User reviews

I have seen this movie a few times, and it just grows on you. Gleason shows how powerful a performance one can do without uttering one word.

Many have described this film well. It is a great performance by Gleason, and yes the little girl isn't the cutest, but she wasn't meant to be. It makes his love for her and the mother all the more powerful. The SADDEST part of this film is that it has never been released on Video or DVD yet. Perhaps someday Hollywood will catch up with the people's hearts.

Affected, slightly overblown and mawkish, Gene Kelly's sentimental comedy "Gigot" manages to hit most of its funny/weepy targets due to a wordlessly wonderful leading performance by Jackie Gleason. Playing a mute caretaker in Paris, child-like Gleason befriends a prostitute and her young daughter (Katherine Kath, displaying lovely, solemn grace). Filmed in beautifully saturated colors, "Gigot" isn't immediately thought of as a natural fit for its star, and indeed many professional critics lambasted Gleason on the attempt alone, but The Great One is a marvel to watch. His sensitivity to this character seems quite heartfelt and, while director Kelly isn't really interested in subtleties, Gleason isn't the over-the-top comedian here; he's eager to please, but also gentle when it's called for, and--standing in the rain with the water running off his cherubic face--tender. If it's every comedian's dream to be taken seriously as a dramatic kingpin, Gleason is quietly pleased to be the acting prince. The movie doesn't come to much (it's just a doodle), but there are beautiful moments spread about which are immensely successful, and added up they make quite a pleasant, memorable vehicle. *** from ****

This splendid film is a lost masterpiece. Most everyone I talk to that has seen it, saw it on a local television matinée. So far as I can tell it is not available on video. This wonderful film has fallen between the cracks somehow but the discovery of it only adds to it's charm. Like a rare natural wonder hidden far off the beaten path some afternoon, you may be trudging through your day and stumble onto this film, a beautiful sentimental picture.

If you like Capra, you will love Gigot. Not for the dark of heart or impatient, this film will move you to tears. It has the feel of a small foreign film, but has the heart as big as any film ever made. Directed by Gene Kelly, the set's are wonderful, the acting subtle and superb, the music perfect and most important of all "The Great One" Jackie Gleason's performance as the mute Gigot has a depth and pathos that few actors have ever achieved. I wonder if John Candy wasn't partially reflecting on 'Gigot' when he played his Del Griffeth character in 'Planes, Trains...' There is something behind these actors performances that could not have been acting. Like Buster Keaton, one gets the sense that deep down, the character is a reflection of the pain the actor truly feels. Check your local listings to see if this is playing and record it. A 10 out of 10.

if this movie isn't a 10, then there isn't a 10 anywhere. jackie gleason plays this character so beautifully, juxtaposed against the ruthless street-walking mother of the sweet young nicole. also the settings show a dichotomy of character with his poor-man surroundings, and the rich-man place he takes himself to........all the impress collette so that he can spend time with young nicole.

gleason was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal of gigot, but was lost in a very strong cadre of contenders.

does anyone know why this film has not been released on VHS or DVD? certainly it would sell.

this film is a keeper. i watch hundreds of movies but refuse to buy only the absolute best. wish i could buy gigot.

Jackie Gleason may have been the greatest entertainer of all time. This movie shows that he wasn't all "booze, broads, cigarettes, and showgirls." When I first saw that this movie had Jackie in it, I thought it was a "vanity film" (sometimes stars take movies to satisfy large egos) but I sure was wrong. This is a wonderful movie full of heart and love. Only people with good souls could make a movie like this. I highly recommend this movie and once you see this movie you'll see that Jackie Gleason was a big man with a big heart.

A very nicely done emotional comedy where Jackie Gleason plays a poor, mute janitor who takes care of a little girl and a heartless prostitute, even though he hasn't much money. The director, Gene Kelly, tried to give the film a Charlie Chaplin-esque look, but ,in doing so, he made the film extremely sentimental. However, it has an airy, heart-warming innocence that the audience can feel strongly, and that with the film's wonderful music makes us feel just as sentimental as the movie. Gleason is surprisingly good, even without lines, and the little girl Gigot takes care of is adorable.

This precious movie, Gigot, was made by Jackie Gleason as a tribute to his love for Charles Chaplin and his classic silent film The Kid (1921). Gleason's character Gigot is poor, basically a tramp, and mute, the muteness a plot device to emphasize that communication in film is all the more profound and emotional when the actor does not speak, but has to communicate to the audience through facial expressions and pantomime alone. Jackie Gleason would have been a WONDERFUL actor in the silent era. He is outstanding in Gigot. I'll bet Chaplin loved this film. Even the lovely French style music reminded me of similar music in Chaplin's silent classic City Lights (1931).

Instead of a little boy (Jackie Coogan in the original), Gleason makes the little child a girl, one who is so traumatized by life and living with a prostitute mother that she rarely speaks either. These two souls don't need words to communicate their love for one another.

One of the most powerful scenes in the film, almost painful to watch, is when Gigot takes little Nicole (the winsome Diane Gardner, whatever happened to her?) to a church. Of course she has been raised without faith, and Gigot yearns to teach the child about Christ's sacrifice on the cross, but he can't tell her in words. He starts hitting himself in frustration, but the love of the little girl rescues him from his torment. They'd never put a scene like that in a modern mainstream film in Hollywood today. Not politically correct.

Just like with Chaplin films, there are mixtures of pathos and comedy. These juxtapositions are timeless and still effective, as long as the human heart remains sensitive to others besides itself.

Often broadcast on the Fox Movie Channel, but unfortunately in pan and scan. This film needs a remastering and an official DVD release in its original widescreen.

10 out of 10.

This movie is a heart warming story about a man, Gigot who can not speak. A little girl comes in to his life and he takes her under his wing, but falls in love with her corrupt mother, and goes bad. This movie drew me in it wasn't the greatest but I couldn't stop watching.

Anybody who ever gagged at the seemingly limitless capacity of Americans for blubbering, lip-trembling, self-pitying sentimentality should see this film that sorely tested my rule never to stop watching a picture before it was over.

When it turned up on television a few years ago I asked a friend if he'd bothered to watch it, to which he replied: "Every time I looked the screen was filled with Gleason's face with tears in his eyes".

Although supposedly an outsider Gigot - who's idea of fun is attending other people's funerals - is always the centre of attention in this vomitable example of a vanity production in which a successful celebrity indulges in pretending to be one of life's losers.

All those involved plainly thought they were making what was going to be a timeless classic. They weren't.

I don't think that there's much to add that hasn't already been said. I first saw this movie when I was about 7 and never forgot it. I recently was lucky enough to see it again, nearly 35 years later and still marveled at it's emotional depth and breadth. I was amazed at how well I remembered details, especially the scene where he gets frusrated and begins to strike himself. It's amazing that he not only brilliantly played the character without dialogue, but he also wrote the movie and the music. How much talent can one person have? A pity it's not available on VHS or DVD.

Jackie Gleason is front & center in this passion project (he came up w/the story & music) from 1962. Gleason is a Parisian janitor & a mute who's the butt of the joke in the neighborhood since he lives a spartan existence (working at a loss, since his domineering boss docks his pay for all his mistakes taking his meager earnings to buy broken cookies to feed the animals in town & partaking in the occasional funeral service as a means of quelling his soul) but that all changes when he encounters on a rainy night a woman & her young daughter who he hurries to his warm basement flat where after a time they become a defacto family. Not knowing (or even understanding?) the mother is a prostitute becomes an uncomfortable reality when he defends her honor only to be castigated for stepping up in the first place. Trying to do the right thing, Gleason robs a bakery (the till was left unattended) to provide his new charges w/much needed clothing & sustenance but when the mother's old pimp comes a-calling & the daughter is hurt in a cellar collapse, will the hard scrabble janitor get the happy ending he deserves? This is a film that had me torn since you can see Gleason & by extension, director Gene Kelly, have crafted something out of Jacques Tati's id but rather than laughing w/Gigot, the characters are constantly laughing at him w/Gleason not doing anyone any favors by making his creation a dancing, prancing buffoon who gains audience sympathy only when he entertains the neglected waif. Other than that it's more of showcase for Gleason (he was nominated for his efforts) to show his ingenuity for playing a wordless character which gets let down by the film's insistence to have it both ways.

Sorry to be the skunk at the garden party here, but I found this movie, although beautifully filmed and a pleasure to watch purely on a visual level, to be a rather self-indulgent exercise in bathos. The much-lauded little girl is not particularly appealing. The ending is completely anti-climactic for the level of emotion the film attempts to raise. Gleason is better remembered as Ralph Kramden.

I was looking at the Emmy nominations for 2005 and saw The Wool Cap and the name Gigot. I had to look it up to see if it was the same story - because although I haven't seen this movie since I was probably 10 or even younger, it remains one of my favorite films.

I am moved to tears at the memory of this film. Jackie Gleason as the gentle giant Gigot - one of the best performances I've ever seen. His relationship with the little girl is lush and expressive without words. He loves her so much your heart aches watching it.

Someone wrote "You HAVE to see this movie!" Agreed. And I HAVE to see it again.

That I can remember this film from so long ago is a testament to its emotional punch. It's a sweet and touching film.

I saw this movie when I was around 10 or 12 years old. I'm now in m 50's and still remember how this movie made me feel. You fall in love with Jackie Gleason at the start, you feel all of his emotions, without ever saying a word, and that was his specialty, and you're so happy at the end of the movie! It makes you laugh, smile, cry like a baby, even root for Gigot when he steals the money from the bakery! You only wish he would end up with a family. This movie should NEVER be re-made; leave it alone with all it's simplicity. That's what makes it such a classic. I just wish it would come out on TV or DVD. Or even on TCM or AMC, one of those channels that shows old movie classics. Heck, even Amazon!

Jackie Gleason tried for decades to escape from the TV genre and move into the mainstream of big screen film. Most of his efforts went unrewarded financially, until the successful Smoky and the Bandit series with Burt Reynolds (another lightweight actor) and Sally Field (a legitimate actress). No Time for Sergeants had been his high water mark until this film, and his performance is dynamic. However, he cannot save a relatively average script with some mundane dialogue, despite his strong acting ability. He was condemned to be wildly successful with The Honeymooners and the Jackie Gleason Show. After all, how many actors can top the success of those shows?

Saw this movie on late night TV several years back and I found Gleason's performance totally captivating and quite influencing regarding my taste in motion pictures. The brilliance of Jakie Gleason's performance coupled with the mastery of Gene Kelly's direction makes this motion picture a must see for the serious film student; but, like most of Gene Kelly's directorial efforts the film does struggle about two thirds of the way through the story line. It is only through Gleason's performance that the viewer gets beyond the film's difficult moments. That being said, I loved this film and it does, indeed deserve the highest rating possible. This one is worth watching.

Never heard of this movie until I happened upon it today on cable. I was really surprised at how good it was. The movie is set in France, and it was filmed there so the scenery is very authentic. Most of the actors are French so are speaking English with a French accent which also makes the film seem more authentic. Good story line. Gleason plays a poor mute living in a basement flat. He takes in a prostitute and her adorable little girl. He's used and then rejected by the woman, but the little girl has fallen in love with him and sees him as her protector. Very unexpected ending.

A very wholesome film, rated G, I'll be able to show it in class to my students. Jackie Gleason was truly one of the last great entertainers of our time.

I could not tear myself away from this movie once it started. It featured an incredibly maudlin storyline, some of the worst overall acting I've ever seen, and some of the cheesiest sets ever.

Jackie Gleason was great in The Hustler. He should have left well enough alone. This movie was obviously intended to showcase much of the tired, overwrought and stereotypical "sad clown" acting skills he used as a fallback way too often. Unfortunate, as he could be much, much better than this movie allows.

It is as deep as a dime and worth as much.

However, if one of your goals is to add to your "worst ever" list, by all means watch it. You will not be disappointed.

Jackie seemed to have wanted to highlight this type of story, this type of backdrop, his choice of supporting actors/actresses, and his choice of music. He tried real hard on this movie. Ask Mr. Kelly, he will tell you.

According to the history of the movie I have learned...he blew out the films' budget by totally rebuilding many of the streets of the small town it was filmed, by BUILDING the church, by using a 60plus piece orchestra rather than a smaller one (look at the Oscar nomination)...all to make the mood he felt was important to convey to the audience. It was not set in post WW2 France (more like post WW1)...but that was the mindset that he wanted us to envision. It was easy to get this in 1963.

I feel the tones projected by each of the characters was of the appropriate intensity (look at the bistro scene, for example)...but it was up to each viewer to "buy it". Certainly the backdrops and the music score were convincing. As for the ending...what do we want? The lives for all of the characters had to go on (and without unusual fanfare) like real life. Want more of this stuff???? See Soldier in the Rain. "Ya know Maxwell, it's hard to be an overweight narcissist...."

Very much of its time, it's about as slow as its titular character with an unfortunately overbearing score; hard to tell if I liked the character - or simply felt sorry for him - as he is surrounded by the most reprehensible human beings.

#nitrosMovieChallenge.

When I first viewed this film I was only 8 years old. Even at such a young age I was completely moved. The surprising thing is that even now I remember those feelings. For the last few years I have been searching for this film on video, but unable to find it. Whenever I see a movie with Jackie Gleason in it I am always reminded of his character in Gigot, and how I long to see this character again. To some, the film may not have touched their souls, but to me I was totally drawn to this character. To this day I remember the part where Gigot tried to save the child; how much he cared and the risks he took because of his unselfish love. You don't see these kind of films today. It's a shame that inner emotions are no longer captured but over shadowed by destruction and the almighty dollar.

Easily one of the best performances ever by an actor! Gleason's artistry has never been more evident, since it's far more challenging to rely only on expressions and gestures to communicate. And does he ever. Gigot is a must-see film.

Imagine trying to pitch Hollywood that your going to do a ninety minute Motion Picture where the star does not say a word. Especially when the star is known for his outrageous bellicose vocals. The visuals, the pathos and comedy in just the right mix or it will bore the audience to death. A huge undertaking....masterfully delivered by the rarest of mimes. Jackie Gleason. Classic movie from the first frame to the last. It never got the credit it deserved. As most special works of art don't. Someday, someone will realize how simply wonderful this film is. Less is more as all good artists know. Now if we can just educate the masses. P.S. Never played nine ball for money with Jackie or golf... in fact never bet against him doing anything! The clouds are open pal. come on in