Gilda Live (1980)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Anne Beatts (writer) and
Lorne Michaels (writer) ...

Genre:

Comedy | Documentary

Tagline:

Things like this only happen in the movies.

Plot:

A filmed version of the Broadway show starring comedienne Gilda Radner, complete with the characters she made famous on the TV show "Saturday Night Live." |

Plot Keywords:

Saturday Night Live | Rock Star | Substitute Teacher | Film Of Broadway Show | Gymnast

Cast

Gilda Radner	...	Herself / Various Characters
Don Novello	...	Father Guido Sarducci
Paul Shaffer	...	Don Kirshner / The Candy Slice Group
Nils Nichols	...	Roadie
Bob Christianson	...	Audition scene pianist
Howard Shore	...	The Candy Slice Group (as The Candy Slice Group)
Diana Grasselli
Miriam Valle
Maria Vidal
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Johnny Caruso	...	The Candy Slice Group (as The Candy Slice Group)
G.E. Smith	...	The Candy Slice Group (as The Candy Slice Group)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Broadway Productions

Trivia:

This was filmed at the same time as "The Blues Brothers", which created a conflict for Paul Shaffer. At the urging of Lorne Michaels, Shaffer chose to work on "Gilda: Live". His part in "The Blues Brothers" was given to Murphy Dunne and John Belushi is said to have remarked "Paul Shaffer is not a Blues Brother".

Soundtrack:

Don Kirshner/Rhonda Weiss Introduction/Go...

See it on video--with one finger on the fast-forward button

For years I watched this movie on a personal videotape with all the dross edited out---most of which contains Don Novello (aka Father Sarducci) filling up time while Gilda Radner changes costumes backstage. Recently seeing the film "uncut", I cannot begin to say how Novello drags this down. He is the worst kind of unfunny comedian, with smug, pothead observations about life stemming from the obviousness of the human condition and dated bits of politics which are no longer topical. Radner, on the other hand, is amazing in her sets: rarely frantic or desperate for laughs, she plows right through if a joke happens to bomb. If only Hollywood could've tapped into this bottle of unabashed energy and self-delight, we might've seen Gilda in some hot comedies. Her takes on Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna are outrageously funny, her timing so sweet when she sings "The Way We Were" as Lisa Loopner, her wit sharp but always tempered with love. She clearly was one-of-a-kind, proving that Hollywood does make mistakes--one of them being its inability to turn this crowd-pleasing woman into a star. **1/2 from ****