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(More customer reviews)Brad Garrett's portrayal of Jackie Gleason is so convincing that for most of this TV movie we forget it's a "TV movie", which tend to play a little superficially. My only criticism of his acting is that it lacked energy. He seemed to have paid serious attention to the Great One's mannerisms and expressions but once the cameras started to roll, he apparently forget to inject real bouyant Life into the mix.
I do not agree that Kristen Dalton's Alice is impressive. Audrey Meadows was a great actress who was also funny. Dalton's take is purely "feminist"-aggressive in the modern sense [not that there's anything wrong with that] but Meadows tempered it with the underlying, inescapable truth that she deeply loved this man. To use an over-used noun, Meadows' decidely ahead-of-her-time feminism was "nuanced" and filled with pathos. For the historians, it appears that her 1952 audition is not exactly scripted accurately here.
The movie ends with a 1980s interview, apparently based on the "60 Minutes" telecast. Garrett's Gleason says he wishes that he did another Honeymooners season. Although it's been written that Jackie did consider doing new episodes in 1959, most evidence I've read is that he was secure in closing down the spin-off (39) filmed shows: the ratings were disappointing *and* the quality was so remarkable that he knew another season could only bring disappointment.
Perhaps some mention should have been made of Gleason's *versatility*: his composing and conducting; drammatic acting, etc. If the producers wanted to focus in on the The Honeymooners first go-'round in the '50s, may I point out another omission: I feel that many fans do not know that Jackie did not win an Emmy for those "Classic 39" - it went to Phil Silvers.
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GLEASON - DVD Movie
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