that stirs the Metamucil. Over the course of 10 episodes, the trio lose their vapid Hollywood ways thank to Betty. Shocking to think that she’s about to turn 89 and still has the comedic flair of her time on Match Game ’75. The series is starting its second season on TVLand this month.
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