Gaily, Gaily

Ben Hecht wrote a book detailing his experiences as a reporter in Chicago during the early part of the century. It is more entertaining than this mix mash of a movie that jumps all over the place. The film has its moments. However, there are too few of them to see. The colorful characters that Hecht crossed paths with are watered down in this movie.

Just watched this Beau Bridges/Norman Jewison film on Netflix streaming. Based on Ben Hecht's memoirs, Bridges plays the author as Ben Harvey who comes to Chicago in 1910 to make it as a writer. There he encounters Melina Mercouri as a madam, Brian Keith as his reporter mentor, Hume Cronyn as a crooked businessman, George Kennedy as another shady figure, and Margot Kidder-in her film debut-as Bridges' first time. Plenty of period atmosphere with some quite funny lines and scenes but I have to admit that I was confused by some of the characterizations and action set pieces. Still, it was fascinating to watch so on that note, Gaily, Gaily is worth a look.

I originally saw this atmospheric turn-of-the-century comedy in the theaters in 1969, and recently saw it during the wee hours on a cable station. It still is charming and a lot of fun. Hume Cronyn is a standout in a key supporting role as a crooked politician. George Kennedy supplies a marvelous counterpoint to Bridges' wide-eyed male inguenue. And Margot Kidder nearly steals the film in her film debut as the prostitute who guides Bridges on his journey to manhood.

FYI -- another reviewer mistakenly referred to this as Beau Bridges' first movie, but he was only 20 years off. As a juvenile Bridges appeaed in 3 films -- most notably The Red Pony. As a teen, he was marvelous in the Explosive Generation as high school sex-ed teacher William Shatner's classroom nemesis. In 1967, he was riveting as the crippled hero in Larry Peerce's classic, The Incident.

It is a colorful movie, full of wonderful characters. This movie shows the life of a young boy, named Ben Harvey -maybe young Ben Hecht-who tries to succeed as a reporter in Chicago. It features in the cast the beautiful and mercurial Melina Mercouri, who as Madame Lily-owner of a brothel- 'adopts' Ben when he runs to Chicago to prove himself. Melina Mercouri provides the film with one stellar performance, but you can not stop the thought that she is restrained in some scenes, especially in the beginning with an unflattering piece of hair. She even sings a song of Henry Mancini that as far as I know has never been recorded. (Mercouri although never a professional singer, had a wonderful voice that helped here to record some classic songs like 'Never on Sunday'. Keith and Kennedy are good in their but easily forgotten. Bridges provides some somewhat stupid expressions, but his part is never developed, as N.Jewison never gave him directions.

The first 15 minutes or so are wonderful, a rose-colored reminiscence of small-town America at the turn of the last century that suggests "Ah, Wilderness!" Then the Ben Hecht prototype, played by Beau Bridges with such innocence as to border on retardation, lights out for Chicago, and the narrative loses traction. It's quite a gorgeous, expensive production, and Melina Mercouri helps out as the madam who takes him under her wing (this was right toward the end of the movie era when prostitutes and bordellos were considered automatically titillating and hilarious, hence neither Mercouri nor any of her girls are fleshed out as characters). The always-good Brian Keith is Ben's alcoholic newspaper mentor, and other good actors mill about (Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy), but it's all color and very little forward thrust. Chicago 1910 had to be more interesting than this, and there must be more compelling stories to tell about it.