Enter Laughing (Columbia Pictures) (1967)

Jose Ferrer stars as an always bibulous and always flamboyant "ham" actor in “Enter Laughing," new Columbia Pictures release in Eastman color. Also starred are Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Richard Deacon and screen newcomer Reni Santoni. Mat IB; Still No. 59 JOSE FERRER Jose Ferrer has never before been accused of “chewing up the scenery,” of giving a performance that is flamboyant and ultra-ham, but he does just that in the new Columbia Pictures release, “Enter Laughing,’ now at the rR i. Theatre in Eastman color. Academy Award winner as best actor of the year for his performance as “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Ferrer is one of the most highly-honored and highlyrespected personalities in the world of the international stage and screen. In “Enter Laughing,” however, he plays to the hilarious hilt an alcohol-fogged ham who operates a poverty-stricken theatre and acting school where he tries to cope with the enormous ambitions and small talents of aspiring youngsters. He plays an actor whose career is long-past but whose respect for the theatre is alive and fresh. Ferrer’s talents are as wide-ranging as the imaginations of the writers for stage and screen, or the producers and directors. In his last appearance for Columbia Pictures, in Stanley Kramer’s “Ship of Fools,” he played a blatant Nazi ideologist with a complete unconcern for those around him; before that, he was the martinet Turkish commander who tortured “Lawrence of Arabia.” On the stage, he has taken over for Danny Kaye in comedy, and he has acted Iago in an “Othello” that serves as a criterion by which other performers of the role are judged. Recently, he starred in “Man of La Mancha.” Ferrer is considered one of Broadway’s best producer-directors as well as one of its brightest stars, and he has directed films as well. He once had a dance band. He is an accomplished pianist, painter, fencer, horseman, singer, tennis player and cook and, when he wants to, he can do an impressive job of writing. Starred with Ferrer in “Enter Laughing” are Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Richard Deacon and Reni Santoni, who makes his film bow as a would-be actor. REALISM PAYS Two Oscars and two Emmys testify to Shelley Winters’ ability as an actress. Now, two checks prove her ability as a business woman. Miss Winters’ role in “Enter Laughing,” Columbia Pictures release at the je Theatre in Eastman color, called for her to wear a simple housecoat. So Shelley borrowed one from her mother. Another scene called for a picture of a young girl (never seen in the film) as her daughter. Shelley gladly provided a large framed picture of her own daughter, Vittoria. The film’s co-producers, Carl Reiner and Joseph Stein, made out to Miss Winters checks for the rent of the ‘ousecoat, at $1.50 a day, for five days, total $7.50, and the portrait, at 75 cents a day, $3.75. In Hollywood, Miss Winters feels, realism on the screen is important, and worth paying for. Mat ID; Still No. 98 Elaine May, half of the popular comedy team of Nichols and May, stars as an actress in “Enter Laughing," new Columbia Pictures release in Eastman color, playing an amorous young leading lady in a rundown theatre and acting school. Jose Ferrer plays her alcoholic father and Reni Santoni a youth who wants to be an actor. Mat IF; Still No. 97 Janet Margolin, one of the stars of "Enter Laughing," new Columbia Pictures release in Eastman color, plays a staid young woman who finds difticulty understanding her boy friend's intense desire to be an actor, when he could study to be a pharmacist, but tries to help him anyway. Reni Santoni makes his screen bow as the would-be actor. ADVANGE NOTICE “Enter Laughing,” new Columbia Pictures’ comedy in Eastman color, OPC Syst ces DEEN Cyn hovuvas Theatre. Co-starred are Jose Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Richard Deacon and Reni Santoni, who makes his motion picture debut as a young man trying to break into show business. “Enter Laughing” is principally a collaboration between Carl Reiner and Joseph Stein. They produced the film and wrote the screenplay, based on Stein’s play adapted from Reiner’s novel. The play was produced on the New York stage by Morton Gottlieb. Reiner directed. Quincy Jones wrote the music for “Enter Laughing.” ELAINE MAY Elaine May, half of the famed comedy teamof Nichols and May whose rapier wit crackled like chain lightning across the entertainment horizon, co-stars in “Enter Laughing,” in Eastman color at the ............ Theatre. The Columbia Pictures release also co-stars Jose Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Richard Deacon and Reni Santoni who, like Miss May, is making his motion picture debut. In “Enter Laughing,’ Miss May plays the leading actress of a run-down theatre and acting school who centers her amorous attentions on her young leading men, would-be actors willing to pay for a chance to cross the threshold of show business. Miss May, who has been successful as a comedienne, as a screenwriter, playwright and stage director, is now moving into hitherto-unexplored territory: film acting. By all reports, Miss May has struck it rich, and deservedly. Her work in “Enter Laughing” led to immediate casting as Jack Lemmon’s co-star in “Luv.” Though Elaine denies she had a manifest destiny to become an actress, show business undoubtedly is in her blood. Jack Berlin, her father, was the director, writer and principal actor of a traveling theatrical company. Even as a toddler, Elaine appeared in his shows. She studied with the late Madame Maria Ouspenskaya, and later drifted into various “little theatres.” In one such group, in Chicago, she found a kindred spirit, Mike Nichols. Nichols and May went on to triumph in nightclubs, radio, television, on records and the Broadway stage. Now, the two partners have gone their separate ways: Nichols to direct plays and films; Elaine to write and, now, to perform in motion pictures. DON RICKLES Don Rickles is one of the stars of “Enter Laughing,” the screen comedy filmed by Carl Reiner and Joseph Stein for Columbia Pictures release in Eastman color at the ........ Theatre. Rickles, who is famed for his “insulting” comedy technique, plays Harry Hamburger, a brash bachelor who thoroughly enjoys the good life until he gets involved with a blonde, and a teen-ager who wants to be an actor. JANET MARGOLIN With only five motion pictures to her credit, Janet Margolin has already established herself as one of Hollywood’s brightest new stars. She is currently starring at the.......... Theatre in Eastman color, in “Enter Laughing,” a Columbia Pictures release, directed by Carl. Reiner. This new comedy is based on Reiner’s autobiographical novel and Joseph Stein’s subsequent stage play. In “Enter Laughing,” Janet portrays the girl friend of the youthful Reiner at the time he was entering show business. Janet Margolin was born in New York City where she began acting at the age of two, after her mother had enrolled her at the Walden School for Progressive Education. She acted in plays in Sunday School, high school and at summer camps. During her senior year at Performing Arts High School, she won her first professional part—in a religious program, followed by several daytime TV series. In 1961, she worked as prop assistant with the Joseph Papp Shakespeare Festival, presented free to the public in Central Park, for a salary of $9.65 a week. That autumn, Janet won her first Broadway role as the mentally-disturbed girl in “Daughter of Silence,” winning a nomination for the Tony Award, and the Daniel Blum Theatre Award as the most promising young actress of the 1961 season. As a result of the play, she was signed by Frank and Eleanor Perry for “David and Lisa,” a film which won plaudits all over the world, winning Janet the “best actress” award at the San Francisco Film Festival. She followed with “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” portraying Mary of Bethany, and next starred in “Bus Riley’s Back in Town.” In 1964 she went to Argentina for “The Eavesdropper.” She was the only actress in “Morituri,” with cast headed by Marlon Brando and Yul Brenner, and she played Steve McQueen’s Indian girl friend in “Nevada Smith.” Also starred in “Enter Laughing” are Jose Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Richard Deacon and screen newcomer Reni Santoni. “Enter Laughing,’ as a play, was produced on the New York stage by Morton Gottlieb. Reiner directed the film and co-produced it with Stein from their joint. screenplay. Quincy Jones wrote the music. Reni Santoni, young television comic, makes his motion picture bow in "Enter Laughing,’ new Columbia Pictures release in Eastman color. The comedy also stars Jose Ferrer, Shelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles and Richard Deacon. Carl Reiner directed. Mat IA; Still No. 69 REN SANTONI Reni Santoni, whose first name rhymes with “penny,” makes his motion picture debut as a stage-struck youngster in “Enter Laughing,” Columbia Pictures release in Eastman Color atiihes se Theatre. Also starred in the comedy are a number of people who, long after their own debuts, still are stage-struck. They include Academy Award winners Jose Ferrer and Shelley Winters; night club, television and stage stars Elaine May and Jack Gilford; Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles and Richard Deacon. Santoni’s starring role had its genesis in the life story of still another of the stage-struck—Carl Reiner, who won television fame on the Sid Caesar Show, also is known as the producer and creator of the Dick Van Dyke Show, where he sometimes appeared as the ogre-ish television comedian for whom Van Dyke wrote. Some years ago, Reiner wrote an autobiographical novel which hilariously described his own entry into show business. A longtime friend, Joseph Stein, adapted the novel into a successful stage play. Now, in the film, young Santoni plays Carl Reiner as a young man. A six-foot-two, 180-pounder, Santoni was discovered on the Merv Griffin Show, and promptly signed to portray Reiner as a young man in “Enter Laughing.” That Santoni was nervous at being whisked into the Hollywood spotlight is understandable. To set Santoni at ease, Reiner brought the young actor to Hollywood weeks ahead of filming, to get him acclimated to the California scene. They spent many hours together at the ball park, hung out together, joked together, dined together. Baseball was not their only mutual interest, Reiner discovered. Both had been born in the Bronx. Both are sixfeet-two. Both were outstanding amateur baseball players who had toyed with entering professional baseball. Both got their big break in television. And both are comedy writers and performers. Young Santoni studied journalism at Syracuse University. After college, he began writing comedy material for established performers and, _ then, gradually, for himself. “Enter Laughing” is based on a novel by Carl Reiner and a subsequent stage play adaptation by Joseph Stein, produced on the New York stage by Morton Gottlieb. MICHAEL J. POLLARD Michael J. Pollard re-creates his original stage role in “Enter Laughing,” Columbia Pictures release in Eastman color at the ............ Theatre. Pollard appears as the best friend of an aspiring young actor, the part he played on Broadway. He will be remembered as the incurious airport mechanic with the big grin in “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” which | starred Carl Reiner, who directed, co-produced and co-authored “Enter: Laughing.” Page 5