Could Have Used A Bit More Camp Humour

Rating: 6/10 (17 May 2015)

Ah a bio-pic on the flamboyant self styled "Mister Showmanship" and rabid heterosexual Liberace
"Eh hold on Theo . You do realise Liberace was gay don't you"
Really ? I do remember British tabloid rag The Daily Mirror in the 1950s implied Liberace was gay . They didn't come out and say it in so many words but merely implied it and this led to them losing a libel case . Likewise an American publication from around the same time did the same thing that resulted in the same outcome and Mr Showmanship cried all the way to the bank to cash those cheques . In other words he was an utter hypocrite who spent much of his life living a massive lie . How'd he get away with it ? I'm reminded of a BBC documentary from many years ago called REPUTATIONS where Bob Monkhouse told of a time where he revisited an ATV studio after a gap of four years and remembered everyone by name and asked how they and their relatives were . He remembered each and everyones name and the names of their relatives . As Monkhouse stated "There wasn't a single person in the studio who didn't gasp wow what a guy" . Liberace had that sort of cheesy charm that propelled him to if not superstardom then at least to showman fame . He understood who and what his audience was and made the most of it
BEHIND THE CANDELABRA was many years in the making but kept being delayed because director Steven Soderberg couldn't decide how to tell the story . I'm afraid in my opinion it shows to an extent . It's not an affectionate love letter to its subject but at the same time it's not the schlocky campfest that it hints it might become . You want someone playing Liberace then who better to play him than Michael Douglas in what must be the most challenging role of his career . And get him to play the role by wearing a wig that wouldn't look out of place perched on top of Gary Glitter's bald head . Douglas has a whale of time playing the role and while he's not exactly channeling the dead spirit of Liberace it does capture the opulent over the top camp nature of Mister Showmanship and one did hope at this point the film would just throw its hand in and have the rest of the film continue in the same way . Unfortunately the story uses Scott Thorson's book as its source material and when Damon - equally cast against type - the film has a rather serious tone that's maybe a bit too respectful . It's a tragic story but one might have hoped for a bit more tragic-comedy