Ernie Kovacs Movies
A certified comic genius, Ernie Kovacs' great accomplishments lay in his sublimely creative, way-ahead-of-its-time television work; he was seldom shown to best advantage in films. Born in New Jersey to Hungarian immigrants, Kovacs was an unremarkable student, though he excelled in high school theatricals. A serious bout with pleurisy ended his training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After working with a ragtag theatrical troupe, Kovacs attained his first radio work as an announcer for Trenton's WTTM. As the station's director of special events, the mustachioed, cigar-smoking Kovacs gained a fan following by staging such zany events as lying on a railroad track as a train approached, informing the listeners at home how it felt to be so close to death! He inaugurated his television career at Philadelphia's WPTZ in 1950, where he stretched the limits of the primitive medium with wild sketches, nonsequitur sight gags and trick photography. He carried this innovative spirit into his first network program, 1952's Kovacs Unlimited.Though none of his subsequent TV projects ever achieved the high ratings that they deserved, Kovacs was the object of an intense cult worship, comprised mostly of people who were sick to death of boob-tube banality and who thrived on Kovacs' willingness to experiment. In 1954, Kovacs married singer Edie Adams, who frequently starred in his TV endeavors; she also assisted him in his feverish efforts to reclaim his two children from a previous marriage who'd been kidnapped by wife number one. While generally master of his own domain on television, Kovacs was at the mercy of Hollywood typecasting when he began his film career with Operation Mad Ball (1957). He portrayed so many obnoxious Army officers that at one point he took out a trade paper ad, imploring "No More Captains--Please." His own favorite film was the offbeat Five Golden Hours (1961), in which he portrayed a larcenous professional mourner who meets his match in professional widow Cyd Charisse.
After completing his last film, Sail a Crooked Ship (1961), Kovacs concentrated his efforts on his ABC-TV monthly specials, wherein he transformed the running gag into an art form, brought inanimate objects to life, "visualized" the musical compositions of Beethoven, Stravinsky and Mahler, and hawked Dutch Masters cigars between the acts. The audacious brilliance of Ernie Kovacs came to an abrupt, tragic end when he was killed in an auto accident at the age of 42. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Produced by White Star, this title is the third entry in the Best of Ernie Kovacs series. A cult favorite even decades after his untimely death in 1962, Kovacs entertained television audiences of the 1950s with his trademark brand of comedy sketches and vignettes. Compiling several bits all dealing with music, Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 3 includes favorites such as the famous "tilted table" sketch and Kovacs' advertisements for Dutch Masters cigars. Among the other titles in the series are Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 1, Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 2, and Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 4. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Produced by White Star, this title is the second entry in the Best of Ernie Kovacs series. A cult favorite even decades after his untimely death in 1962, Kovacs entertained television audiences of the 1950s with his trademark brand of comedy sketches and vignettes. Compiling several bits all dealing with music, Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 2 includes favorites such as a parody of "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" and a poker game set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Among the other titles in the series are Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 1, Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 3, and Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 4. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Produced by White Star, this title is the first entry in the Best of Ernie Kovacs series. A cult favorite even decades after his untimely death in 1962, Kovacs entertained television audiences of the 1950s with his trademark brand of comedy sketches and vignettes. Compiling some of the best-loved of these classic bits, Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 1 includes favorites such as the "1812 Overture," a woman-in-the-bathtub routine, and the "Whom Dunnit Game Show." Among the other titles in the series are Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 2, Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 3, and Best of Ernie Kovacs, Vol. 4. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1991
This video is comprised of hilarious clips from the innovative comic genius Ernie Kovacs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Produced for public television, Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius has in the past 15 years become a mainstay of local PBS fund drives. Utilizing deftly chosen vignettes from Kovacs' best TV work, the film is at once a biography and a paean to this unique talent. The story of Kovacs' troubled private life--including a bitter child-custody battle with his first wife--is juxtaposed with the inspired lunacy of his comic vision. We see snippets from Kovacs' early-morning network programs of the 1950s, highlights of his late-1950s quiz show You're in the Picture, and his brilliantly irreverent commercials for his longtime sponsor, Dutch Masters Cigars. Best of all, we're treated to videotaped vignettes of Kovacs' ABC network specials of 1961 and 1962 (the year of his sudden and tragic death), including his classical-music takeoffs, bizarre blackout gags, and experimental special effects and camerawork. Highlights include generous clips from his all-pantomime 1961 special Eugene, and a rare dramatic moment wherein Kovacs delivers a speech by Euripides. Woven throughout Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius are interviews with Ernie's friends and intimates, including his widow Edie Adams and his best pal Jack Lemmon. Warm up your VCR the next time this one's on your local PBS outlet: this one's a keeper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
This entertaining vintage video offers up some very funny classic commercials from TV and movie personalities. Watch for "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and "You Bet Your Life." ~ All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this comedy caper based on a novel by Nathaniel Benchley, a gang of crooks begin exploiting an innocent ex-Navy officer who, wanting to impress his employer's daughter, is sailing a fleet of ramshackle scows. One of the crooks cons the fellow into believing he is a shipwright. The thief then plots to use the vessel for a bank robbery. The hero is then forced to sail the ship himself after he and his girlfriend are captured. Meanwhile another villain tries to commandeer the vessel, but the officer is able to signal the Coast Guard by using his girl friend's bra as a slingshot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wagner, Dolores Hart, (more)
- 1961
This Ernie Kovacs cult comedy was the last film directed by Mario Zampi and follows the exploits of Aldo Bondi (Kovacs) who earns his living off wealthy widows. When he consoles the beautiful and impoverished Baroness Sandra (Cyd Charisse), he makes the mistake of falling in love with her. That gets him into a complex con game with three other widows and a huge sum of money, meant to be invested to earn a bundle based on the five-hour time difference between the East coast of the U.S. and Europe. Bondi gets into one tight situation after the next, as his loot is stolen by the Baroness and he needs a way to save his skin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernie Kovacs, Cyd Charisse, (more)
- 1961
This video contains the landmark episode of the comical series, aired in late November, 1961 in which no one said a word. Even the commercials were silent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Graham Greene wrote this witty comedy inspired by Cold War paranoia. Jim Wormald (Alec Guiness) is an Englishman selling vacuum cleaners in Cuba on the cusp of the revolution. Hawthorne (Noel Coward), a British intelligence agent, is looking for information on Cuban affairs and recruits Jim to act as a spy. Jim has no experience in espionage and no useful knowledge to pass along, but Hawthorne is willing to pay for his services, and since Jim's daughter Milly (Jo Morrow) has expensive tastes, he can use the money. To keep Hawthorne happy (and his paychecks coming in), he turns in reports on the Cuban revolution that are copied from public documents, "hires" additional agents who don't exist, and presents blueprints of secret weapons that are actually schematics of his carpet sweepers. However, Hawthorne and associate "C" (Ralph Richardson) think that Jim is doing splendid work and encourage him to continue; meanwhile, Capt. Segura (Ernie Kovacs), the elegantly corrupt chief of police, has been fooled by Jim's charade into believing he's a real spy -- and has also become attracted to Milly. Our Man in Havana also features Burl Ives and Maureen O'Hara in supporting roles. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, (more)
- 1960
Popular Mexican comedian Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) plays the title character in this star-studded, amusing comedy drama by George Sidney. Pepe is the same sort of impoverished stereotype Cantinflas made famous in several of his comedies; in this case he is a hired hand on a ranch who chases down a horse for his employer. A boozing Hollywood director buys a white stallion belonging to Pepe's boss and the determined ranch hand decides to take off for Hollywood to get the horse back. Once in this new and strange environment -- where a lot of cameos by the likes of Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier, and many others enliven the action -- Pepe becomes a friend to the alcoholic director. Unfortunately, what is missing here is "Cantinfletico." That is the nickname for the rambling non-sequitur characteristic of Cantinflas that no one else could master. The film was originally released at 195 minutes, then edited down to 157. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, (more)
Those familiar only with Johnny Horton's song hit North to Alaska might not be aware that the song came equipped with a movie. John Wayne and Stewart Granger star as a couple of lucky miners in Alaska Territory during the '98 gold rush. Since the Duke is the only man he can trust, Granger sends his pal to Seattle to fetch his fiance. Fabian appears in the cast (playing Granger's brother) primarily to attract teenage filmgoers; he gets to sing, of course, but he's better than usual. The film's centerpiece, an outsized brawl in the muddy streets of Nome, was repeated with several variations in Wayne's subsequent McLintock (1963). North to Alaska was based on a considerably more genteel stage play, Laszlo Fodor's Birthday Gift. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Stewart Granger, (more)
Sexual misconduct in white-collar suburbia is the topic of this routine melodrama involving two neighboring couples. Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas), unhappy with his wife Eve's (Barbara Rush) fixation on their bank balance, starts taking an interest in Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), whose husband has been losing interest in her. The two steal several illicit moments together, but this activity has not gone unnoticed. Good ol' neighbor Felix (Walter Matthau) figures that Eve might be feeling a little neglected, so he decides to move into the picture. Richard Quine's direction is an asset to an otherwise clichéd tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, (more)
- 1960
Take a Good Look was a game show hosted by Ernie Kovacs in which panelists had to identify the various contestants from clues and clips of recordings and other various sources. Featured contestants were Edie Adams and Cesar Romero. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernie Kovacs
- 1960
Wake Me When It's Over is a zany service comedy in which Ernie Kovacs plays the latest in his long line of military captains. Kovacs and his men are stationed at a dead-end Japanese island. World War II vet Dick Shawn, redrafted through a clerical error, arrives on the island and decides to liven things up. Using the materials at hand, he supervises the building of a hotel, using the island girls as the staff. The military brass investigate when it's obvious than the servicemen are having too much fun on the island. Kovacs would love to have Shawn stay, and says so at Shawn's court-martial, but the reluctant draftee is mustered out of the service as accidentally as he'd been brought back in. Ernie Kovacs and Dick Shawn work so well together in Wake Me When It's Over that one can only feel an intensified loss over the early deaths of these two comic masters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernie Kovacs, Margo Moore, (more)
Doris Day stars in a true-to-type performance as Jane Osgood, a spunky, pretty, wronged widow with two children. She manages her own lobster business, and the railroad has just trashed a shipment, killing them off before they could ever be properly boiled to death for someone's dinner. Jane commissions her lawyer (and potential romantic partner) George Denham (Jack Lemmon) to take on the railroad and its nefarious owner, Harry Foster Malone (Ernie Kovacs). Thus, the battle between the unjustly treated Jane and the arrogant railroad boss begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, (more)
John Van Druten's stage comedy Bell Book and Candle starred Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer on Broadway. The 1958 filmed version stars James Stewart and Kim Novak, fresh from their successful teaming in Hitchcock's Vertigo. Novak plays Gillian Holroyd, a genuine, bonafide witch. Falling in love with publisher Sheperd Henderson (Stewart), Gillian casts a spell on him, obliging him to dump his fiancee and rush to her side. All of this goes against the grain of Gillian's mentor Mrs. De Pass (Hermione Gingold), who does her best to counterract the love spell. Meanwhile, Gillian's wacky warlock brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon) courts disaster by coauthoring a book on black magic with pompous, bibulous novelist Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Kim Novak, (more)
- 1957
That zany video genius Ernie Kovacs plays it (sort of) straight in this Playhouse 90 adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's satirical stage play Topaze. A man constitutionally incapable of being dishonest, Monsieur Topaze (Kovacs) loses his teaching position at a small provincial French private school when he refuses to give a passing grade to an undeserving pupil. On the advice of Suzy (Sheree North), the attractive aunt of another pupil, Topaze accepts a new job with Castel-Bernac (Stephen Wooton), a crooked politician who happens to be Suzy's "protector." Castel-Bernac takes Topaze on in the secure belief that someone so indomitably honest would never suspect that anything unscrupulous was going on within Castel-Bernac's political machine. But things happen which not only profoundly alter Topaze, but also everyone around him. Carl Reiner costars in this production, which originally aired live. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernie Kovacs, Carl Reiner, (more)
- 1957
In this frantic service comedy, a group of bored-to-tears American GI's stationed at a medical facility in France would like nothing more than to have a big party to let off steam -- except for the possibility of having a big party with some of the nurses they work with. However, it seems that the nurses are officers and the GI's are enlisted men, which means the Army forbids them to socialize, and Capt. Locke (Ernie Kovacs), the camp's Commanding Officer, is not a man to bend the rules. But Private Hogan (Jack Lemmon) is not the sort of guy to let the rules get in the way of a good time, and with the help of Yancy Skibo (Mickey Rooney), a sergeant with a talent for scaring up needed supplies, and Mme. LaFour (Jeanne Manet), a local hotel manager with a soft spot for making money off American servicemen, Hogan hatches a plan to make his dream a reality. Hogan's lady friend, Lt. Betty Bixby (Kathryn Grant), isn't quite as convinced as her beau on the potential success of this scheme. Operation Mad Ball was the first directorial effort from former actor Richard Quine, and afforded Jack Lemmon his first starring role; Blake Edwards also contributed to the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Kathryn Grant, (more)
- 1957
Dave Garroway hosts this all-star celebration of network television's tenth anniversary (actually, NBC and CBS had signed on in 1941, but 1947 is the "accepted" debut date). Utilizing the most up-to-date technology available at the time, the program features several remote pickups, with Garroway anchoring in Chicago, Milton Berle appearing from New York, Ernie Kovacs chiming in from Las Vegas, and producer Albert McCreery rehearsing an episode of his anthology Cameo Theatre from NBC's Burbank studios (this last segment was orginally seen in color). On film, Dragnet star Jack Webb discusses the progress of dramatic television, while television critics from New York, Hollywood, Detroit and Springfield, Missouri debate the question "Has TV Fulfilled Its Promise?" Extra added attractions include live coverage of the Veteran Days ceremonies at Arlington, kinescopes of TV broadcasts from Paris, London, Tokyo, and Moscow (satellite technology was, of course, still the stuff of science-fiction yarns), and rare clips from past TV milestones. If The Fabulous Infant still exists, it would be well worth having on the home-video market. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dave Garroway, Milton Berle, (more)
