King of Comedy, The (1983): Scorsese’s Misunderstood Satire about Fame and Fans is one of his Best Films, Starring De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott, Cameos by Scorsese Family (Mother, Father, and Scorsese Himself)

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have established one of the most creative and fruitful director-actor teams in American film history, having made half a dozen landmark works together, including “Mean Streets,””Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull,” which form some sort of a trilogy.

In 1983, the duo collaborated again, in a further switch of genres but in line with his continuing preoccupation with the darker side of urban life, on “The King of Comedy,” an incisive black comedy-drama about American obsession with fame and celebrity and the means (legal and illegal) of seeking it.

De Niro plays a perversely ambitious fan named Rupert Pupkin (De Niro), who wreaks freaky havoc while stalking a comic celebrity, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis, in a solid comeback performance), with the help of a zany accomplice, Masha (played with great panache by Sandra Bernhard).

Grade: A- (**** out of *****)

The King of Comedy

Theatrical release poster

As written by Paul Zimmerman and directed by Scorsese, “King of Comedy” was misinterpreted by many film critics. At heart, the movie is a pungent black comedy about a showbiz hanger-on and loser who idolizes America’s top TV comedian/talk show host and figures out a bizarre scheme to get on the program. Though timely and relevant, for some reason, the film was considered too mordant and “sick” by some viewers at the time, disregarding the tale’s rather accurate (and scary) portrayal of what’s the bestand quickest–way to achieve celebrity status in American society today.

After kidnapping Jerry, as ransom, Rupert Pupkin demands a monologue on his show and his wish is granted. He delivers a grotesque routine (about parents and throwing up), goes to prison, writes a book about his experience, and becomes a celeb, when the book becomes a best-seller.

The film contains a sort of romantic subplot in the relationship that evolves between Pupkin and the sexy bartender Rita (Diahnne Abbott, De Niro’s girlfriend at the time). However, characteristically of Sorsese’s imagery of women, Rita first appears behind a bar, thus her figure is fractured. Later on, she wears a wedding gown and stands on the top of some steps (a pedestal of sorts) during Pupkin’s fantasy scene. Pupkin asks her to be his “queen,” connoting an individual who sits on a platform or throne.

“King of Comedy” is anchored by strong acting from its three leads: De Niro, Jerry Lewis (in a performance that some saw as self-referential), and particularly Sandra Bernhardt, in her first and most impressive big-screen debut

Scorsese doesn’t direct a single scene for a payoff, and he doesn’t go for comic relief or catharsis effect. As Roger Ebert pointed out, the whole movie is an exercise in “cinema interrupus.” Even a big scene in a bar, where Rupert triumphantly turns on the TV set to reveal himself on television, is deliberately edited to leave out the customary payoff shots, namely, reaction shots of the amazed audience.

The scholar Robert Kolker has noted that because the film is about the world of TV (the small screen), it’s shot in an analogous style to the flat, neutral TV style. Indeed, the lighting is evenly spread and high-key, the camera almost always at eye level and steady (unlike Scorsese’s more common restless and dynamic camera), the editing is standard too, composed of the shot-reverse shot (or angle-reverse angle).

The film offers commentary of the inability of the disturbed characters to get any kind of positive response to their bids for recognition, which pushes them to desperation and to the edge of sanity (or is it insanity).

A montage of magazines and book covers presents the sequence of events, and at the end, the individual disappears beneath the signs of his fame, signaling that for Scorsese, the larger phenomenon (and social problem) is more important than the subject.

Who is sane and insane? Who is normal and abnormal?

It seems that American society is now dominated by a single desire to be famous and grabs the spotlight for fifteen minutes. The whole TV culture is implicated in “King of Comedy,” a culture that desperately seeks images to celebrate and to sell to the mass public. Indeed, the critic Greil Marcus sees “King of Comedy” as a horror movie, in which Rupert is the creepiest character to be the center of a film which deals with the colonization of everyday life by shallow entertainment.

De Niro, holding the entire picture together, gives a compelling performance that differs from those played by him as an angry, intense, violent loner in Scorsese’s other films. He meets the challenge of making touching a part that’s essentially odd, repulsive, and disturbing.

But the big revelation is Sandra Bernhard, in her film debut, as De Niro’s crime partner, a rich woman who’s demented, frightening, but also very funny. She should have received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for this, equally difficult, part!

Dismissed by major critics, “King of Comedy” was a flop at the box-office, motivating Scorsese to choose a smaller, independently made film as his next project, the brilliant “After Hours.”

Underestimated at its 1983 original release, the stature of King of Comedy has grown considerably over the years, and it is now seen as a prophetically chilling and disturbing movie–a truly black comedy about the relationship between celebs, wannabees, and fans.

Cast
De Niro as Rupert Pupkin, struggling stand-up comedian with mental health issues
Jerry Lewis as Jerry Langford, a famous late-night TV host.
Sandra Bernhard as Masha, mentally unstable fan of Langford.
Diahnne Abbott as Rita Keene, bartender, Rupert’s love interest.
Shelley Hack as Cathy Long, Langford’s main secretary.
Margo Winkler as receptionist of Langford’s company
Kim Chan as Jonno, a house servant of Langford
Frederick De Cordova as Bert Thomas, producer of Langford
Edgar Scherick as Wilson Crockett, network TV exec
Senator Bobby as Clarence McCabe, guest on Pupkin’s show

Ed Herlihy as himself
Tony Randall as himself
Victor Borge as himself
Joyce Brothers as herself

Cameo appearances by Scorsese Family
Catherine Scorsese as Mrs. Pupkin, Rupert’s mother (voice only)
Cathy Scorsese as Dolores, fan of Pupkin in a daydream
Charles Scorsese as first Man at Bar
Martin Scorsese as TV director

The Clash—members Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, their manager Kosmo Vinyl—and the musicians Ellen Foley and Don Letts appeared as Street Scum.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as extra in a crowd scene, would be cast in a major role in Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986), as Tom Cruise’s girlfriend,

Credits

Running time: 108 Minutes
Released by 20th Century Fox

Produced by Arnon Milchan
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: Paul Zimmerman
Camera: Fred Schuler
Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Music: Robbie Robertson
Production design: Boris Leven
Art direction: Edward Pisoni, Lawrence Miller
Costumes: Richard BrunoDirected by Martin Scorsese
Written by Paul D. Zimmerman
Produced by Arnon Milchan
Cinematography Fred Schuler
Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker
Music by Robbie Robertson

Production company: Embassy International Pictures

Distributed by 20th Century Fox

Release dates Dec 18, 1982 (Iceland); Feb 18, 1983 (US)

Budget $19 million
Box office $2.5 million

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