Genre:
Film, TV & Radio
Release Date: 12/18/2007
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 137 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Salient Media/Vivendi Visual Entertainment
As one of the few heavyweight comedians of Vegas's "Golden Age" to topline standup routines in 21st century Glitter Gulch - a time and place that saw him still reeling in massive audiences well into his 70s and 80s -
Don Rickles qualifies as a show business legend.
Rickles, of course, pioneered the use of insult comedy to mercilessly rib, skewer, and cut down to size anyone who happened to fall into his line of fire, earning him the sobriquets "Mr. Warmth" and "The Merchant of Venom" and lending a whole new meaning to the term "hockey puck." This approach, which seemed unprecedented and even outrageously uncouth in the late 1950s and early 1960s, eventually won
Rickles legions of fans and innumerable protégés within show business - everyone from
Richard Pryor to
Chris Rock and
Sarah Silverman. Director
John Landis (
National Lampoon's Animal House,
Trading Places) stands at the forefront of
Rickles's fan club and created the documentary
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project as an homage to the comic's life and career.
Landis intercuts footage from the
Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts and
Rickles's appearances on
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, with extended clips from the shtickmeister's comedy routines and on-camera interviews in which the comedian reflects at length on his approach to comedy and journey through showbusiness. Admirers, colleagues and followers of
Rickles also turn up to offer their views on the comedian - including
Martin Scorsese,
Christopher Guest,
Robin Williams,
Sarah Silverman,
Sidney Poitier,
Clint Eastwood and many others.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
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