Jackie Gleason Movies
Rotund comedian-actor Jackie Gleason (born Herbert John Gleason) broke into show business at age 15 by winning an amateur-night contest and went on to perform in vaudeville, carnivals, nightclubs, and roadhouses. In 1940 he was signed to a film contract by Warner Bros., and he debuted onscreen in Navy Blues (1941). His career was interrupted by World War II, but at the war's end, Gleason returned to Hollywood, this time playing character roles in a number of films. His film work, however, lent little strength to his career, and he performed in several Broadway shows before achieving major success as the star of such TV comedy series as The Life of Riley, The Honeymooners, and The Jackie Gleason Show. It was during his reign on television that Gleason created such enduring characters as Ralph Kramden (the loud-mouth busdriver from The Honeymooners), Reggie Van Gleason, and Joe the Bartender. As a result of the comedic talents he displayed on TV, he became known as "The Great One." Gleason returned to films in the early '60s in lead roles, both comic and dramatic (he earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in The Hustler [1961]), but he never had as much success in movies as he did on TV. He did have some success in the late '70s and early '80s playing a good-ole'-boy Southern sheriff in the Smokey and the Bandit series of action-comedies. His long career also included a period when he composed, arranged, and conducted recordings of mood music. Gleason died in 1987 of cancer. His grandson is actor Jason Patric. ~ All Movie Guide
- 2008
This release compiles a number of songs by the legendary Louis Armstrong. Taken over the course of four different decades, these performances often feature other superstars such as Gene Krupa, Bing Crosby, and Jackie Gleason. Among the numbers delivered are "Blueberry Hill," "When the Saints Go Marching In," and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Armstrong
The compilation release Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work collects, into a single volume, many of "The Great One"'s most beloved comedy sketches from the annals of vintage television. The sketches - many of which were not widely viewed between their original airdates and this video release - are here presented full and intact, interspersed with insights from Gleason's widow, Marilyn Taylor Gleason; the program also features commentary by Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Created for the TNT television network, The Wool Cap is a remake of the 1962 film Gigot, which was written by and starred the legendary Jackie Gleason. This time around, it's Academy Award-nominee and Emmy winner William H. Macy (Fargo) handling the lead role, as well as teleplay and producer duties. Macy stars as Gigot, a curmudgeonly mute who works as the super at a worn-down apartment building. After living a lonely existence for most of his years, Gigot finds his life turned upside-down when he unwittingly finds himself in the care of a precocious young girl named Lou (Keke Palmer). Also starring Ned Beatty and Catherine O'Hara, The Wool Cap netted a 2005 Golden Globe nod for Macy. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William H. Macy, Keke Palmer, (more)
- 2001
This collection features a variety of the funniest, if seldom-seen moments in The Honeymooners, and, of course, stars comedy greats Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph. For a more extensive collection of these "lost" episodes, try The Honeymooners: The Lost Episodes: Boxed Set. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This collection features a selection of classic footage and backstage looks at the popular "Jackie Gleason Show." ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Featuring the classically comedic antics of Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows, The Honeymooners: Greatest Battles is a 60-minute compilation spotlighting some of the series' most notable moments of verbal warfare between Ralph (Gleason) and Alice (Meadows), his no-nonsense wife.
~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
Garry Marshall directed this film which starts as a light comedy but moves into heavy-duty drama later on. David Basner (Tom Hanks in a good performance) works in an ad agency, where he enjoys bantering with his co-workers and meets a lot of women. He hasn't been especially close to his father (Jackie Gleason) and never thought about him much until his Dad is left devastated when his wife of 36 years walks out on him. He is soon faced with serious health problems as well. This propels the elder Basner on a downward slide that affects David and their relationship. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Jackie Gleason, (more)
Honeymooners stars Jackie Gleason and Art Carney re-team for this tea-teetotaling comedy about a pair of down-on-their-luck vaudeville actors who go to work as prohibition agents. The time is the Roaring Twenties, and the advent of the motion picture has made vaudeville old news. When the stage lights dim, actors Isadore Einstein and Morris Smith are forced to consider another line of work. Now, in order to keep food on the table and help halt crime, Isadore and Morris begin using their unique penchant for disguise to bust the local speakeasies and stop the mob from ruling the streets. Unfortunately for Isadore and Morris, the mob isn't willing to loosen their grip on the lucrative alcohol trade quite so easily, and the duo soon finds themselves targeted by some of the meanest criminals that the underworld has to offer. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Although penned by the same screenwriter, David S. Ward, this sequel to The Sting (1973) is tarnished by comparisons to its predecessor. Jackie Gleason fills the shoes of Paul Newman as Harry Gondorff and Mac Davis slips into the Robert Redford role of Johnny Hooker, two con men pals whose latest "sting" involves Hooker pretending to be a down on his luck boxer. Their goal is the fixing of a prizefight, which will rook a tacky nightclub owner (Karl Malden) out of a fortune while simultaneously getting revenge on their old nemesis, Doyle Lonnegan (Oliver Reed). On their side is Veronica (Teri Garr), a seasoned scam artist, but what Gondorff and Hooker don't know is that Lonnegan is manipulating events behind the scenes. Director Jeremy Paul Kagan followed up this terribly unfunny and inferior sequel with the much better received The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), while Ward became a director of such comedies as Major League (1989) and King Ralph (1991). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Mac Davis, (more)
- 1983
- PG
In this plotless, mindless chase movie, papa Big Enos and son Little Enos (Pat McCormick and Paul Williams) hire Cletus (Jerry Reed) to haul a Jaws-replica shark from Miami to Texas to advertise their new seafood restaurant. There is big money in it for Cletus if he can get to Texas on time. Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) mistakes Cletus for his old nemesis the Bandit (Burt Reynolds, who only appears briefly at the end of the film), postpones his retirement, and with his inept son Junior (Mike Henry) in tow, chases Cletus across the South for a disconnected series of misadventures and bad jokes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, (more)
- 1983
A recent widower (Laurence Olivier) agrees to have a drink with his late wife's old flame (Jackie Gleason) after the funeral. While there, he is surprised to learn that the man remained an oft-seen platonic friend until just before his wife's death. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
In The Toy, director Richard Donner and screenwriter Carol Sobieski update the 1976 Pierre Richard farce Le Jouet as a vehicle for comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor stars as out-of-work journalist Jack Brown, who's hit with the sudden realization that his idle book writing won't pay a 10,000-dollar sum necessary to keep his house from going to auction. Desperate, he is improbably hired as a cleaning lady in the offices of rich businessman and newspaper magnate U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason). Running afoul of Bates' quick temper, Jack gets the axe, but is later spotted goofing around in a Bates-owned toy store by Bates' bratty son, Eric (Scott Schwartz), who's spending his annual week together with his estranged father. Taking his father's offer that he may have "anything in the store" quite literally, the spoiled kid asks for Jack as his personal toy for the week. Initially unwilling to be treated as a possession, Jack soon agrees after Bates offers to pay him enough to climb out of debt. When Eric's idea of fun includes dumping buckets of booby-trapped oatmeal on Jack's head and riding down the stairs of his father's mansion with Jack riding shotgun in a miniature car, it tests both Jack's patience and his resolve. But Jack discovers that Bates is ignoring Eric, which strengthens the bond between them and prompts them to seek revenge on the big jerk. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, (more)
Former stuntman Hal Needham made his directorial debut with the first Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and repeated his success with the sequel, a virtual remake that substituted a live elephant for a truckload of beer. Burt Reynolds returns as law-defying anti-hero Bandit, now a washed-up alcoholic whose girlfriend Carrie (Sally Field) has left him. When a pair of eccentric, wealthy brothers named Big Enos (Pat McCormick) and Little Enos (Paul Williams) approach Bandit with an offer of work, he and trucker pal Cledus (Jerry Reed) jump at the chance. The gig involves transporting an elephant to the Republican National Convention in twenty-four hours. The wrinkle is that the pachyderm is about to give birth -- any minute. Enter "Doc" (Dom DeLuise) a bizarre medical man who joins the team to care for the expectant mother, and Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), who has not forgotten the humiliations that he suffered during Bandit's last "mission." Needham's films were instantly forgettable cocktails of car chases, car crashes, and lowbrow humor. Reynolds and Needham teamed up over a dozen times in various action comedy pictures. Audiences of the late Seventies loved their anti-authority redneck humor and made their early collaborations into box office smashes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, (more)
"Smokey," aka Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), is the prospective father-in-law of unwilling bride Carrie (Sally Field). The Bandit (Burt Reynolds), a maverick racecar driver, makes an 80,000-dollar bet that he can transport a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana, TX, to Atlanta within 28 hours. It's important to note that in 1977, it was illegal to sell the Coors brand east of the Mississippi River without a permit; if we don't note that, then the plot won't make sense at times. Already in danger of arrest from redneck lawmen like Buford T. Justice, Bandit furthers his chances at a stiff jail term when he offers a ride to Carrie, who hopes to escape her unwanted wedding to Justice's boy. The rest of the film is one long chase; not quite as subtle as a Road Runner/Coyote cartoon, not quite as restrained as a Three Stooges comedy. Universally panned by critics upon its first release, Smokey and the Bandit reportedly pulled in just under $126 million and led to two sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, (more)
An Italian mechanic (Terence Hill) finds that he has inherited a billion-dollar company from his dead uncle, but he needs to be in San Francisco in 20 days to sign over the will. In the meantime, he is chased by kidnappers and the affected corporation's president (Jackie Gleason). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terence Hill, Valerie Perrine, (more)
- 1974
Watch the comedy unfold as Milton Berle trades wisecracks with his hilarious guests on this videotape. Some of the funniest people in show business are featured in this collection hosted by "Mr. Television" himself. Pat Buttran, Dick Martin, Mort Sahl, and Eddie Quillon are interviewed. Footage of Abbott and Costello, Lenny Bruce, Martin and Lewis, Jackie Gleason, and many others is included. ~ Karla Baker, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Milton Berle
- 1970
- PG
In this syrupy comedy, a father attempts to reconnect with his troubled, estranged son, a philosophy professor. The chance at reconciliation comes when the son learns that his father, whom he hasn't seen in years is fighting a strange nameless movie disease in a French hospital. The young man's wife is not pleased. While aboard the jet, the son reflects upon his upbringing and the fights that would erupt between his mother, a fundamentalist Christian, and his father, an atheist. He remembers how his father turned to a free-spirited artist for comfort. Just before she left him, the artist gave the father a lovely poem. Later after his son became a teacher, the father decides to enter to piece in a poetry contest and wins $10,0000, which he plans to donate to his son's department. Unfortunately someone discovers that the artist's "original" poem is anything but and the father is publicly humiliated while his son is passed for promotion. Seeing how unhappy his son has become, the father decides to go to a church and pray for his son to get promoted. It works, but unfortunately a man had to die for the son to get it leaving the father to be wracked with guilt. Fortunately with the son's arrival comes the father's salvation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Maureen O'Hara, (more)
Frank Benson (Bob Hope) and his wife, Elaine (Jane Wyman), decide to end their marriage after 20 years. Their daughter, Nancy (Joanna Cameron), announces she wishes to marry her college sweetheart, David Poe (Tim Matheson). David's father, Oliver (Jackie Gleason), is against the union and tries to sabotage the relationship. Nancy ends up pregnant and puts the baby up for adoption. Frank and Elaine become the foster parents to their grandchild. Frank poses as the young couple's guru to get them to raise the child themselves. Leslie Nielsen plays Phil, a divorced man who dates Elaine, while Frank takes up with Lois (Maureen Arthur). Comedy ensues when, at Oliver's urging, Frank and Elaine join the rock group the Comfortable Chair. Another sequence has a chimpanzee beating a frustrated Frank easily in a game of golf. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, (more)
Don't Drink The Water is taken from a play by Woody Allen. Walter Hollander (Jackie Gleason) is a middle-aged caterer from Newark, New Jersey who takes his wife Marion (Estelle Parsons) and his teenage daughter Susan (Joan Delaney) on a tour of Europe. When their plane is high-jacked to Vulgaria, Walter is mistaken for an international spy when he takes some photographs. Secret agent Krojack (Michael Constantine) is dispatched to capture the alleged spy. The family takes refuge in the American embassy where Axel Magee (Ted Bessell) is the son of the ambassador. Axel arranges for the family to stay there, but leaving then becomes the problem. Susan's problems are solved when she and Axel are married, providing her with diplomatic immunity. Walter and Marion are forced to disguise themselves as part of an Arab delegation to escape from Vulgaria. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Estelle Parsons, (more)
