Carl Reiner’s one and only cult classic movie: “The film was ahead of its time”
Even though he didn’t quite scale the same cinematic heights as his long-time best friend, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner followed a similar path by pivoting from small-screen comedy to directing features.
In fact, he was equally prolific as his BFF, and over an almost identical period of time. Whereas Brooks helmed 11 pictures between 1968’s The Producers and 1995’s Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Reiner took the reins on 15 films, from 1966’s Enter Laughing to 1997’s That Old Feeling.
When it comes to stone-cold classics, though, Brooks has the edge. Reiner never directed anything that reached the same legendary status as The Producers, Blazing Saddles, or Young Frankenstein, but not many filmmakers have made an impact on Hollywood comedy as monumental as the EGOT-winning icon.
Reiner was pretty good, too, with Oh, God!, The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man with Two Brains, and All of Me are arguably his finest efforts from behind the camera, but according to the man himself, he only had one credit that was worthy of being remembered as a genuine cult favourite.
“Of all the films I have directed, only Where’s Poppa? Is universally acknowledged as a cult classic,” he wrote in his memoir, An Anecdotal Life. “A cult classic, as you may know, is a film that was seen by a small minority of the world’s filmgoers, who insist it is one of the greatest, most daring, and innovative moving pictures ever made.”
As far as he was concerned, his 1970 caper, which starred George Segal as a lawyer trying to extricate himself from under the thumb of his overbearing mother through any means necessary, fit the bill, since he imagined that when “two or more cult members meet, they will quote dialogue from the classic and agree that the film was ahead of its time.”
It also ticked another important box usually associated with the cult classic: flopping at the box office. The ticket-buying public generally didn’t care when Where’s Poppa? was first released in cinemas, but after it began gathering a reputation as a word-of-mouth favourite among comedy aficionados, it was re-released five years later under a different title, Going Ape, since Segal’s Gordon Hocheiser has a soft spot for his gorilla costume.
“To be designated a cult classic, it is of primary importance that the film fail to earn back the cost of making, marketing, and distributing it,” Reiner acknowledged. “Where’s Poppa? was made in 1969 for a little over $1 million. According to the last distribution statements I saw, it will not break even until it earns another $650,000.”
He was being awfully analytical about it, but based on the metrics that he’d outlined, you can’t say that it doesn’t fit the bill. Some may disagree, since there are definitely other candidates in his back catalogue, but since Reiner was the one who directed the thing, if he thought Where’s Poppa? was his one and only cult classic, then we’re not going to argue.
