Director Report Card: John Landis (2007)

19. Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project

While he's well-known for his comedy hits, horror hybrids, and personal negligence on film sets, John Landis is also known as a devotee of classic show business. If you look at his IMDb, John Landis has the most credits not under directing, acting, or producing. It's as Himself, appearing in various documentaries and on television to talk about the history of Hollywood and film making. So, perhaps inevitable, the director would eventually make a documentary about show business. Combining his interests in classic film and classic comedy in 2007, Landis would direct a film about Don Rickles.

“Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project” is both a biographic documentary and a stand-up comedy film. The stand-up portion of the film largely consists of clips from the insult comic's performances at the Stardust Hotel in 2006. Rickles' live show was rarely recorded, so this was a nice look into the famously caustic comedian's routine. “Mr. Warmth” is also a retrospective of Rickles' fifty year-plus career as a stand-up and actor. This is told by himself, his family, his friends, fans and admirers. 

Don Rickles certainly held a honored place in American pop culture. The guy popularized the genre of insult comedy. Through his frequent late night talk show appearances – some of which are shown in the film – he became a beloved fixture in homes across the country. Rickles was 80 years old when “Mr. Warmth” was filmed. One can assume that this performance did not represent his wit at his sharpest. Though, yes, Rickles does generate a few laughs throughout “Mr. Warmth.” Most of his comedy is based around insulting the racial and ancestral backgrounds of people in his audience, in crude and obvious ways. He dips his toes into some hoary material about his geriatric sex life and performs a few oddly sincere songs.

Of course, from the perspective of modern sensitivity, Rickles' material is horribly offensive. He equates all Germans with Nazis, all Japanese people with Imperial soldiers. (Yes, Rickles was still telling World War II jokes in 2006.) He assumes all Irish people are alcoholics, all British people are stuck-up, all Italians are groggy gangsters. Naturally, black people and indigenous people are mocked and talked-down-to. Modern stand-ups say you can never “punch down.” Rickles' entire act was based on punching down. Rickles' contemporaries and comedians influenced by him – Sidney Poitier and Chris Rock among them – assure us that it's okay. That Rickles mocked everyone equally, therefore making his blatant racism and other -isms okay. It's still absolutely more uncomfortable than amusing in this day and age.

“Mr. Warmth” collects together a litany of Rickles' celebrity friends and fans. The very first scene has Harry Dean Stanton playing the harmonica and singing in a bar, a smoldering cigarette and a glass of rum near-by. In quick succession, we see Robert DeNiro, Clint Eastwood, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Bob Newhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Jay Leno, Regis Philbin, Larry King, Debbie Reynolds, George Lopez, and many more. Most of these interviews are not especially insightful. The majority of them are devoted to talking about how great or influential Rickles is. Most memorable is Martin Scorsese's interview, largely becomes he comes across as an adorably dorky guy, wheezing and laughing through his recollections. (Robin Williams' interview, which extends into a regrettable impersonation of a Chinese person, shows he was perhaps a little too influenced by Rickles.)

After about a half-hour of Rickles' stand-up and these glowing interviews, “Mr. Warmth” finally begins to delve into Rickles' actual life. We learn that Rickles grew up as in a Lithuanian Jewish family in New York City. He wanted to pursue acting but had a natural tendency towards smart-ass-ery. He eventually joined the military, in hopes of being an entertainer, but ended up being a Navy gunner in the Philippines. This only provides a brief glimpse into Rickles' history, into what turned him into the man he is. We learn he was extremely close to his mother, who was both his greatest fan and his biggest critic. One presumes that what he experienced in the war probably had an affect on his outlook. Yet “Mr. Warmth” is largely disinterested in probing deeply into Rickles' personality. 

“Mr. Warmth” does give us some brief glimpses into Rickles' life. Very brief. The beginning of the film shows him getting dressed before the show, lounging around in a bathrobe. Talking with his manager about sports scores or the quality of coffee. On his way to the stage, he pauses to give a random stage hand a big hug. We see home movies of his trips abroad with Bob Newhart, who he was apparently close friends with. Through these small moments, and the interviews we get with his longtime friends, we get a better impression of Rickles as a man. He seems to be a quiet guy who was very close to those he loved. This would've been a meaningful contrast to his stage persona if “Mr. Warmth” devoted more time to exploring it.

“Mr. Warmth” is perhaps, more compelling, as a look at a version of show business that's even more antiquated than Rickles' material. We get a peek at what Las Vegas was like in the late fifties and early sixties. Not yet the mecca of entertainment it is now, the city was largely a collection of hotels and casinos surrounded by miles of empty deserts. There are recollections of how the Mafia kept the entire city rolling, spoken of with perhaps too much fondness. Rickles talks about working his way up through the various hotels, beginning as an opening act, moving up to headliner, and finally working his way into bigger auditoriums. Show business doesn't really work this way anymore, being a far bigger machine with many more moving parts. It's charming to see a version of the entertainment world that was far more compact and personal.

As a film, “Mr. Warmth” does not represent John Landis at his most visually innovative. It's a pretty flat looking film. We have a series of talking heads, archive footage, and relatively straight-forward presentations of Rickles' stand-up performance. There's not much to it, especially compared to “Slasher,” which was a much more exciting looking motion picture. However, there is one sequence I like in “Mr. Warmth.” We see a bag blowing over an empty Las Vegas dune, followed by similarly still shots of Rickles' shoes and suits in their closest. That was neat. 

That “Mr. Warmth” looks so flat might be owed to it being, basically, a television movie. It was produced by Dark Horse Comics' film division, played a few festivals, but basically premiered on HBO. It's essentially a fluff piece, not that different than many of the minor documentaries Landis has contributed his name to over the years. Still, I guess someone was impressed, as Rickles won a Emmy for Best Performance in a Variety Special. (Which I can't imagine was an especially packed category.) I would've liked to have seen a more personal look into Rickles' life and career, that perhaps grappled with the obvious problematic elements of his act, than this fawning look at the star. [Grade: C]