Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007)

The documentary consists of tape of Don's show (never been filmed before), interviews with Don's contemporaries, (Steve Lawrence, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, etc.), established comedians ... See full summary »

Director:

John Landis

Stars:

Harry Dean Stanton, John Landis, Don Rickles

Won 2 Primetime Emmys.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Himself / Private Willard
John Landis	...	Himself / Sister Rosa Stigmata
Don Rickles	...	Himself / Crapgame / Petty Officer Ruby / Crane / Nellie / Anne Bancroft / Big Drop / Mr. Potato Head
Clint Eastwood	...	Himself / Private Kelly / 'Dirty' Harry Callahan
Robert De Niro	...	Himself
Richard Lewis	...	Himself
Victor Figueredo	...	Himself
Conrad Hermogenes	...	Himself
Paul Shefrin	...	Himself
Heidi Akawa	...	Herself
Peggy March	...	Herself
Joe Mele	...	Himself
Chris Rock	...	Himself
Tom McDermott	...	Guitar
Jack Cenna	...	Percussion

Storyline

The documentary consists of tape of Don's show (never been filmed before), interviews with Don's contemporaries, (Steve Lawrence, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, etc.), established comedians (Billy Crystal, Rosanna Barr, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, etc.) and young comedians (Jeff Atoll, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, etc.). We have interviewed over 30 people including actors, directors (John Landis, Christopher Guest, Sidney Poitier, Jay Leno, etc.) and various people in Don's life (his composer, orchestra, manager etc.). In addition, we will use some of Don's home movies, clips from the Tonight Show, various TV shows, movies etc. We'll see one of the last great comedians of his era.

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Plot Keywords:

comedian | las vegas nevada | racism | racial slur | stand up comedy | 

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Taglines:

Make way for Mr. Nice Guy

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Genres:

Documentary | Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 December 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Don Rickles Documentary

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dark Horse Indie, Salient Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

While Bobby Slayton lists the many shows Rickles appeared on in the 1960's, he names Bewitched. Rickles never appeared on the show.

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Connections

Features Judge Mathis (1998)

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Soundtracks

"I Will Follow Him"
Written by Arthur Altman, Norman Gimbel, Roy F. Stolle, Paul Mauriat,
Jacques Plante, Louis Plurcel
Performed by Peggy March

User Reviews

Great humour and a grand step away from all the crassness and vulgarity of modern humour

Mr. Warmth (Don Rickles) is in this world, but not of this world. His mind simply doesn't seem to comprehend things the way an average person would and his life is one long disaster because of this, getting himself into constant mishaps and far out, zany situations, which he is left to sort out on his own as he doesn't seem to mix with anyone and he insults his benefactors. But he never gives up and, despite the simplest of tasks being a constant struggle for him, applying his own zany methods of solving the problem always pays off for him in the end.

To look at the sorry state of modern humour, with all it's focus of farting and general vulgarity, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that a show like Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project was made at one time. There's nothing unsuitable going on here, just good, clean U rated humour of the type Jacky Mason and the like made in the 50s. And I find it just as laugh out loud funny now in my early 20s as I did when I was a young boy in the early 90s.

Although I can look at it a little deeper now and see there must be more to this character than than meets the eye. There must be a reason why he does things the way he does and things seem to keep going wrong for him. As others have noted, it looks like he may have a type of autism. In fact I'm so convinced about it that I really think were a professional psychologist to analyse him, I think Mr. Warmth could be the first famous, fictional character to be diagnosed with something like Asperger's Syndrome.

If you'd like to see some truly hilarious humour at it's very best before it all became obsessed with farting and vulgarity, then this would come highly recommended. Shows like Finding Nemo do work because it's well realised but it's really just as vulgar as the rest. Shows like this show were more restrained and civilised once, and hopefully we might start putting out this type of humour more again anytime soon.

Don Rickles is the first thought that will emerge when you think of comedy in Bollywood. Comedy has been a vital part of any movie and a lot of movies have been made only on comedy. Stars like Ashok Kumar was a natural comedian. In the past the entire movie would be a comedy and there were directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee who were specialists in these kinds of movies. Then slowly comedy began taking a back seat and today comedy is only a part of the movie. At this time comedians like Josh Brolin, Asrani and Kadar Khan have made a mark for themselves.