What makes it different from others?

Don't Believe the Hype

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

First of all, it's the memoirs of Ben Hecht's 1963 book of the same name. His name is changed to Ben Harvey. It has a wonderful cast: Beau Bridges, Margot Kidder, Melodie Johnson, Melina Mercouri, Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy and others. Directed by Norman Jewison in the style of a Blake Edwards comedy. It starts out with great promise. Beau (as Ben Harvey) lusts after George Kennedy's beautiful young "niece" whom ends up being the mistress. Not knowing this, he runs off to Chicago to repent, becomes an "assistant" to cantankerous drunk newspaper reporter Brian Keith, ends up "rescued", by a madam and living at a bawdy house. He is so innocent that he first believes it to be a boarding house for women! He falls in love with the proverbial "prostitute with a heart of gold" (played by a very young Margot Kidder. While some of this actually happened, it is exaggerated, and ends up deteriorating into an unbelievable comical farce during the second half of the movie. It starts out as a very fine film with wonderful period sets, including a famous Chicago landmark, The Sullivan Theater. Sadly, it has little resemblance to the autobiographical book it is based upon. It borrows from every cliché, including Mark Twain, as Ben attends his own funeral, quite alive after being resurrected from a drowning by the then-new wonder-drug Adrenalin. Involves all the standard comic devices: The madcap chase for the climax of the movie, the multiple "switched" prop, (that looks like a small Bible) which in this case is a little black book involving commodity price-fixing and politicians. It ends very slapstick,it wraps up in about 5 minutes at the end and looks rushed; although the movie is 2 hours long. Of course Ben gets the girl, now reformed. Also, "The Madam Queen" Melina gets to belt out a very forgettable tune, in her "gravelly" voice. The uncut "R" version (very brief nudity) is 117 minutes long and can only be seen on TMC at this time. No Region 1 DVD is available.

At first GAILY, GAILY (1969) seems to have a lot going for it. An excellent cast, a fine director, a script based on a novel by the great screenwriter Ben Hecht, a unique historical setting, and a loose comedic tone. But the story fizzles out halfway through as the trajectory of the plot is never quite high enough.Beau Bridges plays a naive young man whose "evil" sexual impulses drive him away from his innocent small-town home and into the bustling city in search of his place in the world. There he is taken in by kind-hearted Melina Mercouri (TOPKAPI - 1964), who runs a brothel, although Bridges is too thickheadedly innocent to make that connection (even after meeting all the female "boarders"). Mercouri hooks him up with a job at the newspaper, working with slick sensationalist reporter Brian Keith (in an Irish brogue).George Kennedy and Hume Cronyn play rival corrupt politicians, with Wilfrid Hyde-White (MY FAIR LADY - 1964) as the corrupt governor. Margot Kidder (SUPERMAN - 1978) debuts as a beautiful young prostitute who sees Bridges as a knight in shining armor who can rescue her from a life she doesn't want.Bridges eventually has his eyes opened to the sin and corruption in the world and the climax involves a free-for-all scramble to obtain and exploit Cronyn's little black ledger, which details all the political bribery in the city.The 1910 Chicago setting gives the film an interesting flavor, and the script is full of irreverent comedy and some (quite literal) gallows humor. (At its wildest, the film calls to mind the even zanier British comedy THE WRONG BOX - 1966.) There are flashes of Hecht's "The Front Page" in the scenes involving the newspaper.One wonders how much Beau Bridges's character ("Ben Harvey", an idealistic young writer) is a stand-in for Ben Hecht himself. Hecht started out as a Chicago newspaperman before becoming a successful playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. The film is almost over-the-top in its comedy, but the original novel must have been to some degree autobiographical.It would have been nice to see more of Bridges and Keith at the newspaper after Keith takes the youngster under his wing. The movie could have shown Bridges become cynical with his work, ultimately choosing between a dirty career as a newspaperman or a more fulfilling one as an independent writer. But this film opts for a smaller payoff. At the end it feels like something is missing, or as if the story could continue. But the film is content to end where it does and hope viewers had fun along the way.As it is, GAILY, GAILY is a lot of fun. The cast is splendid and the characters colorful. Melina Mercouri even sings a song. The black comedy is a hoot and the old-time setting gives the film personality. One just can't help thinking the movie could've been more.Directed by Norman Jewison (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT - 1967).6.5/10

The first 15 minutes or so are wonderful, a rose-colored reminiscence of small-town America at the turn of the last century that suggests "Ah, Wilderness!" Then the Ben Hecht prototype, played by Beau Bridges with such innocence as to border on retardation, lights out for Chicago, and the narrative loses traction. It's quite a gorgeous, expensive production, and Melina Mercouri helps out as the madam who takes him under her wing (this was right toward the end of the movie era when prostitutes and bordellos were considered automatically titillating and hilarious, hence neither Mercouri nor any of her girls are fleshed out as characters). The always-good Brian Keith is Ben's alcoholic newspaper mentor, and other good actors mill about (Hume Cronyn, George Kennedy), but it's all color and very little forward thrust. Chicago 1910 had to be more interesting than this, and there must be more compelling stories to tell about it.

Ben Hecht wrote a book detailing his experiences as a reporter in Chicago during the early part of the century. It is more entertaining than this mix mash of a movie that jumps all over the place. The film has its moments. However, there are too few of them to see. The colorful characters that Hecht crossed paths with are watered down in this movie.