With the year’s end “light at the end of the tunnel” in sight, 2018’s parade of distinguished feature documentaries marches on with another “crowd-pleaser” bringing up the rear. Cinemas have been host to truly exceptional works of non-fiction filmmaking. This week’s release joins the impressive list of the “celebrity showbiz profile” sub-genre that includes the box office hit WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR along with WHITNEY, MCQUEEN, and QUINCY. Though music doesn’t play as big a role in this subject’s life as in several of these films, she made her greatest cultural impact on television, just as NEIGHBOR’s Fred Rogers. Oh, and her works were much more “adult” in nature, While Rogers was a daytime TV king to countless kids, she was the first real “queen of late-night TV comedy”. And while she’s been gone for nearly three decades, her influence seems to be felt now, more than ever. This film profiles Ms. Radner, the superstar who ended nearly all her writings with two simple words: LOVE, GILDA.
The film begins with footage from the show that made her famous, with Gilda commanding everyone’s attention at a trendy “watering hole”. It then backtracks over twenty years with snapshots and jittery old 8mm silent home movie footage of plump-cheeked little Gilda, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, her eyes darting about in search of the camera, ready to perform a dance or make a funny face. Older brother Michael tells us of the food issues that started very early, and how her mom got “diet pills” (speed, basically) prescribed for the out-going, “zaftig” ten-year-old. Then her journals and diaries are brought out. When Gilda’s own voice isn’t availible, several current comic actors are enlisted to provide the audible. Many are connected to Gilda’s TV alma mater “Saturday Night Live”. Frequent “guest host” and current “queen of movie comedy” Melissa McCarthy, current SNL cast member Cecily Strong, and SNL vets Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, and (token fella’) Bill Hader read different passages (Hader seems like Indiana Jones finding a long-hidden treasure, stifling a plea that “These belong in a museum!”). We’re told of Gilda receiving love from an elderly nanny named “Dibby” while poppa and mama were too busy with business and high society in Detroit. When she left home for the University of Michigan, Gilda continued to search for love, amassing many boyfriends, before following one, a sculptor, to Canada. When that romance fizzled, Gilda plunged into the theatre scene, and became part of the Toronto cast of “Godspell”. Show creator Stephen Schwartz, piano accompaniest Paul Shaffer, and fellow castmate, and former beau, Martin Short share their memories, along with a funny audio recording. We see Gilda jump from the stages of the Toronto Second City to the NYC sound booth of the National Lampoon as part of their radio show and comedy album ensemble (and her first encounter with John Belushi). After a couple of NatLamp stage shows, Lorne Michaels signed her up (really, Gilda was the first to be hired) for a new live weekend late night comedy/music NBC show. Michaels is interviewed along with fellow SNL-ers Chevy Chase and Laraine Newman, and writers Anne Beatts, Rosie Shuster, and Alan Zweibel. The filmmakers provide us with a refresher course on the many characters Gilda inhabited during her five year run on the show, all while still searching for her soul mate (much is made of the long affair with Bill Murray), and battling various eating disorders. We’re treated to several behind-the-scenes videos from her Broadway show (turned into the feature film GILDA LIVE!), and see her cavorting with future husband, guitarist G.E. Smith. When her stint at SNL ended, Gilda was adrift until landing a movie role in the film HANKY PANKY opposite movie “comedy king” Gene Wilder. After divorcing Smith, she married Gene, then signing letters with “love, Gilda Radner-Wilder”. This should have been her “happily ever after”, but several failed pregnancies eventually led to the discovery of Ovarian cancer. The film then chronicles Gilda’s health struggles, her remission, an attempted comeback via TV’s “It’s Gary Shandling’s Show”, and the disease’s final fatal return. Aside from her TV comedy legacy, several cancer screenings programs bear her name along with many cancer-affected family support centers around the world bearing her name and image, “Gilda’s Club”.
First-time feature director Lisa Dapolito has done a terrific job of wrangling the massive amount of archive footage while eliciting funny, honest responses from her interview subjects. While viewers might wish for more complete SNL sketches (the inspired Fellini parody “La Dolce Gilda” would have best illustrated her complex, conflicting thoughts on fame), but we get enough of on insight on her many recurring characters (a taste of Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna, etc.) to grasp her importance on the show’s infancy. And some still living folks are sorely missing from the “talking heads” clips. The third of “Chevy’s Angels”, Jane Curtain might have some great backstage stories. And any comments from Bill Murray would have been a major coup (doubtful of that ever happening, since Gilda barely mentioned him in her memoir, “It’s Always Something”). I was hoping to know a bit more about the time just after SNL. No mention of THE FIRST FAMILY, Gilda’s first big-time feature film, post-SNL, which bombed. Nor do we hear of her part in Jean Kerr’s play “Lunch Hour”, which bounced around to several theatres to little fanfare. This would help explain those limbo years, the very early 1980’s, in which the studios had no idea how to capitalize on her incredible popularity. It’s a great choice to have much of Gilda’s written thoughts interpreted by several members of the exclusive comedy club she helped establish. The stars bring the prose to life along with graphics that highlight passages for dramatic effect. And the early childhood home movie footage bookended with the jumpy video-cam shot scenes of domestic bliss with family and friends at Casa de Wilder give the film an extraordinary intimacy. The comic icon morphs into a warm, sympathetic human being. While many big fans (myself very much included) bemoan some exclusions, the rarities included, particularly the awkward spot with Tom Snyder on “Tomorrow” and the chaotic live prime time New Orleans SNL special (in which the cast realized that they were akin to rock stars), more than make this a pop culture event. Though the tale comes to a real tragic conclusion, the film is a real celebration of a remarkable talent who truly reached through the TV screen and grabbed the public by the “funny bone” and the heart. All those touched by her story should love LOVE, GILDA.
4.5 Out of 5
LOVE, GILDA opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas
