A Thousand Clowns

The next of the 1965 Best Picture nominees I'll write about is A Thousand Clowns, which in its way is every bit a relic of the 1960s as Darling, but it holds up much better. It is a product of the left-wing Jewish Broadway scene, and shows a mid-point between the Beat era and the hippie counterculture.

Our hero, or anti-hero, is Murray Burns, played by Jason Robards. Formerly a writer for a children's program (Chuckles the Chipmunk), he has grown tired of working and instead just enjoys life with his nephew, Nick (Barry Gordon), for whom he's been an unofficial guardian for the last seven years. But a paper Gordon wrote for school has alerted the Child Welfare Bureau, who has dispatched two caseworkers (William Daniels and Barbara Harris) to determine if Robards is a competent guardian.

The film was based on a play by Herb Gardner that ran on Broadway in 1962 and it shows, as most of the action takes place in Robards' apartment. We get a prologue of sorts as Robards and Gordon have a great day in New York. They are up early, and Robards says, at about 7:30, that Gordon is about to see a sad site: people going to work. They, instead, fly kites in Central Park, visit the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty. Anyone who knows New York will realize they have traversed several miles. Too bad the Metrocard wasn't available then.

I liked A Thousand Clowns (this is the second time I've seen it), even though it is a product of another time. There are long, talkative scenes, such as when Robards both repels Daniels and seduces Harris (Daniels says of Robards, "You aren't a person, you're an experience"). Harris, in a bit of audaciousness on the part of Gardner, falls in love with Robards, and cleans his apartment (you've still got a long way to go, baby). Robards enters and says of the spruced-up place, "I've been attacked by the Ladies Home Journal."

The conflict is that Robards must get a job to keep Gordon. So we have kind of the opposite of the previous year's Mary Poppins: instead of businessman learning to fly kites, man who flies kites must learn to do business. In the last scene, Chuckles (a terrific Gene Saks) begs Robards to come back to work for him. I don't know, but I'm guessing Gardner worked for television and hated it, because he has a very dim view of everyone who works in it.

A Thousand Clowns was directed by Fred Coe, who also directed the Broadway play. Martin Balsam, who plays Robards' brother, a successful agent, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, which is kind of surprising since he has only two real scenes and while certainly good, doesn't have the big moment one would expect of an award-winner (I have yet to see any of the other nominees but hope to in the coming weeks).

At times the play tries too hard to show Robards' whimsy. Flying kites, playing the ukulele, collecting eagle statues ("You can never have too many eagles," he tells Gordon). At least it's not pandas. Overall, though, it's good acting and writing.

An interesting note: Gordon and Daniels would both go on to be presidents of the Screen Actors Guild.