Lenny Bruce Movies
The notoriously raunchy comedy of Lenny Bruce pushed the boundaries of the First Amendment and got him into much legal trouble during the early '60s, but it also changed the face of American comedy monologues and opened the door to a grittier, more political form of standup humor. He was born Leonard Alfred Schneider, October 13, 1925, the son of performer Sally Marrs. When he first started out, he billed himself as Lenny Marrs and then Marselle before settling on the penname Bruce. His fame came from fearless monologues which utilized vulgar language and centered on such socially verboten topics as sexuality, religion, and racism. No topic was too sacred for Bruce and he was frequently harassed by authorities. But while initially his boundary-pushing performances gained him fame, they also led to his downfall; Bruce became unbookable due to the threat of nightclubs losing their licenses should he be allowed to perform. This banishment from performing also occurred abroad. His film credits include a major role in Dance Hall Racket (1954) and a screenplay for Rocket Man (1958). Bruce died of a morphine overdose on August 3, 1966, in his Hollywood residence. In 1974, Dustin Hoffman played Bruce in Bob Fosse's powerful biopic Lenny. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1998
- NR
Lenny Bruce was easily the most controversial stand-up comic of his generation. Tackling subjects that were not common fodder for humorists in the mid-1950's -- religious hypocrisy, the power of forbidden language, sexual obsessions and hang-ups, racism, drugs and the absurdity of the American cultural landscape -- Bruce created hilarious but cutting satire that made many people laugh, but also made many people angry. Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth is a documentary about Bruce's life and career that follows him from his early days as a clean if eccentric stand-up performer (including a rare clip from his appearance on Arthur Godfrey's TV show) through his eventual "liberation," performing edgier material (with looser language) at strip joints and jazz clubs, and his many legal battles over obscenity and drugs that made him all but unemployable in the last few years before his death in 1966. Lenny Bruce: I Swear to Tell the Truth includes film clips of Bruce on stage and on television (including highlights from an unaired appearance on The Steve Allen Show), interviews with his friends and family (including his mother, Sally Marr, and his wife Honey) as well as his lawyers and the prosecutors who fought against him, home movies and excerpts from the amusingly sleazy B movie he wrote and starred in, Dance Hall Racket. Robert DeNiro narrates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenny Bruce
During the 1950s and 1960s, San Francisco's hungry i nightclub (the lower case is not a mistake: that's how the name read on the club's outside wall) was a primary breeding ground for young and hungry comedy talent. The "i" is no longer in existence, but most of its more illustrious alumni are still alive and kicking. Taped in 1981, The hungry i Reunion is comprised of interviews and brief snatches of several classic comic monologues. The star roster includes Mort Sahl, Jonathan Winters, Ronnie Schell, Jackie Vernon and the inimitable Professor Irwin Corey. And just so we won't forget that the "i" was also famous for its folk-singing sessions, the Kingston Trio is on hand to stir up fond baby-boomer memories. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 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
- 1965
- Add The Lenny Bruce Performance Film to QueueAdd The Lenny Bruce Performance Film to top of Queue
Those seeking proof of the much-vaunted brilliance of the highly influential nightclub comic Lenny Bruce will probably be disappointed by Lenny Bruce: Performance Film. Shot in grainy black-and-white, this film was made at the tail end of Lenny's career, shortly before his death in 1966. By this time, Bruce had been unhinged by excessive drug abuse and by his many arrests for obscenity. Instead of striving for laughs, he rambles on bitterly and sometimes incoherently about his run-ins with the law and his outrage over having "his words" taken from him. There's an occasional spark of the Lenny Bruce of old, and a sporadic chuckle from the benumbed audience, but on balance the film is painful to watch. However, inasmuch as precious little of Lenny Bruce has survived on film, Lenny Bruce: Performance Film deserves to be seen at least once. And now for the good news: this film includes the classic animated cartoon Thank You Masked Man, wherein Lenny's voice is heard scatologically skewering the mythos of the Lone Ranger and Tonto. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenny Bruce
- 1958
Scalli (Timothy Farrell) runs a dance hall on the waterfront where lonely sailors can enjoy the company of pretty girls for a dime a dance. It's also a prime location for fencing smuggled diamonds, so Scalli keeps the hot-headed Vinnie (Lenny Bruce) in his employ as a strong-arm man. Whenever a beef arises, Vinnie can be counted on to go too far, and when one of his victims washes ashore with a dance ticket in his pocket, the customs officials put one of their men undercover to get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile, a former associate of Scalli's is being released from prison. For 11 years the jailbird has kept quiet about the location of a large stash of stolen dough. Even getting his tongue cut out while in stir wouldn't convince him to spill. Scalli throws him a party, hoping to weasel some information out of him. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of offering Vinnie's girl, Rose (Honey Harlow), as a gift, and Vinnie's temper explodes into a torrent of violence that changes everybody's plans. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- 1954
In 1954, several years before Lenny Bruce became America's most controversial and talked-about comedian, he was just another funnyman looking for a break, and he got one of a sort with Dream Follies, a low-budget burlesque feature which was written by Bruce and featured him on screen. Bruce appears as one of several office drones who while away the work day mentally undressing the secretaries and paying periodic visits to a nearby burlesque house, despite the objections of their wives and the stuffed-shirt boss. Bruce also plays a German chef with more than a slight resemblance to Adolph Hitler in one of several comic sketches that pass the time between performances by a handful of exotic dancers, including Deenah Price, Rusty Amber, Jean Carroll and Strivena. Dream Follies was directed by Phil Tucker, who later worked with Bruce on the equally threadbare exploitation feature Dance Hall Racket; Bruce's real-life mother Sally Marr also appears as the nagging wife of one of the boys at the office. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1954
The strangest aspect of the low-budget fantasy effort The Rocket Man is the fact that one of its screenwriters was Lenny Bruce. There's nothing scatalogical or even satirical in the film itself, however. Essentially an Andy Hardyesque comedy drama with a peripheral sci-fi slant, the story concerns a lonely orphan boy named Timmy (George "Foghorn" Winslow) who receives a toy ray gun for Christmas. Only it isn't a toy, but the genuine article, dropped off by a friendly spaceman. Whenever Timmy shoots the gun at someone, the rays cause the "victim" to speak nothing but the truth. The gun comes in handy when the villain of the piece (Emory Parnell) tries to evict the orphans. Timmy also uses the weapon to expedite the romance of nominal leads Anne Francis and John Agar. Also appearing in Rocket Man are Spring Byington and Charles Coburn, who'd previously been felicitously teamed in Louisa (1950). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Coburn, Spring Byington, (more)
