Lenny Bruce Without Tears
Cast & Crew
Fred Baker
Fred Baker
Lenny Bruce
Steve Allen
Kenneth Tynan
Malcolm Muggeridge
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
This documentary begins with footage of controversial comedian Lenny Bruce filing a lawsuit charging that some of the jurors hearing one of his obscenity trials perjured themselves in their voir dire questionnaires by claiming that they had not previously heard of him. As Bruce presents evidence that six of the jurors now admit that they knew of him and therefore could have been biased, voice-over narration states that toward the end of his life, the embittered Bruce had "stopped laughing" due to his escalating financial, legal and personal woes. Over footage of police brutality, and sex and violence in newsreels and theatrically released motion pictures, Bruce is heard "riffing" about the reasons for negative reactions to authority, and that, if it is true that children are influenced by the sex and violence they see in the media, he would rather his child see a "stag movie" than the 1961 film King of Kings . Bruce then laughingly asserts that there should be a statute of limitations on "goyish" accusations about Jews killing Christ, although he is willing to proffer that it was his own family, specifically his uncle Morty, who committed the crime if it will end the religious and racial wrangling. Over news footage of the Vietnam War, Bruce continues his societal barbs, claiming that "they don't like Americans anywhere" because U.S. soldiers used chocolate bars to obtain sexual favors from women in foreign countries. The narrator then discusses the difficulties of Bruce's childhood, during which he drifted from home to home after the divorce of his parents. At the age of sixteen, Bruce joined the U.S. Navy and saw action in World War II in Europe. Upon returning to the United States, Bruce sought his show business break and, "like a number of other cool hipsters, found an angle, being offensive." One of the first influential people to champion Bruce was television host Steve Allen, who welcomed Bruce on his show several times. In a clip from The Steve Allen Show , the host introduces Bruce as "the most shocking comedian of our time." Although he teases the on-air censors, Bruce promises to "behave himself" by sticking to his rehearsal script. Foregoing his usual swear words, both in English and Yiddish, Bruce delivers a routine on various subjects, including words that offend him, such as segregation, and television shows that exploit homosexuality, narcotics and prostitution under the guise of offering help. Acting out all the characters, he describes the adventures of a young boy who sniffs airplane glue, and lampoons Hollywood movies that offer cloying "brotherhood" messages. In 1959, according to the narrator, Lenny polished his free-form, jazz-like method of delivery, and had to be careful not to offend with his more shocking routines when he appeared on television. As the narrator observes, Bruce never hit it big in television, instead becoming famous in nightclubs attended by "barmaids, jazz musicians and bunnies, the freaks of the `50s " In an interview, fellow comic Mort Sahl asserts that Bruce, despite his skewering of middle-class mores, was actually very middle-class and sentimental himself. Bruce again tries to break into television, and in footage from a pilot, describes his latest record, The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce . Although Bruce admits that there are some "pretty far out bits" on the album, he states that there are no scatological references and then performs "one sick bit," about a real-life bomber who blew up an airplane carrying his mother. According to the narrator, Bruce's self-deprecating humor was better appreciated in person, and his fame grew on college campuses and hip nightspots around the country. After marrying former stripper Honey Harlowe, Bruce and Honey have a daughter named Kitty, whom Bruce adores. The unhappy marriage fails, however, and as Bruce's drug usage, mainly of speed and heroin, increases, his routines become both more introspective and more caustic of hypocrisy. The narrator asserts that Bruce's routines "rang with truth and beauty," and clips from some of his famous sketches about sex and the battle between the sexes are heard. In an interview, influential critic Kenneth Tynan applauds Bruce's unique ability to shed light on society's deepest inhibitions and laments his prosecutions for obscenity, pointing out: "How can any sane, civilized human being be afraid of four letters?" Bruce was arrested for the first time in Philadelphia, on a narcotics charge, and over the following two years, was arrested six more times as well as being banned from performing in London and Australia. Despite his legal troubles, Bruce still believed in the courts and began discussing his experiences on stage. In an interview, British social commentator Malcolm Muggeridge asserts that to arrest Bruce for obscenity was "completely absurd," especially in Chicago, "a city famous for vice and corruption." The narrator notes that after Bruce's many arrests, café and nightclub owners were leery of booking him, as they feared legal harassment. In another commentary on his arrests, Bruce states that he is persecuted because he keeps "picking on the wrong God," and that if he lampooned the gods worshipped by other cultures instead of the "Western God," he would not be a target. Bruce's most controversial, and last, arrest for obscenity occurred in April 1964, at Manhattan's trendy Café Au Go Go. Arrested along with Bruce were the club's owners, Howard and Ella Solomon. Describing Bruce as "on the run," the narrator notes that the increasing pressure caused Bruce to quarrel with numerous lawyers and to act as his own counsel on several occasions. Although Bruce was charged with only a misdemeanor in New York, he was sentenced to four months in the workhouse after being found guilty, which one of his lawyers, Martin Garbus, claims was due to overzealousness on the part of the prosecutors. Former Assistant District Attorney Vincent Cuccia admits that there was pressure from "the establishment" to punish Bruce for his stinging satire, and asserts that now, he would refuse to be involved in such an unjust case. Writer Nat Hentoff then relates that toward the end of his life, Bruce, bankrupt and unable to obtain work, was deeply depressed and obsessed with asserting his right to free speech. Hentoff interviews Bruce for a Canadian television show, and the haggard Bruce states that even though it is "chic" to arrest him, he still "digs" being in front of an audience. Footage of Bruce's nude corpse is then shown after his narcotics overdose in his Hollywood home, with dozens of reporters milling around until the body is finally removed. In a memorial service for the comic, Reverend William Glenesk asserts that Bruce was "a man uptight against an artificial world, who shattered its facades and hypocrisies." The film ends with television footage of Bruce performing a skit about a lonely man who misses his ex-wife and sings that he will always be "all alone."
Director
Fred Baker
Cast
Fred Baker
Lenny Bruce
Steve Allen
Kenneth Tynan
Malcolm Muggeridge
Paul Krassner
Jean Shepard
Martin Garbus
Nat Hentoff
Rev. William Glenesk
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the onscreen credits contain a 1972 copyright statement for Fred Baker Films Ltd., the picture was not registered for copyright. The end credits include acknowledgments for a number of people and television stations, including Steve Allen, Malcolm Muggeridge, Mort Sahl and CBS and NBC TV NYC, and conclude with the following quote from Dick Schaap: "A last four-letter word for Lenny DEAD AT 40 and that's obscene." The film contains footage of Bruce performing his routines, both in nightclubs and on television, and interviews with people such as Allen, Muggeridge and Sahl. Voice-overs of Bruce's performances are heard over contrasting footage from various theatrically released motion pictures, newsreels and television shows; for example, when he comments on religion, scenes of various Christian rites are shown. Stills of Bruce and other people are also shown throughout the film, as director-producer Fred Baker provides voice-over narration. Excerpts from Bruce's appearances on The Steve Allen Show are seen, as well as part of an unsold pilot Bruce made for his own television program.
According to an August 1974 Box Office review, filmmakers Fred and Barbara Baker compiled the documentary by taking "five years to research through hundreds of hours of taped performances [by Bruce] in nightclubs and on TV." In a September 27, 1967 Variety article, it was reported that the Bakers would be using "materials contracted for with Bruce's estate." The article also noted that the idea for the documentary came to Fred Baker when he was working as a producer for Channel 13, New York's "educational tv station," but the project was rejected as too controversial. After Baker left the station, he purchased the rights to the materials from the Bruce estate in exchange for fifty percent of his ownership in the documentary.
According to the November 1971 Variety review, Lenny Bruce Without Tears was screened at the First Annual New York Erotic Film Festival on November 18, 1971. According to a January 1972 Box Office article, the picture was "acquired for non-theatrical distribution by John Freide, president of National Talent Service" and would "be geared to the college market and video tape network." The Variety review noted that the picture was shot in 16mm, and apparently was exhibited in that format at the festival, although when it eventually received a theatrical release in August 1974, it was blown up to 35mm. The 1972 Filmfacts listed Video Tape Network as the film's distributor, although no other source listed that company. The picture did not open in Los Angeles until 2 August 1974.
As discussed in the documentary, Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), a controversial comedian who frequently used English and Yiddish swear words in his satiric examinations of societal values, was arrested at least eight times for obscenity-four of which entailed major prosecutions-as well as numerous times for narcotics possession. Bruce's arrests became the focus of free speech proponents, who argued that under the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark, 1957 obscenity ruling Roth v. United States, Bruce's routines, taken as a whole, were not obscene and contained artistic integrity and social value, and therefore should be protected under the First Amendment. Bruce's first obscenity arrest occurred in San Francisco on October 4, 1961 and resulted in an acquittal, while his second arrest, in Los Angeles on October 24, 1962, resulted in a hung jury and the decision by the district attorney not to reprosecute. On December 5, 1962, Bruce and club owner Alan Ribback were arrested in Chicago, and although he was found guilty of obscenity there, in November 1964, his conviction was overturned on appeal in a ruling held by modern law scholars to be a significant moment in First Amendment law. [The charges against Ribback were dismissed.] In addition to his obscenity trials, Bruce was banned from performing in numerous American cities and in London and Australia, and was deported from England on 13 April 1963.
Bruce's final major arrest for obscenity, at New York's Café Au Go Go on April 3, 1964, also resulted in the arrest of the club's owners, Howard and Ella Solomon. Although Bruce, by then acting as his own attorney in the matter, failed to follow through with his appeal on the New York conviction, Howard Solomon, who also had been found guilty (Ella Solomon had been found not guilty), won his appeal in 1968, after Bruce's death. Although some modern sources incorrectly state that Bruce's conviction was overturned, law scholars agree that Solomon's victory would have been significant for Bruce if his appeal had been presented to the courts, and that he likely would have been vindicated. The film incorrectly states that lawyer Martin Garbus, who did work on Bruce's New York obscenity trial, was Bruce's "final attorney," when actually, Garbus' participation in the trial was limited and Ephraim London was Bruce's lead counsel in the matter before Bruce fired him in order to represent himself.
In October 1965, Bruce was declared bankrupt after his long string of legal battles and inability to find work. Although Bruce filed various civil suits attempting to prevent further arrests, as well as to seek redress against judges and prosecutors, none of them succeeded. On August 3, 1966, Bruce died of a morphine overdose. Many modern comedians, such as George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddie Izzard and Margaret Cho, have acknowledged that it is due to Bruce's fights over obscenity that they have been able to perform freely in public without fear of arrest. On December 23, 2003, inspired by a petition sponsored by two prominent attorneys and signed by several celebrities, then New York governor George Pataki granted a posthumous pardon to Bruce.
Bruce appeared in and co-wrote two films: 1954's Dream Follies, directed by Phil Tucker; and 1956's Dance Hall Racket, also directed by Tucker ( for both). Both films co-starred Bruce's mother, Sally Marr, and Dance Hall Racket co-starred Bruce's wife, Honey Harlowe (also known as Honey Harlow and Honey Bruce). Bruce and Harlowe married in 1951, divorced in 1957 and had one daughter, Kitty. Additionally, Bruce co-wrote the screenplay for the 1954 Twentieth Century-Fox release The Rocket Man (see below). Bruce's autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, was published serially in Playboy beginning in 1963, and in book form in 1965. One of his most famous sketches, "Thank You Mask Man," about the Lone Ranger, was set to animation by director John Magnuson in an eight-minute short that was released to wide acclaim in 1971.
Plays based on Bruce's life include Lenny, which opened in New York on May 26, 1971 and was written by Julian Barry, and Lenny Bruce, in His Own Words, a one-man show starring Jason Fisher that opened in New York on February 1, 2006. Other films about Bruce include the 1967, Magnuson-directed documentary Lenny Bruce, which was a recording of his second-to-last live performance. [Sequences from the earlier documentary are included in Lenny Bruce Without Tears.] In 1974, United Artists released Lenny, which was based on Barry's play. The fictional, Oscar-nominated account was directed by Bob Fosse and starred Dustin Hoffman as the comic. Another documentary, Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, directed by Robert B. Weide, was released in 1998.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1971
Released in United States 1971
