Everyone knows I love José Ferrer, but The Great Man wasn't his type of movie. Yes, he co-wrote, directed, and starred in it, but it didn't have the gravitas of his usual fare. It felt flat, even with a classically trained, versatile actor at the helm. He plays a journalist turned radio host, given the assignment of hosting a memorial broadcast for a famous comic recently deceased.
Keenan Wynn is the coworker who ropes him into the deal, and Dean Jagger is the head of the station who has his own ideas about the hierarchy of the men who work for him. There are some complexities and power struggles, but it's not very interesting. The main premise, that Joe can't find anyone who personally knew the deceased with a good word to say about him, gets old fast. It's supposed to be a shock, but it isn't really. Anyone who wanted to get to the top that badly will have skeletons in his closet. Anyone with a wife and kids and a mistress in a love nest on the side will leave bad impressions with both women. And since Joe's character isn't given anything to do, he wasn't necessary to play the role. It could have been any B-actor, not one of the finest.
Keenan Wynn is the coworker who ropes him into the deal, and Dean Jagger is the head of the station who has his own ideas about the hierarchy of the men who work for him. There are some complexities and power struggles, but it's not very interesting. The main premise, that Joe can't find anyone who personally knew the deceased with a good word to say about him, gets old fast. It's supposed to be a shock, but it isn't really. Anyone who wanted to get to the top that badly will have skeletons in his closet. Anyone with a wife and kids and a mistress in a love nest on the side will leave bad impressions with both women. And since Joe's character isn't given anything to do, he wasn't necessary to play the role. It could have been any B-actor, not one of the finest.