Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project

If you love the humor of Don Rickles, then this film is for you! It consists of lots of clips from candid interviews with the man, his friends, Hollywood folks who love him as well as clips from his stand- up routine and TV/movie appearances. It's everything Rickles you'd ever want to see or know. You learn about his wife, his mother, his old beloved agent, his friend Harry, his buddy Bob Newhart, Johnny Carson and much much. Throughout, Rickles is naturally very abrasive and silly and you get a bit of a feel as to what it was like in the days of old Vegas. It's all very well assembled and the people making the film obviously had great respect and love for the guy. And, amazingly, years after this was made, Rickles is STILL on the road entertaining folks! Well worth seeing.

John Landis's new documentary on Don Rickles, Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, works best when focused squarely on its star attraction. Every so often Landis gets distracted in telling (or rather showing other people like Bob Newhart) go on about the glory days of a mob-run Las Vegas, and it starts to loose a little of its focus. And every so often he takes a misstep with the editing. But since comedy is Landis's strong-suit as a director, anyway, it's fitting that his film works best when his subject is given the full-treatment, either in clips of his performances, his old Johnny Carson appearances, or with some of his adulators telling it like it is: he's one of the funniest stand-up comics of his time. And still today he kiss: watching him completely skewer every single race and both sexes in a Vegas audience is dynamite (sometimes you just wait for him to drop his microphone in ironic disgust).

Just hearing the man tell stories, or talk about his wonderful (and wonderfully Jewish) mother, or doing lovingly stupid imitations of his wife (the tongue is what clicks it), is entertaining. He's a man who takes his fame completely in stride, but not for granted. He tells of a cruel prank done on the set of Run Silent Run Deep involving him and Clark Gable; he goes overboard as host of the Tonight Show by breaking Carson's box or whatever, and Carson goes right next-door to the set of Rickles's show, where after he apologizes he says "ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Carson!" And then the testimonies themselves bring up laughs (Sarah Silverman comments how Rickles taught her what black people were like living secluded in New Hampshire), even if it's just repeating old Rickles lines. His is a very precise shtick where finding the line and only going across it so much is like an art- you don't want to make it into a totally sensationalist exercise, but the audience still has to have a good time at not only others' expenses, but their own. It's a kind of all-inclusive comedy, be it the schmuck who's 300 pounds and with a dopey wife, or the president, or, of course most brilliantly, Dean Martin.

It's not exactly a great documentary, but it's a fine showcase, and the kind of remembrance for one of those old kings of comedy that haven't yet kicked the bucket, like (unfortunately) so many in show-biz have in recent years. 7.5/10

More of a tribute to a comedic legend than a true documentary, this John Landis directed love letter to the great Mr. Rickles is pretty good none the less. Consisting of various actors and directors of note giving their (naturally) praise for the beloved comedian, interspersed with clips from his Vegas shows, late show appearances, old films, Friars' Roasts, and home movies with longtime friend, Bob Newhart.

While the film does have a very small amount of missteps editing and a few instances where it veers off-topic to ill effect, for the most part it's quite highly enjoyable and hilarious to boot. Any true fan (myself included)of Don will no doubt treasure it and watch it multiple times.

So what ya waiting' for? Go check it out on HBO while it's still on, Hockey Puck.

I would love to hear Don Rickles. George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Robin Williams take on our current cancel culture. Gotta believe they wouldn't cave.

Loving documentary about comedian Don Rickles from director John Landis. Part biography, part tribute by past and contemporary entertainers, and also a dissection about why Rickles racist and seemingly mean-spirited schtick goes over so well with audiences. For anyone familiar with Rickles, the film doesn't really cover any new ground, but the best part of the film is the interviews with the people who worked with him in Las Vegas back in the Rat Pack days. Sadly there aren't so many of them still alive, but there are chats with the likes of Bob Newhart, Steve Lawrence, Ed McMahon, Debbie Reynolds, Jack Carter, Joan Rivers, Keely Smith, Tom and Dick Smothers, and Frankie Avalon. It's their behind the scenes stories from back in the day that I found most interesting and wish the film had focused more on, although it is also somewhat interesting to hear younger generations of comedians commenting on Rickles' influence (Richard Lewis, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Whoopie Goldberg, Robin Williams, Rosanne Barr, Dave Attell, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Penn Jillette, Bobby Slayton, George Lopez, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Harry Shearer, Bob Saget) or hearing actors and filmmakers he's worked with share stories (Harry Dean Stanton, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Sidney Poitier, Martin Scorsese, Ernest Borgnine, Carl Reiner, Roger Corman, James Caan, John Lasseter, John Stamos). Overall, this is worth watching for fans of Rickles, but is not really insightful enough to draw in a wider unfamiliar audience.