Don’t miss “Forgotten Stars,” a locally produced hoot
BY MAL VINCENT
THE CHECKERED and splintered career of Jerry Boyd and Delbert
Schwartz, faded show business legends, is chronicled in hilarious
fashion in “Forgotten Stars,” produced locally with scenes shot at
places throughout Hampton Roads, including the Naro Expanded Video shop
in Norfolk.
This film about dummies, only some of them wooden, is directed by
Richard Keel and written by James Shearer. It is a mockumentary that
chronicles the history of a ventriloquist act that goes through World
War II, movies, television, the McCarthy Red Scare, the counterculture
and, maybe, the kitchen sink.
Few bases are left untouched in this fable of a comic duo that, like Forrest Gump or Woody Allen’s Zelig, seems to turn up everywhere.
The laughs are generated by the fact that the moviemakers, and most of the performers, manage to keep a straight face about it all.
In the family background, there was the scandal of the Amazing Mesmer, a kind of psychic dummy act that was ruined when it was exposed that the blindfold over the dummy’s eyes was transparent. Even President Hoover proclaimed it a “national disgrace.”
Nonetheless, Boyd goes on to success during. World War II with his dummy partner Schwartz and an act called “Little Hitler.” Adolf Hitler himself sends out secret Nazi forces to capture “the doll that dares to mock Hitler.”
Landing in Cleveland, the act falters until it surfaces with a radio show sponsored by Lucky Strike and Race and Dearborn coffee, followed by movie success with their debut movie, “High Jinx.” The second movie, “The Dummy Meets the Mummy,” wasn’t as successful. From there, it’s downward until (drumroll) TV.
“What time is it, kids?” the announcer asks.
The answer: “A quarter past 5.”
We know better. Actually, it’s time for Puppet Playhouse, during which the kiddies are urged to learn the secret hand shake and force their parents to smoke Lucky Strikes.
In spite of all this wholesomeness, Puppet Playhouse gets into trouble when the supporting character Komrade Clown is discovered to be (shudder) a communist. It’s Joe McCarthy, not Charlie McCarthy, who makes the trouble.
Next come coffeehouses, beatniks and the counterculture for the duo, followed by an “art” movie called “Dark Gepetto” and then splitsville.
Actually, they never got along. Delbert was always a sassy wisecracker, and Jerry was too wholesome, apparently, to fight back.
Along the way, there’s a femme fatale named Ava Laslo and numerous
commentators.
Carl Gorbeck, professor of Ventriloqual Sciences, is often trotted out
as an expert. So is Denny St. Michelson, author of “Dummies and Dreams.”
Here is proof that wit doesn’t need a big budget. I was so busy laughing that I forgot to notice whose lips were moving. That, in the Jerry and Delbert Story, is the supreme compliment.
The film will be shown at 7:30 tonight at the Naro Expanded Cinema, preceded by the short “Mystic Motel,” filmed in Richmond and in studios in Petersburg.
If you miss it, “Forgotten Stars” is available on DVD.
Reach Mal Vincent at (757) 446- 2347 or mal.vincent@pilotonoine.com
MOVIE REVIEW
“Forgotten Stars: The Jerry and Delbert Story”
Director Richard Keel
Screenplay James Shearer
When 7:30 tonight at the Naro Expanded Cinema, Norfolk. Call 625-6275
for more information.
Mal’s rating: * * *