Funny Bones
Encyclopedia
Funny Bones is a 1995 comedy-drama film
from Disney's Hollywood Pictures
. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Chelsom
, co-produced by Simon Fields, and co-written by Peter Flannery
. The music score was by John Altman
and the cinematography by Eduardo Serra
. The film stars Oliver Platt
, Jerry Lewis
, Lee Evans
, Leslie Caron
, Richard Griffiths
, Sadie Corre
, Oliver Reed
, George Carl
, Freddie Davies
and Ian McNeice
.
stand-up comedy act, Tommy returns to Blackpool
, England
, where he was born and spent childhood summers with a family of performers known as the Parkers until leaving at aged six, 30 years previously.
Disguised with a new identity, Tommy's intention is to seek out unique performers (who have the gift of humor that he lacks) and purchase their acts so he can return to the U.S. and become the success he thinks his father wants him to be.
Tommy encounters his father's old partners Bruno and Thomas, the Parker Brothers, from whom his father learned everything he knew. Once great performers of Blackpool, they now work only as ghouls on a ghost train at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Circus.
Tommy also sees the performance of a brilliant younger comic, Jack Parker, who truly is a naturally gifted performer. Jack is also psychologically troubled, having been manipulated by a corrupt policeman known as Sharkey into helping him steal valuable wax eggs from French smugglers, one of whom is accidentally killed by a boat propeller.
At a club, Tommy also meets Jack's mother Katie, who used to be married to Bruno. Even though Tommy is in disguise, she suspects that he is somehow connected to the family.
After attempting to buy an act from the Parkers, a disillusioned Tommy eventually realises that his father stole his original act from the Parker brothers when he left England. He then reveals himself to be Tommy Fawkes. Katie have a conversation with him and tell him that Jack Parker is his half-brother.
Tommy phones his father about the revelation. George Fawkes, worried when Tommy vanished from Las Vegas without a word, gets on the next plane to Blackpool.
Jack begins teaching Tommy the tricks of the trade. George arrives and has a heart-to-heart talk with Tommy, telling him that some people are funny down to the bone and some aren't -- Tommy, unfortunately, is not.
George goes to Bruno Parker to ask what Jack (his son) is like. Bruno tells him that Jack is the funniest of them all, but has paid a terrible price. During a performance as a child, Jack killed a co-performer who used to pick on him during an act involving a metal bar and a newspaper, explaining Jack's psychological problems.
As part of their reconciliation, George arranges for the Parkers to top the bill at a Blackpool Tower Circus public event. Jack, however, is still hounded by the policeman Sharkey and not permitted to perform.
During an elaborate Egyptian act in which she appears, Katie manages to get rid of Sharkey via a sarcophagus
, which is then kidnapped by the French smugglers.
The wax eggs they smuggled containing a mystical, ancient Chinese rejuvenating powder. Jack had previously placed the powder within a makeup tin, which Bruno and Thomas accidentally use, helping them to perform brilliantly.
Toward the end of the show, in the last act of the presentation, a crook which looks like a criminal, Jack, is seen climbing a giant pole he is eating and making acrobacies up there and when he gets down from the pole, lots of policeman run towards him, so he climbs again and one of the police men too. The crook them smack the policeman in the face with a glass bottle (with such a strengh that reminds the previous Jack's violence in that killing acting years ago), we see the police oficcer really falling from the pole but Jack is strong enough to hold his arms in mid-air and so the camera shows that Tommy is the policeman and is really afraid of dying and then Jack, the crook, says to the hanged Tommy: I'm beginning to like you. Jack is laughing and Tommy , after the sudden death felling passes away ,gazes upon the audience in amazement and finds at last the feeling of an actor he was searching for all his life.
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
from Disney's Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Hollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.-History:...
. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Chelsom
Peter Chelsom
Peter Chelsom is a British actor and film director. He has directed among others such films as Shall We Dance? and Hannah Montana: The Movie...
, co-produced by Simon Fields, and co-written by Peter Flannery
Peter Flannery
Peter Flannery is a British playwright and screenwriter. He was educated at Bath Spa University and is best known for his work while a resident playwright at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
. The music score was by John Altman
John Altman (composer)
John Altman is a British film composer, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.-Biography:Altman was introduced to the music of the 1930s and 1940s at an early age by an uncle who arranged and composed music for big bands and conducted for Judy Garland, the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy,...
and the cinematography by Eduardo Serra
Eduardo Serra
Eduardo Serra is a cinematographer from Lisbon, Portugal, twice nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.From 1960 to 1963, Serra studied engineering at Lisbon's Instituto Superior Técnico, but he had to leave the country after his involvement in students' protests against Salazar's...
. The film stars Oliver Platt
Oliver Platt
Oliver James Platt is a Canadian-American actor. He is currently starring in the Showtime original series, The Big C with Laura Linney.-Early life:...
, Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, Lee Evans
Lee Evans (comedian)
Lee Evans is an English comedian, writer, actor and musician.-Personal life:Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an Irish mother and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 13 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex...
, Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
, Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
, Sadie Corre
Sadie Corré
Sadie Corré was a 4'2" English actress, tap dancer, comic performer and leading pantomime cat. She was sometimes credited as Sadie Corrie.-Early years:Her parents were Abraham and Kate Corré, who owned the Carlton Tavern public house...
, Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
, George Carl
George Carl
George Carl was a "vaudevillian" style comic & clown. Carl was born in Ohio, and started his comedy career traveling with a variety of circuses during his teenage years. In time, Carl would become internationally famous as a clown and visual comedian. In his sixties, Johnny Carson, a fan of...
, Freddie Davies
Freddie Davies
Freddie Davies is a British comedian and actor. He is the grandson of Music Hall comedian Jack Herbert.Freddie Davies was born in Brixton, London. At the start of World War II Davies was evacuated in 1939 to Seend in Wiltshire and subsequently to Torquay in Devon and then to Salford, Manchester...
and Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice is a prolific English screen, stage, and television character actor.-Early life:McNeice was born in Basingstoke in Hampshire. McNeice's acting training started at the Taunton School in Somerset, followed by two years at the Salisbury Playhouse...
.
Plot
Tommy Fawkes is the failed son of a famous father, comedy legend George Fawkes. After flopping big with his own awkward Las VegasLas Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
stand-up comedy act, Tommy returns to Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, where he was born and spent childhood summers with a family of performers known as the Parkers until leaving at aged six, 30 years previously.
Disguised with a new identity, Tommy's intention is to seek out unique performers (who have the gift of humor that he lacks) and purchase their acts so he can return to the U.S. and become the success he thinks his father wants him to be.
Tommy encounters his father's old partners Bruno and Thomas, the Parker Brothers, from whom his father learned everything he knew. Once great performers of Blackpool, they now work only as ghouls on a ghost train at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Circus.
Tommy also sees the performance of a brilliant younger comic, Jack Parker, who truly is a naturally gifted performer. Jack is also psychologically troubled, having been manipulated by a corrupt policeman known as Sharkey into helping him steal valuable wax eggs from French smugglers, one of whom is accidentally killed by a boat propeller.
At a club, Tommy also meets Jack's mother Katie, who used to be married to Bruno. Even though Tommy is in disguise, she suspects that he is somehow connected to the family.
After attempting to buy an act from the Parkers, a disillusioned Tommy eventually realises that his father stole his original act from the Parker brothers when he left England. He then reveals himself to be Tommy Fawkes. Katie have a conversation with him and tell him that Jack Parker is his half-brother.
Tommy phones his father about the revelation. George Fawkes, worried when Tommy vanished from Las Vegas without a word, gets on the next plane to Blackpool.
Jack begins teaching Tommy the tricks of the trade. George arrives and has a heart-to-heart talk with Tommy, telling him that some people are funny down to the bone and some aren't -- Tommy, unfortunately, is not.
George goes to Bruno Parker to ask what Jack (his son) is like. Bruno tells him that Jack is the funniest of them all, but has paid a terrible price. During a performance as a child, Jack killed a co-performer who used to pick on him during an act involving a metal bar and a newspaper, explaining Jack's psychological problems.
As part of their reconciliation, George arranges for the Parkers to top the bill at a Blackpool Tower Circus public event. Jack, however, is still hounded by the policeman Sharkey and not permitted to perform.
During an elaborate Egyptian act in which she appears, Katie manages to get rid of Sharkey via a sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
, which is then kidnapped by the French smugglers.
The wax eggs they smuggled containing a mystical, ancient Chinese rejuvenating powder. Jack had previously placed the powder within a makeup tin, which Bruno and Thomas accidentally use, helping them to perform brilliantly.
Toward the end of the show, in the last act of the presentation, a crook which looks like a criminal, Jack, is seen climbing a giant pole he is eating and making acrobacies up there and when he gets down from the pole, lots of policeman run towards him, so he climbs again and one of the police men too. The crook them smack the policeman in the face with a glass bottle (with such a strengh that reminds the previous Jack's violence in that killing acting years ago), we see the police oficcer really falling from the pole but Jack is strong enough to hold his arms in mid-air and so the camera shows that Tommy is the policeman and is really afraid of dying and then Jack, the crook, says to the hanged Tommy: I'm beginning to like you. Jack is laughing and Tommy , after the sudden death felling passes away ,gazes upon the audience in amazement and finds at last the feeling of an actor he was searching for all his life.
Cast
- Oliver PlattOliver PlattOliver James Platt is a Canadian-American actor. He is currently starring in the Showtime original series, The Big C with Laura Linney.-Early life:...
as Tommy Fawkes - Jerry LewisJerry LewisJerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
as George Fawkes - Lee EvansLee Evans (comedian)Lee Evans is an English comedian, writer, actor and musician.-Personal life:Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an Irish mother and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 13 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex...
as Jack Parker - Leslie CaronLeslie CaronLeslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
as Katie Parker - Richard GriffithsRichard GriffithsRichard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
as Jim Minty - Sadie CorreSadie CorréSadie Corré was a 4'2" English actress, tap dancer, comic performer and leading pantomime cat. She was sometimes credited as Sadie Corrie.-Early years:Her parents were Abraham and Kate Corré, who owned the Carlton Tavern public house...
as Poodle Woman - Oliver ReedOliver ReedOliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
as Dolly Hopkins - George CarlGeorge CarlGeorge Carl was a "vaudevillian" style comic & clown. Carl was born in Ohio, and started his comedy career traveling with a variety of circuses during his teenage years. In time, Carl would become internationally famous as a clown and visual comedian. In his sixties, Johnny Carson, a fan of...
as Thomas Parker - Freddie DaviesFreddie DaviesFreddie Davies is a British comedian and actor. He is the grandson of Music Hall comedian Jack Herbert.Freddie Davies was born in Brixton, London. At the start of World War II Davies was evacuated in 1939 to Seend in Wiltshire and subsequently to Torquay in Devon and then to Salford, Manchester...
as Bruno Parker - Ian McNeiceIan McNeiceIan McNeice is a prolific English screen, stage, and television character actor.-Early life:McNeice was born in Basingstoke in Hampshire. McNeice's acting training started at the Taunton School in Somerset, followed by two years at the Salisbury Playhouse...
as Stanley Sharkey