Show-Biz Nose

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

BERT RIGBY, YOU'RE A FOOL

Directed and Written by Carl Reiner

Show business having turned into a vast antechamber for the Betty Ford Center, one has to have a certain sympathy for Bert Rigby (Robert Lindsay), whose career is founded on nothing more complicated or newsworthy than a nosebleed.

In Carl Reiner's funny fable about an English coal miner's search for fame and fortune, Bert suffers this affliction as he sings and dances Isn't It Romantic? in an amateur-night competition. Since the attempt to cope with it and finish his number is both hilarious and heartwarming, Bert wins the contest. Next he is hired by the show's corrupt promoter to tour as a perpetual competitor, getting paid only if he beats the authentic contestants. This he can do only by faking the bloody nose night after night.

Being an honest chap, with a genuine passion for the great show-biz tunes and turns, Bert finally rebels against this demeaning chicanery. The reward for his pains: a trip to Hollywood and a chance to discover that its streets are paved with poseurs, among whom lurks a comically glorious Anne Bancroft, playing a randy Beverly Hills princess.

Will Bert somehow succeed in his quest for stardom? Yes. In a nice manageable sort of way. As his autobiographical Enter Laughing shows, Reiner has always believed that show biz is a circle more charmed than vicious, that . its most characteristic derangement is a sort of addled innocence. In Lindsay, star of the London-Broadway hit Me and My Girl, Reiner has found a perfect, gently insinuating instrument. Together they have created a sweet anachronistic counterpoint to the depressing hubbub of today's celebrity world.