The Life of Reilly: A Film Review

"The only help for mankind is laughter." - Mark Twain

"When I die, it's going to read, 'Game Show Fixture Passes Away'. Nothing about the theater, or Tony Awards, or Emmys. But it doesn't bother me" - Charles Nelson Reilly

Once in awhile you see a film and the subject makes you think "What were the filmmakers thinking?!" Which is precisely what I thought when I saw Civilian Pictures had made a movie about the life of 70s game show icon Charles Nelson Reilly. Admittedly I am too young to remember much of him. I remember his name. I remember his ridiculous Liberace-like wardrobe from game shows in the 70s. I remember how people would write into Parade magazine in the Sunday paper and ask if he was still alive. And thank God he is, or we would not have this wonderful film to take us on the journey through his life. But it is still one of the most intriguing and bizarre subjects for a film I've come across in years.

The Life of Reilly was CNR's one man show. And it is precisely what it claims to be. Reilly takes the stage and begins to tell the story of his life. We hear about his Swedish mother who rarely went anywhere without her weapon -- a baseball bat. We hear about his father, his alcoholism and how he left his mother for "Miss Marion." We hear about how his mother refused to divorce his father, but he married Miss Marion anyway, rendering him a bigamist and Nelson Reilly the homosexual son of an angry Swede and an alcoholic bigamist.

Now if that is not a background rife with comedic material, what is?

Born in Brooklyn in 1931, Reilly grew up a sickly, terribly near sighted child who even as a kid could not hide the mannerisms stereotypically associated with homosexuality, thus earning him the unenviable nickname of "Mary." His family and neighborhood were filled with rich characters that he reveals to us by assigning them movie stars, as in "my upstairs Italian neighbor who hung out the window and yelled at us while we were playing stickball would be played by Sylvester Stallone." This gives his audience a real reference point to relate to, it draws the audience right into the story as if we are living it right alongside Reilly.