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Gigot

1962, Movie, NR, 104 mins

Gigot: Review

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Filmed entirely in Paris with obvious love and affection, GIGOT was an enormous flop at the box office. Gleason, in an attempt to bring Chaplinesque pantomime back to the screen, wrote the story and the music and starred in the film. He and director Kelly were so disappointed by Fox's handling of the movie that they felt it was their most unhappy experience in the picture business. Gleason based the character on his TV "poor soul" portrayal and attempted to lengthen it into a full feature. It works, but no one wanted to shell out money to see a character they'd seen so often for nothing on the small screen. Kelly and Gleason also carped about the fact that the studio edited the film after they had handed it in. We'll never know what the movie might have been, but what it turned out to be was still pretty good, even for viewers who are not Gleason enthusiasts. The major problem is that we never get a full story. Rather, we get a study. Gleason is a big, mute oaf who works as a maintenance man at a small pension in Paris. Loved by the children and the various dogs in the neighborhood, he is the butt of all the jokes of his needling employer, Dorziat, a mean miser. Gleason's hobby appears to be going to funerals, where he can feel as though he belongs to some sort of group, depressing though it may be. He meets Kath, a street hooker, and her daughter, Gardner, and invites them to stay with him in his seedy basement apartment. Gleason and Gardner have a special relationship; and when Kath says she wants to leave because she cannot afford to stay, Gleason steals some francs from the bakery in order to keep her there. Kath goes out one night with her lover and returns to the basement to find that her daughter and Gleason have disappeared. She believes that Gleason has kidnaped the child and alerts everyone in the area. Gleason, however, is actually amusing Gardner in a subbasement below the regular subterranean room. The ceiling of the room falls in, and the child is hurt. Gleason takes her through back alleys to his priest, who immediately calls for a doctor. When he goes back to the boarding house, he is spotted by an angry crowd convinced that he is a child abuser--or perhaps a murderer. The crowd chases Gleason, and he falls into the Seine. When all the people see of him is his floating hat, they assume he is dead. At this point Gardner appears and tells them what has happened. Now the neighborhood is filled with guilt, so they throw a huge funeral, the kind of send-off Gleason would have loved to attend. Up in a tree, like a latter-day Tom Sawyer, Gleason watches his own last rites delightedly. Soon enough, he is spotted by one of the tearful attendees, and the chase begins again as the picture concludes. GIGOT is beautifully photographed but could have been pruned by 10 minutes for greater effectiveness. Gleason proves again that he is one of the best mimes since silent films. He never had the career in movies that he wanted. After a series of small parts in pictures (NAVY BLUES, ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, ORCHESTRA WIVES, SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES), he went to TV and became a giant before distinguishing himself in THE HUSTLER and REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT. But the rest of his pictures--such trifles as MR. BILLION, HOW DO I LOVE THEE, and the atrocious SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (twice)--are better forgotten. The musical score was nominated for an Oscar. leave a comment
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