The film is set in Hollywood's silent era. Annoyed by Paramount's success with Rudolph Valentino, Rainbow Studios mogul Adolph Zitz (Dom DeLuise) announces a nation-wide talent search for The World's Greatest Lover, a man with the steamy sex appeal to rival Paramount's box office sensation. Nervous, high-strung baker Rudy Hickman (Wilder) answers the call and makes a bee-line for Hollywood with meek wife Annie (Carol Kane). As Rudy Valentine, the would-be star makes a splashy entrance at a pricey hotel - his cousin Buddy (Mark Silberman) masquerades as a chauffer and loudly pretends to recognize "star" Rudy in the hotel's lobby - and hotel manager Tomaso Abalone (Fritz Feld) welcomes the "Valentines" with open arms.

As Rudy anxiously prepares for his screen test, Annie is drawn away from her preoccupied, moderately insane husband and toward the irresistible allure of Valentino, joining a busload of extras shooting one of his pictures on location in Malibu.

Freely adapted from Fellini's The White Shiek (Lo Sceicco bianco, 1952), Wilder shares that director's fondness for wild eccentrics, which is also reminiscent of the extremes found in silent and early-talkie comedies, from the gross corpulence, extravagant mustaches, etc. of players like Bud Jamison, James Finlayson, Charlie Hall, Chester Conklin, etc.

The supporting cast appears to have been carefully chosen for their compatibility to this particular look and style of acting, with a mix of screen and stage veterans and younger performers who simply "look right," from Feld (doing his trademark "popping" mouth bit), Robert Ball (Invasion of the Star Creatures), Carl Ballantine, and Billy Sands, to Sal Viscuso, Danny De Vito, and Jack Riley.

Carol Kane is well-cast - in this she is much like Zasu Pitts, while Wilder at times resembles a Jewish Harold Lloyd, or maybe Harry Langdon with schizophrenia. Both spend a great deal of screentime bugging their eyes out, and at times Wilder is quite funny simply reacting to everything around him, such as his excitement to a woman (he thinks) he recognizes as Garbo appears before his suite's window.

The reproductions of both 1920s Hollywood and the silent film recreations capture the right essence without trying to be historically precise. The production seems quite lavish at times, a bit more than was really necessary.

Video & Audio

The World's Greatest Lover is presented in a pretty good 16:9 transfer at 1.77:1 (with a full-frame transfer on the flip-side of the disc), approximating its original 1.85:1 release. The original mono sound (available also in an imperceptible "stereo" mix) is okay. Spanish and French dubs are also available, as well as optional Spanish subtitles.

Extra Features

Extras include another welcome Commentary by Gene Wilder and a 16:9 Theatrical Trailer.

Parting Thoughts

The World's Greatest Lover is sporadically funny but a stronger storyline and characterizations a bit less on the edge of sanity might have resulted in something more embraceable. Instead, it's the kind of comedy you watch from a distance and only occasionally find amusing.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf - The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune and Taschen's forthcoming Cinema Nippon. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.