As you all have heard by now, Peter Boyle passed away Dec. 12. He was best known for his nine years on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond but best-loved because of his turn as the monster in one of the greatest comedies of all time, Young Frankenstein. I was eleven when it came out and my mother dragged me along to the Lindenhurst Theater to sit alongside her in the dark (I guess she couldn't find a babysitter) cringing and sinking down in my seat every time she laughed, which was often. My mother has a VERY loud laugh. When we got back home she phoned friends to tell them how funny the movie was, employing the classic, yet disturbing line, "I WET MY PANTS I LAUGHED SO HARD!"
I next encountered Boyle in 1976 when he guest-hosted Saturday Night Live, performing the infamous "Dueling Brandos" sketch with John Belushi. Then came Wizard in Taxi Driver, counseling Robert DeNiro's imploding Travis Bickle to "...go out and get laid."
I didn't get to Boyle's breakout movie role - the title character in Joe (mp4 movie excerpt) - until many years after its 1970 release. Written by Norman Wexler (Serpico, Saturday Night Fever), Joe is set at the tail-end of the "hippie movement" and follows the blue-collar Everyman as he bonds with businessman Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick) over their mutual hatred of the "kids" and in search of one of them, Compton's daughter (played by Susan Sarandon in her first movie role). She's disappeared in the wake of a murder and the unlikely duo search her out in the coffee-houses, bookstores and "crash pads" of the Lower East Side. Along the way they smoke pot, experience "free love" and otherwise "go native".
Directed by John G. Avildsen (Save the Tiger, Rocky, The Karate Kid) the film may seem quaint now but was quite the sensation in its day (the height of the Vietnam War) - and not just because of the nudity and drug use. Wexler even received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay. A soundtrack album was released that featured mostly dialogue (mp3 files):
"Forty-two percent of all liberals are queer..."
"Nobody has the right to booze unless he earns some money..."
"...with all that culture crap."
"Ya gotta be able to laugh..."
Peter Boyle - in reality 180 degrees opposite the bigoted hardhat Joe Curran - was apparently so troubled by the positive reaction to his character that he turned down "violent" roles for years, including - most famously - the part of Popeye Doyle (also turned down by James Caan) in The French Connection, which garnered a Best Actor Oscar for Gene Hackman. Perhaps becoming friends with John Lennon (who served as Best Man at Boyle's wedding) was a consolation prize...
My favorite scene in Joe is where he and the Mrs. are preparing to have the businessman and his wife over for dinner—there are so many classic lines, like "She doesn't go to Gimbel's, Joe" - "OK SHE GOES TO MACY's!!!"
Boyle is also great in The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Crazy Joe, and so many other films. Rest in peace, indeed.
Posted by: William Berger | December 15, 2006 at 07:36 AM
When I read that he'd died, I went looking for the "Putting on the Ritz" clip on YouTube, only to discover that many other people had done the same, and that the comments section had turned into a little fan-memorial site of its own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGN2aa3oQRM
Posted by: grady | December 15, 2006 at 09:12 AM
Thanks Chris -
My mother took me to see "Joe" when it came out. I was eleven, and the movie both fascinated and horrified me. It was the first sex scene I ever saw - that love-in scene when the hippy chick told Joe that "sex isn't a 50 yeard dash." And then all the drug scenes with Susan Sarandon and her pusher boyfriend did more to make me want to try drugs than anything I'd seen up to that point. And the final scene, with the massacre at the hippy farm and Joe's friend killing his own daughter, really horrified and frightened me. It was definitely one of the most memorable movies of my youth.
-ken
Posted by: Station Manager Ken | December 15, 2006 at 10:18 AM
Young Frankenstein is a seminal movie for me, but I also remember fondly Boyle's appearance on the X-files as a reluctant psychic.
Posted by: squinchy | December 15, 2006 at 10:34 AM
I grew up right near the Lindenhurst Theatre and saw many movies there. Every time I go home now and drive past it I get sad when I see that it's closed. It was the first theatre I ever saw a movie at, it was The Cat From Outer Space.
Posted by: will | December 15, 2006 at 11:53 AM
He was also good in The Candidate.
Cheers,
Lipwak
Posted by: Lipwak | December 15, 2006 at 12:22 PM
The page of Worth 1000 that is current as I write is "Same Movie New Genre". Sort of a still-life version of remixed trailers, it asked contestants to reimagine a movie in a different genere -- kids movies as gory thrillers, gory thrillers as romantic date movies, that kinda thing. Listening to the mini-"Joe" segment on Scott's show, I found myself attempting to reimagine the Boyle movie as a romantic comedy. "He was a blue collar steel worker. She was a beautiful young flower child. When they met ..." -- and so on.
http://tinyurl.com/yx49rr
Incidently, no one has yet mentioned Boyle's incredible range. More than anyone of his era except maybe Robert Duval, he could play any part. From an evil West Indies governor with a pedophilic streak in "Swashbuckler" to Robert Pullman's loveable dad in "While You Were Sleeping" to - yes - "Young Frankenstein's" monster, there wasn't anything he couldn't pull off.
Bye Peter. I'll think of you whenever I hear "Puttin' On the Ritz".
Posted by: Parq | December 15, 2006 at 01:04 PM
Artie Lange had a good story about meeting Peter Boyle on the Warner Brothers film lot when he was doing The Norm Show. Artie and Norm saw PB in the caferteria and went to say 'hi' and introduce themselves. PB just shot back at them, "You wanna get fucking stoned," and Artie and Peter smoked a blunt behind the pillars of the White House set on The West Wing.
Posted by: BlakeWallington | December 15, 2006 at 01:50 PM
Oh yes -- as the psychic on X-Files! Hardly any of the obits even mentioned that, and even I let it slip my mind! That was an incredible performance.
I only experienced "Joe" from the Mad Magazine parody! I'll have to see it....
Posted by: Vic Perry | December 15, 2006 at 05:24 PM
Not too many people seem to have seen the excellent and weird movie Slither (1973) which starred James Caan, Peter Boyle, and Alex Rocco. It's an MGM/UA release and was released on VHS around 1996 or so. It is funny and bizarre and seems to have influenced the Coen Brothers. Too odd to describe properly here, Caan is being followed by a pair of black winnebago's without windows for most of the movie and Boyle is a lounge saxophone player. Rocco is a creep who eats three ice cream cones simultaneously.
Posted by: Listener Kliph | December 15, 2006 at 09:20 PM
Not only was John Lennon the best man at Peter Boyle's wedding, he was shot dead a few days before Boyle's first child was born. Boyle called that the most emotional week of his entire life, with birth and death occuring almost simultaneously.
Boyle had the reputation of being one of Hollywood's nicest guys. He will be missed.
Posted by: Andrew | December 16, 2006 at 08:55 AM
Joe was actually kind of a lovable character, with his tirade concerning Easter orgies. Must be heard to be pronounced correctly. You can't really top "Slither," though.
Posted by: Clayton | December 17, 2006 at 04:55 AM