Michael Imperioli once picked the “funniest movie ever made”
Funny how, Michael Imperioli? Funny like a clown? The Sopranos was not without its laughs, in fact, the way it encompassed every element of life is what made it such a triumph. However, Imperioli has often been the more tragic foil to the absurd punchline of life with the characters he has played over the years. In many ways, this makes his view on comedy all the more intriguing.
His pal Bob Odenkirk once said, “All people are sad clowns. That’s the key to comedy – and it’s a buffer against reality.” The daftness of The In-Laws pushes that buffer against reality to laughable extremes, while the misadventures at its core does just enough to uphold the sad clown pathos of perfect comedy. This is why Imperioli calls the 1979 comedy his favourite of the genre.
“’Serpentine!’ The funniest movie ever made. A buddy comedy with unparalleled chemistry between the two leads, Peter Falk and Alan Arkin (and Cassavetes’s DNA is at work even beyond the Falk connection, as John would replace the director of the disappointing not-quite-a-sequel, 1986’s Big Trouble),” Imperioli said about The In-Laws.
He told Criterion: “Falk and Arkin are a mismatch made in heaven. Rumour has it this was Brando’s favourite movie and is the reason he signed on to The Freshman, which was written and directed by The In-Laws scribe Andrew Bergman. Richard Libertini almost manages to steal the film in the last act as an eccentric Central American dictator/ventriloquist/art-lover.”
This is indeed true. In the DVD commentary for the 2003 remake, Arkin recalls the moment that Brando made him blush by telling him he had seen this film 20 times and he was even inspired to imitate Arkin’s delivery of certain lines from the movie in his own subsequent work. Sadly, that same remake flopped, which proved a blessing for the original stars with Arkin calling his old pal Falke to congratulate him on the credit he was getting from critics recalling his greatness to bash the new effort.
For those less familiar with the movie, the Arthur Hiller-directed caper comes with the following synopsis: “On the eve of their children’s marriage, NYC in-laws Sheldon Kornpett and Vince Ricardo embark on a series of misadventures involving the CIA, the Treasury Department and Central American dictators.”
With quips like “You know, I’m such a great driver, it’s incomprehensible that they took my license away,” it might have a few slapstick moments, but behind these pratfalls is a sense of wry intelligence. It’s a caper brimming with the ironies of life, as Sheldon exclaims: “There’s no reason to shoot at me, I’m a dentist.”
