The World's Greatest Sinner
Advance tickets may be bought online at the Roxie webpage, or just show up at the box office before the show like normal folk!
Timothy Carey's 1962 psychotronic masterpiece The World's Greatest Sinner
He was just an average, happily married family man. He should never have listened to that snake!
One day the devil, in the form of a snake, manifests himself to insurance
salesman Clarence Hilliard (Timothy Carey). In short order Hilliard drops out,
re-christens himself God, recruits a skid row following, and becomes an
atheistic, silver lamé-clad rockabilly evangelist. With his mantra, "There is only one God, and that's Man!" and his wide-ranging sexual deviancy and deranged demagoguery, Carey's blaspheming anti-deity stakes out a position somewhere between Nietzsche and Charles Manson. Falling for his own opportunistically populist rhetoric, he goes mad with power-lust, abusing and destroying his acolytes with shockingly escalating excesses. Nothing is sacred in this scathing, still-topical indictment of religion, politics, and society!
In its giddy, sensationalistic treatment of themes eschewed in polite discourse
even now, The World's Greatest Sinner achieves a rough-hewn radicalism
unthinkable in a studio picture. It is the archetypal underground film, made
outside the establishment and to this day denied a proper release. Nonetheless,
this pioneering portrayal of out-of-control youth rebellion presaged the uproar
of the '60's and paved the way for emblematic films like Wild in the
Streets.
"I thought I was a great actor; I'm the only one who did."
During this checkered career, Carey worked with some of the greatest actors and
directors of his time: Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, James
Dean, Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Stanley Kubrick. He
would always do his best to upstage or upset the star, to impress or frustrate
the director with his unhinged improvisations. Wherever Carey trod, chaos soon
followed. At times he would earn grudging respect; more often he would come to
blows with the crew. Films that he had to pull out of, for one reason or
another, include Bonnie and Clyde and the first two Godfathers.
"I was probably fired more than any other actor in Hollywood."
Off-screen, Carey's raw primitivism was equally evident. In auditions, media
appearances, and in person, he flouted the patience and sensibilities of his
audiences, telling crude jokes and breaking into song, or, in keeping with a
late-life obsession, into wind. On several occasions, he pulled out a gun
loaded with blanks and staged a mock murder-suicide before horrified onlookers.
With his unruly talent, Carey made a mark in all his performances. In a bad
movie, his presence in a scene could elevate it to the sublime. Even in great
films, his off-kilter characterizations would stand out. Anyone who has seen
The Killing remembers the quietly sociopathic sharpshooter, an
understated role by his standards. In the 1970's John Cassavetes
recognized Carey's mad brilliance, giving him free reign in a key role in his
film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, as well as Minnie and
Moskowitz.
Carey embarked on The World's Greatest Sinner, his most personal project,
in 1958. He spent three years filming this epic monument to his own genius, as
money and circumstances allowed, like a stateside Orson Welles. Among
its claims to fame, this production launched the careers of rocker Frank
Zappa, who composed the soundtrack, and gonzo auteur Ray Dennis
Steckler. True to form, at the notorious premiere Carey instigated a riot
and fired a gun into the theater's ceiling. This time, the bullets were real!
"Oh you're Tim Carey, you made The World's Greatest Sinner! I want to see that picture!" -Elvis Presley
"Carey has the emotional brilliance of an Eisenstein!" -John Cassavetes
Not available on DVD!
Preceded by: Timothy Carey in Cinema Justice (35mm 6 min.),
With an introduction and Q&A by the son of God himself, Romeo Carey!
Gunfire in the theater will not be tolerated!
Saturday, December 15
7:00 pm and 9:15 pm
Roxie Film Center
3117 16th Street
San Francisco
Timothy Carey arrived in Hollywood in 1951, fresh out of drama school,
intent on showcasing his greatness by whatever means necessary. He conned his
way into early bit parts, and spent the next two decades playing heavies and
weirdos in genre pictures and cheapies, some of which ended up as drive-in
staples, spiced up with added softcore and gore scenes.
1962 B+W/Color 35mm 82 min.
and classic Timothy Carey trailers!
