Timothy Carey

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Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:54 pm
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#1 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:06 pm

I stumbled across a really nice tribute to this underrated, eccentric actor on Cashiers du Cinemart's website (http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives ... ?IshNum=12). I can remember seeing Carey's memorable turns in Kubrick's films (The Killing and Paths of Glory) but having no idea who this guy was until much later. The Cashiers article recounts a funny story about how Kirk Douglas couldn't stand Carey on the set of Paths because he kept being upstaged by him but Kubrick loved it and encouraged Carey to improvise and agitate Douglas! The profile also makes an interesting point that Carey's eccentric behaviour on and off-screen anticipated people like Andy Kaufman and Crispin Glover.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this profile is a description of Carey's movie The World's Greatest Sinner -- his directorial debut (and the only film he completed) which is described in the article:
Its narrative centers on Clarence Hilliard, a man who is tired of his humdrum life. He's an insurance salesman with a beautiful family, a Mexican gardener, and a horse. One night, he stumbles across a rock 'n' roll show happening near his home. He becomes so moved by the music and dancing that his mojo gets a goin' like it ain't anybody's business.

Hilliard heads home and turns over a new leaf. He decides that he's God, changes his name to God Hilliard and starts a rock 'n' roll band. He travels the country decked out in a gold lamé suit with "God" embroidered on the sleeves, working crowds into a frenzy! The rock 'n' roll performances that Carey unleashes in SINNER reek of punk rock and No Wave madness, and this was in 1956!
This sounds great! He even got a then unknown Frank Zappa, who was just starting out, to score the movie! If you're curious to track down a copy of this movie, I found that Carey has his own website (run by his son who keeps his dad's memory alive), here: http://www.absolutefilms.net/videosale.html Now, I haven't ever ordered anything from this site. Has anyone on here? Is it legit/worth it? Just curious.

At any rate, the time Carey spent/worked with John Cassavetes is the most touching part of the Cashiers profile, including a hilarious anecdote about the filming of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Apparently, Cassavetes looked out for Carey when he had troubles:
One great example of Cassavetes's overwhelming care and affection for Carey was in the early 80s when Cassavetes ran across Carey outside of the Paramount lot. Carey was looking for work. They got in a conversation about old times and when Carey smiled, Cassavetes noticed the cap that had fallen off of one of Carey's front teeth. He drove Carey to the dentist and paid the bill. At Cassavetes' funeral in 1989, Carey delivered an astounding, poetic, and beautiful eulogy for the man who had done so much for him. "His grace, humility, artistry, against all odds. His light will never be extinguished. Cassavetes: always perpendicular to humanity, antidote against apathy in my life as a thespian. To me, he will always be a theanthropist. Hail Cassavetes."
If the Cashiers article isn't enough for ya, there is an excellent (and typically surreal) interview with Carey at Film Comment's site: http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/1-2-2004/carey.htm

Anybody else a fan of Carey's work?

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Faux Hulot
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#2 Post by Faux Hulot » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:57 pm

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Anybody else a fan of Carey's work?
Absolutely! My first exposure to Carey was one of his scenes in Paths of Glory; I stumbled into it on TV not knowing what it was, and I couldn't take my eyes off the guy. His performances are among my favorites in all of Cassavetes' films; so much with the slightest gesture or menacing suggestion in Chinese Bookie (for my money, his extra few moments in the 1976 version are alone enough to justify the two separate cuts in the Criterion box); or conversely, the most extravagant and ostensibly gratuitous scene-chewing in Minnie & Moskowitz, which few others could dream of getting away with.

The World's Greatest Sinner is a hoot! I can't vouch for the copies for sale through his son's site, but even a bootleg-quality dub would be worth picking up.

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Fletch F. Fletch
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#3 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:14 pm

Faux Hulot wrote:
Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Anybody else a fan of Carey's work?
Absolutely! My first exposure to Carey was one of his scenes in Paths of Glory; I stumbled into it on TV not knowing what it was, and I couldn't take my eyes off the guy. His performances are among my favorites in all of Cassavetes' films; so much with the slightest gesture or menacing suggestion in Chinese Bookie (for my money, his extra few moments in the 1976 version are alone enough to justify the two separate cuts in the Criterion box); or conversely, the most extravagant and ostensibly gratuitous scene-chewing in Minnie & Moskowitz, which few others could dream of getting away with.
Heh! Yeah, I love what he does with his teeth in The Killing. He plays such an odd hitman but it works so well. He always brought such an off-kilter vibe to every role he did.
The World's Greatest Sinner is a hoot! I can't vouch for the copies for sale through his son's site, but even a bootleg-quality dub would be worth picking up.
Thanks for the recommendation. From everything I've read it sounds like one helluva film. And the price ain't too steep on his son's site....

milkcan
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#4 Post by milkcan » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:32 pm

Of the videotapes available at Absolute Films, I've seen The World's Greatest Sinner, and the quality is pretty shoddy. But it is WELL worth it- the film is something every fan of counterculture should see! Also, you get to see trailers for more Carey goodness, including Tweets Ladies of Pasadena- this one I am totally crazed about, the trailer has me laughing to death! I once emailed Absolute Films as to why they don't have Tweets availabe, and the response I got was that they were updating their catalogue to DVD (this was during this past summer). I hope we won't have to wait much longer!

Timothy Carey also had an obsession with farting. His Insect Trainer play was based off this. I believe Carey once said, "Fart in a crowd, or die alone in a corner?"

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Brian Oblivious
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#5 Post by Brian Oblivious » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:17 pm

Timothy Carey is always amazing to watch, but I have to say my favorite of his performances is that of the demented thug in Andre De Toth's Crime Wave. In his way, he's one of the scariest henchmen ever seen on film.

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Fletch F. Fletch
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#6 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:57 am

milkcan wrote:Of the videotapes available at Absolute Films, I've seen The World's Greatest Sinner, and the quality is pretty shoddy. But it is WELL worth it- the film is something every fan of counterculture should see! Also, you get to see trailers for more Carey goodness, including Tweets Ladies of Pasadena- this one I am totally crazed about, the trailer has me laughing to death! I once emailed Absolute Films as to why they don't have Tweets availabe, and the response I got was that they were updating their catalogue to DVD (this was during this past summer). I hope we won't have to wait much longer!
That's interesting news! Well, maybe I will hold off on getting the videotape of Sinner until the convert everything over to DVD.

I've read up on Tweets and sounds pretty bizarre but I thought that Carey never finished it. I guess they could assemble whatever he had done into some kind of form.

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#7 Post by acquarello » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:13 am

The DVD may not be as imminent as expected. During the Q&A for World's Greatest Sinner back in Feb. 2004 for Film Comment Selects (for which they wrote the article), Carey's son was also talking about the same "we're in the process of converting all of his films to DVD" and pointed us to the same website. It doesn't look as though it's been updated since.

peerpee
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#8 Post by peerpee » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:40 pm

an email, received Oct 16 2005:
All our online video titles are now available on DVD except The Worlds
Greatest Sinner.
Thanks!
Absolute Films
1441 Huntington Drive, Blg.301
South Pasadena, CA 91030 U.S.A.
Tel. (626)442-6454 Studio
Tel. (323)692-1010 Editing Facility
Pro Broadcast Digital Studio
http://www.AbsoluteFilms.Net
"True Independent Cinema since 1958"

milkcan
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#9 Post by milkcan » Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:19 am

I don't understand. I've checked my email for the "updates" list they put me on and I haven't recieved this. Are they saying only the titles currently on the website are now on DVD, or does this pertain to some new releases? The website right now doesn't show any DVD signs or Tweet Twig.

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Fletch F. Fletch
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#10 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:33 pm

Bright Lights Journal's blog has a nice piece on Carey and how the World's Greatest Sinner is still MIA on DVD. Dang!

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King Prendergast
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#11 Post by King Prendergast » Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:39 pm

Mr. Carey was truly sui generis. World's Greatest is a masterpiece. It makes a great "What-the-Fuck?" double feature with Even Dwarfs Started Small. A fun way to disturb your bourgeois friends.

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Polybius
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#12 Post by Polybius » Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:30 pm

jesus and Fletch mentioned in the Upcoming Movies on TV thread that World's Greatest Sinner was going to be on last night. I happened to run across a mention of it in my onscreen guide yesterday afternoon, so I caught it when it aired. Anyone else?

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foliagecop
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#13 Post by foliagecop » Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:11 am

'The World's Greatest Sinner' has been on my to-watch/to-find list for ages. I've loved Carey's work since I first clocked him in 'The Killing' years ago. I was instantly hooked by his presence and style of acting. And by his teeth, obviously. :wink:

Reading up on him introduced me to TWGS and taught me what an absolute loon/genius the man was. There should be more like him. John Turturro came close a while back (a dead-cert for the bio-pic should there ever be one), but soon fizzled out.

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Polybius
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#14 Post by Polybius » Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:28 am

Some of the tidbits mentioned in his IMDB profile are priceless, like Elvis trying to get a copy of World's Greatest Sinner from him, that Brando wound up stabbing him with a pen on the set of One Eyed Jacks (for maybe the only time ever, Marlon wasn't the chief weirdo on any film set), and that Kazan physically attacked him (too bad Carey didn't pound the little toad into the dirt.)

Those all dovetail nicely with Fletch's mention of Kubrick giving him free rein in Paths. For such a normally controlling director, Stan would occasionally turn a special talent loose, like he did Sellers on Strangelove.

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#15 Post by Wittsdream » Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:56 am

Polybius wrote:For such a normally controlling director, Stan would occasionally turn a special talent loose, like he did Sellers on Strangelove.
His near ascetic preoccupation with formalism nonetheless belies the fact that Kubrick more often than not gave "gifted" actors, or those with an acute understanding of the subject matter, dialectical free reign on the set.

How about these samplings throughout his oeuvre:

Sterling Hayden in "The Killing"
Timothy Carey in "The Killing" and "Paths of Glory"
Peter Sellers in "Lolita" and "Dr. Strangelove"
Slim Pickens in "Dr. Strangelove"
Malcolm McDowell in "A Clockwork Orange"
Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"
Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket"
Nicole Kidman in "Eyes Wide Shut"
....among others!

Kubrick's cognizance of marrying the material to a particular actor's physiological inhabitation of a character was one of his numerous strengths as a storyteller, and Timothy Carey utilized this freedom to the nth degree!

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Gregory
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#16 Post by Gregory » Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:05 am

I enjoy seeing Carey pop up in everything I've seen him in, the Kubricks probably most often. A great, scene-stealing character actor who brought something of his own to his roles that fit well with them.

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skuhn8
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#17 Post by skuhn8 » Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:01 am

Gregory wrote:I enjoy seeing Carey pop up in everything I've seen him in, the Kubricks probably most often. A great, scene-stealing character actor who brought something of his own to his roles that fit well with them.
It kills me how he can steal the show given just a couple choice minutes. An already great noir like Crime Wave for instance: you can feel the deviant brilliance ratchet up when he shows up in the third act. But of course it takes an excellent (and again, deviant) director to let him get away with it in a role like that.

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#18 Post by BrianInAtlanta » Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:41 pm

skuhn8 wrote:It kills me how he can steal the show given just a couple choice minutes.
For instance his great cameo in The Monkees' Head.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?o_c ... cid=174189
"Nobody walks out on me! Even myself!"

Perkins Cobb
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#19 Post by Perkins Cobb » Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:41 pm

In Minnie & Moskowitz, it looks like Seymour Cassel slips out of character while cracking up over Carey's antics (although Moskowitz is so deranged, it's hard to tell).

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#20 Post by karmajuice » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:26 am

Just watched The World's Greatest Sinner last night after recording it off of TCM. At times it felt too conscious of its underground-ness, its need to be radical (a symptom of underground films I guess I just have to get used to), but this by no means diminished it. Carey's personality seems to blur the line between wicked humor and self-delusion and the role of God Hilliard is the perfect vehicle for him, where that can flourish.

I've seen him in Paths of Glory (which I remember vividly) and The Killing (which I saw longer ago, and is not so clear). I own the Cassavetes box set and the only film I haven't watched yet is The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, since my laptop broke, so hearing that he's in it only has me more impatient to see it.

Another thing:
Also screening is the short Plus short, "Cinema Justice," (1972, 6 min). An outtake from director Steve DeJarnatt's featurette TARZANA, "Cinema Justice" is a single, 6-minute shot of Carey as a Korean War vet raving about exploding bombs and drawers full of useless medals.
Has anyone seen that, and maybe know where to find it? Because my god, yes. Necessary viewing.

I also read the story about how Cassavetes came to visit Carey at home for the first time, and Carey convinced him to wear a padded suit. When he put it on, Carey let three rottweilers loose and watched while they attacked Cassavetes and supposedly said, "It's not you they hate, it's the suit!" One of those beautiful moments in history you just wish you could witness.
That story is on both TCM and IMDB, so obviously that means it's true.

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Polybius
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#21 Post by Polybius » Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:05 am

Damn it, I meant to mention that one, too. That's what happens when you get sidetracked wishing retroactive violence on Elia Kazan.

Did anybody else notice that MST3K fave Ray Dennis Steckler, director and star of The Incredibly Strange Creatures..., was listed as a cinematographer on Sinner?

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Re: Timothy Carey

#22 Post by impossiblefunky » Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:44 pm

http://impossiblefunky.blogspot.com/201 ... carey.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Faux Hulot
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Re: Timothy Carey

#23 Post by Faux Hulot » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:53 pm

There's still time time for New Yorkers to catch the Carey tribute at Vox Populi (through May 2)

Image

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Re: Timothy Carey

#24 Post by J Adams » Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:55 pm

Anthology is doing a Carey series this month.

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Re: Timothy Carey

#25 Post by impossiblefunky » Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:47 pm

The Projection Booth is covering World's Greatest Sinner in November -- featuring interviews with Michael C. Gwynne (from Tarzana) and Romeo Carey.

Big news coming for Carey fans.

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