Cinema: To Bury Caesar

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The Busy Body comes not to praise Sid Caesar but to bury him. In Chicago, the syndicate's head hood (Robert Ryan) elects Delicatessen Delivery Boy Caesar to his board of directors because he likes the cut of his jib. Caesar, in turn, likes the cut of his job, but though he may act like a big deal, deep down he is a little schlemiel who can't even rob a grave without losing the body. Chased by cops and robbers, Caesar is saved at the final fade-out only by dumb luck and a dumber script.

Surrounding Caesar in this tasteless Runyonesque rehash are such holders of the borscht belt as Jan Murray, Ben Blue, Bill Dana, George Jessel and Mickey Deems. Of them all, Jessel is the only one comic enough to deserve the name—and that only by parodying his own nasal eulogizing at the services of a policeman who was trampled to death during a movie premiere.

There is no question where this Body soon will be interred: television. It is ironic that the box that once gave Caesar such life may one day become his movie's coffin.