Henry Winkler is an American acting icon. He became one of my childhood heroes simply by playing Arthur "Fonz" Fonzarelli on the long running sitcom "Happy Days." He also has literally had every other major job in show business. He has produced many hours of TV including the original 1980s series "MacGyver." He has directed two major motion pictures with stars like Burt Reynolds and Billy Crystal. He has been involved in several award-winning children's series and has written several award-winning children's books. Before his current renaissance and Emmy win for HBO's "Barry", he even starred in a very controversial 1991 made-for-TV movie based on a true story of a husband's decision to have his wife undergo an abortion to aid her recovery after a head trauma incident had left her comatose. Whoops...it just got a little heavy in here. Anyway, he also starred in a handful of big screen films during his time as the Fonz. 1978s "The One and Only" is one of them. The film, directed by comedy legend Carl Reiner and written by Steve Gordon, contains a very ripe scenario, what would happen if an actor in the earl 1950s who couldn't get any decent parts in the somewhat shady world of film and theater decided to cross over into the somewhat shadier world of professional wrestling? This premise seems like jokes would be falling left and right out of its backside, and some do but two things have a habit of getting in the way of the movie turning into a laugh riot: the main two characters and the director's habit of layering on the schmaltz. Winkler and his love interest, played by Kim Darby, just don't always fit into the pacing of the movie and tend to slow it down in many places. Winkler's character is highly unlikable and annoying as hell, although he still manages to win me over with his Jeckyl and Hyde performance. As for Darby, she seems like she is in a different movie altogether until about 15 minutes before the end. Gene Saks is an understated gem as the world-weary wrestling promoter who keeps wondering why his gay son couldn't give the sport a try and Harold Gould has a small buy funny role as Winkler's exasperated college drama teacher who wishes his bravest student could just stick to the damn script. It's worth a watch but not much more. My rating: C
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