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Timothy A. Carey, The World's Greatest Sinner

USA 1958. The World's Greatest Sinner. Regie/Buch/Produzent Timothy A. Carey Kamera Ray Dennis Steckler Schnitt Carl Mahakian Musik Frank Zappa Prod. Des. Raymond Cierol Kostüme Alberts Ton George Carey Darsteller Timothy A. Carey (Clarence "God" Hilliard), Gil Baretto (Alonzo), Betty Rowland (Edna Hilliard), James Farley (Teufel), Gail Griffen (Betty Hilliard), Grace De Carolis (Mutter) Produktion Frenzy Films World Sales Absolute Films, 8383 Wilshire Boulevard #360, USA-Beverly Hills, CA 91733, Tel.: +1-818-4426454, Fax: +1-818-4426454 Verleih offen Länge 83 Min. Format 35mm, 1:1,85, Schwarzweiß und Farbe  

Biography. Timothy A. Carey was born in 1929. He went to acting school in New York. He was a character actor in films with, among others, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Stearling Hayden and Robert Mitchum under the direction of Stanley Kubrick, Bob Rafelson, Henry Hathaway and Elia Kazan. He was a good friend of John Cassavetes. He appeared in numerous TV series, among others, "Colombo". THE WORLD'S GREATES SINNER is his only finished feature film as director. An earlier project, TWEET'S LADIES OF PASADENA exists only as a work print.

Carey died in 1994 in Los Angeles.

     From: Patrick Neve (splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
An edited 12 minute section of the soundtrack was released on various bootlegs, including "Apocrypha".  Look over there for a transcription of that selection.  Also, the orchestra that's heard on the soundtrack was the Pomona Valley Symphony.

     From: Randy Nelson (rnelson@reninet.com)
Tim Carey was also in the episode of Cimarron Strip, which starred Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown, entitled "Big Jessie" in which he played an outlaw named Lobo.  I have a picture of him on my website under the villians page at http://www.cimarronstrip.org/.

     From: Jeffrey Leonard Stein (u1014834@warwick.net)
I just would like to comment on the Great Timothy Carey. It is rare to find someone in film and television who can sustain a level of excellence in every performance. He truly is an unsung Hollywood legend. Just in television alone he created a treasure trove of great characters from Danny in Starsky and Hutch to Burt in Charlie's Angels to El Greco and Joe Dineen in Baretta to Bad Talkin' Lenahan in Tony Musante's short-lived series Roma.

From: PURKASZ@aol.com
Subject: TIM CAREY
    Wonderful homage to an amazing and great intuitive talent.
    It was my delight to have Tim as a friend for many years and work with him in Tarzana and an episode on TV or two that I cannot recall.
    Enjoyed your writing, though the spelling errors looked like word processor problems, you are to be congratulated for the work done.
    I met Tim for the first time in jail.  It was almost one in the morning. It was on the set.
    The set for Tarzana was the unused jail of Long Beach. We hit it off immediately when Charlie, his gopher, was asked to make a run and get me some water.
    The memorized essay on farting by Dali was next and we began the saga of shooting Tarzana which was done on weekends over a period of almost a year.
    I shall never forget the scene where he just decided to dance and ad lib with a shopping cart full of empty bottles. The crew was dumbfounded. I was waiting for my cue line...which never came. They went through and entire roll of film on that one shot!
    It was a tour-de-force and I was standing directly in front. It was like visiting Niagara Falls. I have had that kind of experience only one other time and that was in Detroit in 1963 when I was one of six people in a coffee house watching John Coltrane work his way through a lighning-like tempo on a tune that took two hours and four minutes to play.
    We may never see his likes again. Whenever I have to buy some Mozzarella cheese I hear his voice urging me to buy only Polly-O brand.
    I can't watch his movies now without feeling a tear, a laugh and a fart rising. All at the same time.
    He made me watch "The World's Greatest Sinner" with him at his home. I met Doris and the kids and all the dogs and the small zoo in his backyard. The images flash before me and I realize now that even writing about him is taxing my skills.
    Towards the end I would look forward to returning to my home in the Hollywood Hills because likely as not there would be a very long message on my answering machine and it would be Tim and we would all gather around and make tea and listen, like a great radio show, as he used the machine to spin a priceless yarn for us all.
    Would to God I had kept all those messages.
    I was in hospital some time in late 1994 I think, when I read in the paper that he had passed. I recall Romeo calling me. Or maybe it was Steve DeJarnett, the director and telling me he was in the hospital and not receiving anyone so I did not feel too guilty.
    It was all too sad though.
    Hollywood never really what to do with his enormous life force.
    We are grateful for the few directors who had the vision to employ him.
    I was a pall bearer at his funeral and got to say good-bye as he lay in his coffin in a new blue pinstriped suit. I was almost sure he was gonna wink at me!
    The preacher read a prepared statement by Romeo I believe, and when it got to the play about farting that Tim was working on, I thought I saw a slight grin of glee on his face. The tears in the room turned to a soft laughter that I know Tim would have loved.
    Many thanks for some info that I did not know. The Brando stories should also include the one he told me.
    "During "Jacks" Brando was forced to fire me." he said not explaining why.
    "He came to my dressing room with the sad news and he had two gifts for me. One was a leash for my dogs, I train German Shepherds, and the other was a book. Can you imagine? Marlon Brando giving me a book. I cherished the idea then I looked at the title. It was, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I almost died laughing. I farted too. That's when he left."
    Miss you Tim 

Interview by Mike Murphy and Johnny Legend (Research... Michael Wheldon)

"Well he's the World's Greatest Sinner. I said the World's Greatest Sinner. As a sinner he's a winner, Honey, he's no beginner. He's rotten to the core, Daddy, you can't say no more. He's the World's Greatest Sinner. If you've ever sinned before. Then you know what I mean. If you see him walking around the floor. He's the meanest creature that you've ever seen. "(repeat)

(1963 - Frank Zappa - All through this song, the bass voice goes „Hey Papa, Doodly Papa, Hey Papa, Doodley Papa¾)

Timothy Agoglia Carey is directing a play in Hollywood this month about death by farting He's been acting in films since 1951, was-in classics with Brando and Dean, ; worked several times each times each for Kubrick and Cassavetes. was in the exploitation classic POOR WHITE TRASH and made a movie that would be a cult classic only people could see it - WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER. In various books, Carey has been called "a heavy eyed character actor, often a loathsome villain" "totally without attractive characteristics, repulsive looking", and "the least lovable actor since Rondo Hatton". He's also considered a great actor and his fans in the business include Jack Nicholson, Peter Falk and Brando. Here, often in his own words, is the Timothy Carey story.

"The first time I worked was in a Clark Gable film in Colorado and I was sent one time in New York by an agent who used to handle Clarke able by the name of Chamberlin Brown. I was just an extra in ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI (MGM,1951). Gable had a home up there they rented for him I went there and said I was working on the picture. They invited me in and gave me tea and crumpets and were very hospitable to me. I started working on the show three days later and he was a little embarrassed that he wined and dined an atmosphere player at his home. I worked on the show, I played a dead man in it, it was a great part! You could only see my back, I was laying in the water. I'll never forget the director (William Wellman, he was a great director, a tough director. I had two arrows in my back laying in 'the water. I couldn't hold still, it was so cold and my teeth were- chattering. The director said, 'Keep Bat jerk still, he's supposed to be dead!: I had just come from dramatic school in New York. I thought I was a great actor, I'm the only one who did.

They were shooting a film called ACE IN THE HOLE (a.k.a.. THE BIG CARNIVAL) with Kirk; Douglas, directed by Billy Wilder. I went over and said, 'Here I am Mr. Wilder I'm just fresh out of acting school and I would lore to be in the show.' He said go ahead and put your name in to be an extra and the production once said there were no parts. So I just left, but came back the next morning and knocked on Mr. Wilder's door. He came out and his cheek was bleeding, he cut himself shaving, and I told him they told me there were no parts, He said, lf you bother me again I'm going to let you have id'. So 1 went back to the production office and said. 'You got me in trouble with Billy Wilder, he cut himself shaving!: So they said, 'O.K., you want to be an extra? Get in the car'. And that started me off on my movie career". (The Paramount release about exploiting a mining disaster is now considered a classic). "So now I was hitchhiking in Hollywood and this fellow picked me up and 1 told him i was trying to get an agent. He told me about this guy to see, Walter Conan, but he wouldn't do anything until he saw a scene I did at D on EAST 8 playhouse in Hollywood. It was a farmer scene where i prayed for rain, but there was a little risk to it At one point, I stopped and said, 'All right, I know you people are just laughing at me, but I came to do a scene. You're going to see me in a scene that's gonna put me on a pink cloud: So this guy, my friend, yells on cue, 'Oh oh, watch it, he's got a gun!. So I shot him with a blank and then I shot myself. Everybody was down below their seats and I got up and said, That's my scene'.

Timothy Carey continued to play character roles, usually as villains. HELLGATE was a Lippert remake of PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (36), starring Sterling Hayden. BLOODHOUNDS OF BROADWAY (20th Century Fox) was a musical comedy starring Mitzi Gaynor as a singing was a musical comedy starring Mitzi as a hillbilly and Scott Brady as a Manhattan bookie. Carey and Charles Buchinski (Bronson) played hoods. Carey was also on the popular but short lived GANGBUSTERS TV show in 1952. WHITE WITCH DOCTOR (20th) was a technicolor adventure set in the Belgian Congo starring Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward. It was directed by Henry Hathaway. CRIME WAVE (Warners) was directed by Andre De Toth on location at San Quentin and in Los Angeles' Chinatown. It starred Gene Nelson (who later directed KISSIN' COUSINS and THE COOL ONES) as an ex-con forced into helping with a bank robbery. Sterling Hayden played a police detective. Also in the cast were Phyllis Kirk and Charles Bronson (who had both just been HOUSE OF WAX, made by the same producer, director, screenwriter team), Carey and young Richard Benjamin. ALASKA SEAS (Paramount) was a remake of SPAWN OF THE NORTH, starring Robert Ryan; Someone took me to set Lazlo Benedict who directed THE WILD ONE and he liked me, but he wouldn't let me drive a motorcycle, I guess he didn't trust me. He thought I'd run over a few people".

THE WILD ONE, Carey as a biker, eggs on Chino, (Lee Marvin) in a fight, throws beer in Brando¼s's face and takes over the office of the local phone receptionist. "After that, I tried to get into PRINCE VALIANT (54; Robert Wagner starred). So I went to Western Costume to dress up like Sir Black, the heavy in it They fined me in this outfit all sashed pants and that d a medieval glove with a weapon from that era And I thought, how am I gonna get in there, so I went to climb the fence a 20th Century Fox, but 1 couldn¼t make it because of the clothes I had I on. It was right near a golf course and a golfer helped me over with a ladder. I told him I rag an actor on the set who got lost I tried to find the director, Henry Hathaway.: wasn't in his office so I went to the comissary where he was having lunch and said, 'Here I am, Sir Black! many. for the pan Do I get it?' I took out my He said, 'Put the knife away, you got the part' Then I was escorted-off the lot I never got the part, but I enjoyed it. It was fun.¾

"I went up and read for Elia Kazan He picked me up and went to Mendicino to shoot the scene (for EAST OF EDEN). I was playing the bouncer in the house of ill repute for his (James Dean's) mother". "Another time I did a show called FINGERMAN with Frank Lovejoy. They needed some publicity for the show, so I went a, the Santa Monica Pier and I was going to be thrown in the water in a tank in front of the press, but the box was supposed to open up so I wouldn't drown. But the newsmen wanted to lock it So i went in but I didn't lock it and the police came to arrest me. Then the producer John Buroughs came and he helped me out. You know, I was always a hound for publicity. They were doing the Academy Awards and Brando was up for it We'll I knew him from THE WILD ONE, I knew he was going to get it (for ON THE WATERFRONT), so I was getting dressed up for it and I was going to go up there and get it before he got there, but some guy from Western Costume who was dressing me up talked me out fit" In FINGERMAN Carey was the right hand goon of Forrest Tucker, a bootlegger, white slaver.

THE KILLING, a United Artists release, was Stanley Kubrick's first major feature, a classic time shifting semi-documentary style look at a racetrack payrole Johnny heist. Clay (Sterling Hayden) hires Nikki Arane, a sharpshooter who lives on a farm Carey) to create an important diversion. Nikki shows up in his MG sports car with a double-barelled shotgun in a guitar case to assassinate Red Lightning, a race horse. James B. Harris produced THE KILLING, PATHS OF GLORY (and LOLITA), before splitting from Kubrick and producing and directing THE BEDFORD INCIDENT (65). He later directed SOME CALL IT; LOVING (73), FAST WALKING (82, again with Carey) and COP (88). His last two films starred James Woods. THE LAST WAGON (20th) was a Richard Widmark western. FRANCIS 1N THE HAUNTED HOUSE was the 7th and last of Universal's popular talking mule series, and the only one starring Mickey Rooney. RUMBLE ON THE DOCKS (Columbia), a juvenile delinquency movie starring James Darren was one of six Fred Sears movies released in 56. It was co-billed with Sears' DONT KNOCK THE ROCK and also featured Robert Blake and Freddie Bell And The Bellboys. FLIGHT TO HONG KONG (U.A.) was a gangster movie starring Rory Calhoun.

"Somewhere around there I was kicked out of six films in a row. Then I did BAYOU and they wanted me to play the heavy, so I went down to Louisiana and played-a -Cajun, Ulysses, 'What I want I gonna get and no dirty Yonkee from swell country is gonna take it away from me!' Peter Graves takes away my woman and we have a big fight scene in the cemetery and I fall on an axe." Carey's Cajun bully was memorable , other characters refer to him as a shark and a snake), but his standout bit was doing an incredible uninhibited dance to accordion music. He hops in the air, does rubber-leg moves, caresses himself and scratches like he has fleas, while a storm brews. The Ulysses dance is so good that it's edited in several times. BAYOU was made at about the same time as Roger Corman¼s SWAMP WOMAN. Both feature Corman regulars Jonathon Haze and Ed Nelson. BAYOU was directed by Harold Daniels who had co-directed the famous roadshow hit, THE PRINCE OF PEACE, with William Beaudine.

„Poor and broke, Never had no cash. Everybody calls me Poor White Trash. Live in the swamp all of my days. Dip in the swamp for my pay. Well the company man. He came my way. Conpany man stole my gal away. Poor White Trash, not a nickle in my jeans. Poor White Trash, don't know what lovin¼ means, Poor White Trash, never had no fun. Poor White Trash, ain't got no one. In the swamp I live. In the swamp I'll die. But Poor White Trash, no one will cry, No one will cry.¾

(Title song from POOR WHITE TRASH)

In 1961, producer M.A. Ripps, based in Mobile, Alabama, bought back his film from United Artists, added some new sex and shock sequences, a great new pre-credit banjo theme song intro and gave BAYOU the effective new title, POOR WHITE TRASH. Often unconvincing doubles were used for the stars. When Northerner Graves and sexy Lita Milan finally start to make love in a Cabin, the scene continues with cuts of bare legs, caresses, closeups of eyes, and the storm outside. The long, at the time shocking scene everybody remembered though was when Ulysses attacks Milan. In the new footage, Carey's shirtless double chases Milan's double though the woods, ripping away her clothes as they run. Eventually she's running naked, then crawling in the mud screaming. More new footage shows her praying in church. Even Carey¼s death scene was spiced up with a bloody axe in the back insert. Because of the new scenes and a brilliant exploitation advertising campaign (radio, and newspaper teasers) the adults only POOR WHITE TRASH was still playing in theatres as late as 1971 (!) and grossed an "estimated $10 million"(!). Morepeople probably saw Carey in this historical reconsaucted movie than in any other he was in. The incredible success of POOR WHITE TRASH helped spawn other country shockers like COMMON LAW WIFE (from Ripps), GIRL ON A CHAIN GANG, SHOTGUN WEDDING, and several titles each from Russ Meyer and Herschell Gordon Lewis. Ripps' 1976 POOR WHITE TRASH II was really S.F Brownrigg's unrelated SCUM OF THE EARTH, shot in Texas. It was retitled advutised as a sequel and made lots of money.

"Then I went to Germany to do PATHS OF GLORY..... and that's where I met my wife. It was dull, but I loved working for Kubrick. Now, I love publicity, so I decided to get kidnapped and disappear~d for a few days and they dragged the lake because someone reported that I committed suicide. It built up a lot of advertising in Munich. Let me tell you an interesting story about PATHS OF GLORY. In the execution scene there was no dialogue but I started to speak, so Kubrick said 'Bring in the sound!'. I kept saying,' don't want to die, I don't want to die', so Kubrick comes up to me and says, Tim, you better make this good, Kirk Douglas doesn't like it', but of course they used it." PATHS OF GLORY is considered one of the most powerful anti-war films ever made. The World War I themed feature based on Humphrey Cobb's novel was made by United Artists only after Douglas agreed to star. Allthough the characters are in the French Army, the film was made with German police extras playing French soldiers. Three soldiers are chosen to be court martialed to cover for the crass mistakes of their generals (Adolph Menjou and George Macready). After a mock trial with Col. Dax (Douglas) as the defense attorney, they're found guilty and executed. Private Ferol (Carey with a goatee), Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker) and Private Arnuad (Joseph Turkel who had also been in THE KILLING) are the doomed men. Both THE KILLING and PATHS OF GLORY were co-scripted by novelist Jim Thompson (THE GETAWAY, THE KILLER INSIDE ME,.), who wrote most of the dialogue. You can order a dozen different Thompson re-print novels from Amok.

HOUSE OF NUMBERS (MGM) was a crime film staring Jack Palance in a duel role as brothers. Carey was a "Giggling psychopath". UNWED MOTHER was an Allied Artists teen movie with Robert Vaughn. The ads said, "20.00 anguished girls wrote it's blistering story!¾ In REVOLT IN THE BIG HOUSE (Allied Artists) Carey played Bugs Moran. Gene Evans and Robert Blake starred. THE BOY AND THE PIRATES (U.A was a kid's fantasy movie produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon and featuring his daughter Susan. Carey played Morgan the pirate and Joseph Turkel played Abu the Genie. It was filmed in "Percept-o-vision" "I also did ONE EYED JACKS with Marlon Brando, a film that Stanley Kubrick was supposed to direct. I played a bully and was supposed to push this girl's face in a bowl of chilli. She was supposed to get angry, but she kept on crying. Brando, who directed the film, told me to get her angry, to kick her in the ass! Karl Maiden said, 'You can't do that!. I said, 'I know, her husband's gonna kill me!' So we just couldn't get her angry, she would only cry. Brando gave me a compliment or a complaint! He said, Tim, you're the only actor', now he shot me, 'You're the only actor that I ever worked with, that even in death, you move.' He knew me from THE WILD ONE. There's this scene where I shake up a beer and squirt it in Brando's face and he said to me, 'You're not gonna throw any beer in my face are your, and I said, if I do Marlon, it's gonna be good beer, I'm gonna use German beer'. Brando took over the direction of the excellent epic revenge western also featuring Elisha Cook Jr. Ben Johnson, and Slim Pickens. Carey, Howard Tetley meets Rio (Brando) in a show- down.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER is an amazing film..... with ahead of his time producer/director/screenwriter/ distributor/star Carey as Clarence Hilliard, an insurance salesman who drops out, starts his own religion and eventually runs for president! (It was filmed from 1958 thru 1961, years before PRIVLEDGE or WILD IN THE STREETS). The feature cost "$100,000". Clarence says "There's only one god and that's man!", and renames himself God Hilliard. God says, "Each and every one of us should be millionaires. We should be gods, every one of us here- super human beings!" After witnessing a wild, screaming, multi-racial rock show, he gets a guitar and a fake goatee and starts doing a rock/preacher show that might make you think of Elvis mixed with James Brown as Jimmy Swaggart God and his loud, crude rockin band, (with a female sax player) work the audiences into a frenzy (the film's original title). All of a sudden the music stops and God yells: "Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Take my hand" He takes off his white suit coat, does the same crazed Ulysses dance from POOR WHITE TRASH, flops on his back on the stage like he's having an epileptic fit, then jumps into the converted crowd. God's followers wear F arm patches. God also seduces an old lady for her money, welcomes a 14 year old groupie to his bed, hits his daughter, and drives a man to suicide. The narrator is a snake. Effects, including a flash foreword, a color scene and some upside-down shots are used. "I play an atheist who gets people's attention by playing music. I graduated from a rock and roller to a politician. Then he ran for president with God written on his cuffs. I played the part of God Hilliard. I had this cult. We shot at this cathedral in San Gabriel. I was living there by now. The end scene I take the communion from the church and take it home. I hold it up in one hand and hold a pin in the other and I say, 'If you're really a god, show me if there's something mightier than man.' Then I start stabbing it and nothing happens. The wafer breaks and I start laughing, 'Nothing but a piece of bread! Mother you're dead forever', and walk outside and then all of a sudden blood starts dripping out fast downstairs. Out the house and I'm scared, but go back into the room and this light hits me. We shot it in black and white, but at that point we change to color. And I yell, 'Oh my god', and get thrown up against the wall and it cuts now to the wafer and the credits come on.

"I've been trying to locate the negative of the film for years. Mike Murphy and his wife Cheryl ate trying to run it down. When I was working with Debbie Reynolds for the second time (in THE SECOND TIME AROUND, a western comedy) at 20th Century Fox, a fellow came up to me and complemented me on my acting. He said he was a composer and the guy he came with, his next door neighbor, played the guitar. I said, 'What's your name?'. He said, Frank Zappa'. So I said, 'OK, I have something for you. We have no music for THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER. If you can supply the orchestra and a place to tape it, you have the job'. And that's what he did. Around the same time he was on the Steve Allen Show. That's where our friendship stopped. Steve asked him what films he did. He said,' did THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, the world's worst film and all the actors were from skid row.' It wasn't true. The press said I was the world's greatest ham, and that THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER was a travesty of the arts. Zappa didn't like that and he stated to get on their bandwagon. The opening night at the director's guild, he was in complete awe. He walked into the window and banged himself in the head. He didn't even know there was a window them." The World's Greatest Sinner,¾ How's Your Bird? by "Baby Ray And The Ferns" (Donna 1378) was - released in March, 63. Baby Ray was vocalist Ray Collins. "How's Your Bird" was a phrase that Steve Allen used to say on m. In 1983 Rhino/Del Fi included both sides of the historic single on the "Rare Meat" EP.

Another cult figure who got his start on WGS was Ray Dennis Steckler. Carey brought Steckler to Long Beach to shoot scenes of crowds of extras watching Carey on stage then rioting. Several other cameramen had already been fired. "This fellow said he needed an assistant and he knew a cinematographer let lived in Pennsylvania He said, 'If you can give me the money to pay his expenses to come out here" and I said, "Yeah." Steckler later said that when he was in a closer loading film, Carey threw a boa constrictor in with him. After some more cinematography and acting jobs, Steckler directed WILD GUITAR for Arch Hall Sr., then began his own unique career with THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES... At the premiere of THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, Carey got everything off to a memorable start by firing a 38 above the heads of the audience. For more promotion, he wore his gold lame God suit and told people on the streets about his must-see feature.

MERMAIDS OF TIBURON was the creation of underwater photography specialist John Lamb (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, WAR GODS OF THE DEEP), who filmed in Mexico and around Catalina Island. The hero discovers a race of mermaids wearing flowers on their breasts. Famous model and two time Playboy centerfold (May 55 and Feb. 56) Diane Webber (Margaret Empey) was the star mermaid. She and her husband Bob Webber, a film cutter, were nudists. Diane later showed up in Ray Dennis Steckler's SINTHIA, THE DEVIL'S DOLL. Carey, as murderer Mile Sangster follows in a rented boat, searching for giant pearls. He throws Pepe (Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez) and his guitar to the sharks and dynamites some mermaids. This unique color movie used to show up on late right TV in black and white and was especially popular in Boston. One minor character was played by Gil Baretto, also in WGS. In 1965, Art Films added some new scenes with mermaids without the flower pasties and re-released MERMAIDS as AQUA SEX. For the second time, Carey inadvertently found himself in an adults only movie. "I did a great thing in CONVICTS FOUR. I said, 'You're a great screw', but they changed it around. They were afraid it was gonna mean I was screwing the guard. It had nothing to do with that. They're always looking at the negative side " CONVICTS FOUR (Allied Artists) was about a prisoner (Ben Gazzara) who becomes professional artist. The impressive cast included Vincent Price as an art critic, Stuart Whitman, Ray Walston, Sammy Davis Jr., Rod Steiger, Broderick Crawfordi Reggie Nalder, and Jack Albertson.

In A.I.P.¼s BIKINI BEACH and BEACH BLANKET BINGO, the third and fourth in the popular Frankie and Annette series directed by William Asher, Carey played South Dakota Slim who hangs out around the pool table with Eric non Zipper's gang. RIO CONCHOS (20th Century) was a western with Richard Boone and Stuart Whitman. It also featured the film debut of Jim Brown. In 1964, Esquire magazine featured Carey as an underground actor with "the new sentimentality". A TIME FOR' KILLING (Columbia), a Civil War drama was started by director Phil Karlson but actually directed by (an uncredited) Roger Corman the same year as THE TRIP. It stared Glen Ford and Inger Stevens bur the support cast was the best part: George Hamilton, Paul Peterson, Max Baer, Kenneth Tobey, Dick Miller, Hany Dean Stanton, and Harrison Ford. WATERHOLE #3, also set during the Civil War, was a black comedy western starring James Coburn. Carey's character made goat noises. Timothy's next parts were in the last film appearances by The Monkees and Elvis. In HEAD, written by Jack Nicholson, another Carey fan, he had an incredible stand out scary role as "Lord High " Low". Others from ?Timothy's past who had small roles included Frank Zappa and Annette. HEAD is filled with references to Stanley Kubrick films (2001, DR. STRANGELOVE) and of course Carey himself. "I did an Elvis Presley film, his last movie (CHANGE OF HABIT with Mary Tyler Moore). I had one scene as a proprietor of a seedy Puerto Rican restaurant. He came up to me and said, 'Aren't you Timothy Carey? Didn't you do THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER?' I said, 'Yes'... He said,' always wanted to see that show. Do you have a 16mm version?' I only had a 35mm, but we proceeded to talk about it He knew all about it I only had four prints. 'That was one of the reasons that I didn't send it."

GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT (from Warners) was Brian DePalma's first major release, but still showed his anti- establishment roots. Tom Smothers starred as an executive- who drops out and joins Orson Welles' school for magicians. The movie flopped, but the interesting support cast included John Astin; Allan Garfield, M. Emmet Walsh and Carey as a cop. Timothy played a tramp in Curtis Harrington's WHATS THE MATTER WITH HELEN, written by Henry Farrell (WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH BABY JANE?). Shelly Winters and Debbie Reynolds were the mothers of two killers in 1930s Hollywood. MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ was a Universal release directed and written by John Cassavettes. Gena Rowlands starred as a museum curator who finds herself involved with Seymour Cassel as a long haired parking lot attendant. Carey was third billed as Morgan Morgan, a derelict poet who says he hates cinema but likes Wallace Beery. Carey turned down a roll in THE GODFATHER because he was busy directing and acting in TWEET'S LADIES OF PASADENA, a film he worked on for years. The home made comedy has been described as "looking like Steckler's LEMON GROOVE KIDS movie". Carey plays a custodian/gardener for an old ladies knitting club who wants to clothe naked animals.

The first time I met Coppola, he kept asking me to do THE GODFATHER. So I did a little Italian scene and they kept asking me to come up to San Francisco to do a tape there, but I didn't go up, I just didn't feel like going. I was in the middle of doing TWEET'S LADIES OF PASADENA. Later on, he wanted me to do THE GODFATHER, so I went down to Paramount and did a scene. My son was with me, eating some Italian pastries and at one point I reached into the pastry box and pulled out a gun and shot Coppola. He was just shocked. He didn't know what to do, but he wanted me even more after that, but I never went there. It just never materialized. Carey did play a role in THE CONVERSATION, Coppola's lone feature between the GODFATHER films. Gene Hackman was excellent as the surveillance expert. The cast included John Cazale, Allan Garfield, Frederick Forest, Robert Duvall, Cindy Wllliams, Teri Garr, and Harrison Ford. THE OUTFIT, from MGM was a violent gangster thriller based on a novel by Richard Stark (real name: Donald E. Westlake) as were POINT BLANK and THE SPLIT (which imitated the structure of THE KILLING): Jordan Flynn (ROLLING THUNDER) directed and wrote the screenplay. Robert Duvall starred as an ex-con who had robbed a syndicate run bank. Carey had a major role as Jake Menner, a mob underling who had killed Duvall's brother. Duvall and Joe Don Baker declare war on Menner and syndicate chief Robert Ryan and escape in the end after a lot of bloodshed. The TV version was altered so that they appear to be captured by the police. Marie Windsor and Elisha Cook Jr. (also both in THE KILLING) were in the cast, along with Karen Black and Richard Jaeckel.

PEEPER, from 20th Century Fox, was a spoof of 1940's private eyes starring Michael Caine and Natalie Wood, directed by Peter Hyams. Carey played Sid. Liz Renay was a dancer. CHESTY ANDERSON, USN was a tame and silly sex and crime comedy with an incredible cast including Shari Eubank (SUPERVIXEN),. Rosanne Katon (THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS), Dyanne OLSA) Thorne, Betty Thomas (HIU STREET BLUES), Fred Willard, Scatman Crothers, and Carey as a gangster. Carey had second billing in John Cassavettes' partially improvised, independent release, THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE. Ben Gazzara starred as the owner of a sleazy L.A. strip show, who has to murder the Chinese bookie for the syndicate. Also with Seymour Cassel and Morgan Woodward. SPEEDTRAP starred Joe Don Baker as a private eye and featured Robert Loggia, Tyne Daly, Morgan Woodward and Richard Jaeckel. TARZANA, a Mack and white short, was directed by Steve DeJarnatt (CHERRY 2000, MIRACLE MILE). Carey was a Korean war vet friend of a detective/jazz drummer (Michael C. Gywnt). Eddie Constantine (ALPHAVILLE), in a rare US film appearance, plays a cop. A seven minute long unrehearsed stream of consciousness scene with Carey ("The world is a cesspool. But I like it.") was cut out In 1978, Carey started directing THE HILLSIDE STRANGLER /PORTRAlTS OF JACK. It was never finished, but the following year Ray Dennis Steckler made THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER/THE MODEL KILLER, So there's probably some connection. During the 70s, Carey also acted in episodes of Columbo, Baretta, Starsky and Hutch and other cop/detective TV shows. In 1979 he appeared in person at a three night Tribute To Timothy Carey in Ann Arthor. Lucky viewers got to see TWEET, SINNER and TARZANA as well as the Kubrick films, ONE EYED JACKS and WATERHOLE #3. FAST WALKING, directed and written by James B. Harris was considered too strong for a major release. James Woods starred as a slimy con man prison guard. Both Kay Lent and M. Emmet Walsh take their clothes off Harris is the only man to direct Timothy Carey and Susan Tyrrell in the same movie. D. D.C. CAB a comedy, featured Mr. T, Gary Busey, Irene Cara and Timothy Carey. ECHO PARK, set in L.A. was an AusVian/American co-production starring Susan Dey in her first serious role and Tom Hulce, along with Timothy and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira). Although it received some good reviews and helped Dey's career, Timothy Carey hasn't been in a feature since. His last network TV appearance was on Mickey Spillaine's Mike Hammer. Allthough some directors consider Carey "hard to work with his talents have been used in devious ways many times. He'll do an incredible screen test, they tell him "thanks but no thanks" and have another actor study his performance and copy it for the actual film!

Timothy's son Romeo Carey directed him in a 1988 short called THE DEVIL'S GAS. In 89' Timothy (along with Johnny Legend) was guest on the L.A. public access program Little Art's Poker Party. He acted out scenes from some of his films, sang Jambalaya, talked about Dali and making wind and said, "The combustible engine has got to go. It's like glorifying arsenic". Timothy Carey is a fan of Salvador Dali He memorized Dali's words from DIARY OF A GENIUS (1964), does a one man Dali show and lectures on farting, a subject Dali wrote and talked about. "In San Francisco, THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER and Dali's film played together so I got interested in Dali. He was like my idol. I've been working on the fart play, "The Insect Trainer," for eight years now. It's the first ever story about the incarceration' of farting in society and one man's snuggle to free it This guy gets arrested for accidentally killing a lady by farting and knocking her down. In jail he discovers his talents for training insects. It was the murder trial of the century where the defendant is the first person ever in criminal history charged with homicide where his ass was the lethal weapon. He is eventually acquitted. Hallelujah! Personal human gas is free. Now an overnight celebrity, using his body as an instrument, he: embarks on a success full, unique, musical career, a la La Pet, which means The Fart, who- is originally from France who became famous with public farting. We should fart out loud in public. It's good for us. The play is not really about the man on trail, it's about the fart on Trial. What would you rather do... Fart in a crowd, or die alone in a comer? Live longer, live healthier, let thy arse make wind!"

POSTSCRIPT: TIMOTHY CAREY IS DEAD.

Filmography (as actor)

1951

ACROSS THE WILD MISSOURI Colorado (Regie William A. Wellman)

1952

BLOODHOUNDS OF BROADWAY (Regie: Harmon Jones)

1953

WHITE WITCH DOCTOR Weiße Frau am Kongo (Regie: Henry Hathaway)

1954

CRIME WAVE Von der Polizei gehetzt (Regie: Andre de Toth)

1955

EAST OF EDEN Jenseits von Eden (Regie: Elia Kazan)

FINGER MAN Entfesselte Unterwelt (Regie: Harold Schuster)

1956

THE KILLING Die Rechnung ging nicht auf (Regie: Stanley Kubrick)

THE LAST WAGON Der letzte Wagen (Regie Delmer Daves)

1957

PATHS OF GLORY Wege zum Ruhm (Regie: Stanley Kubrick)

1958

REVOLT IN THE BIG HOUSE Mit dem Messer im Rücken (Regie: R.G. Springsteen)

1961

ONE-EYED JACKS Der Besessene (Regie: Marlon Brando)

1962

CONVICTS FOUR (Regie: Millard Kaufman)

1964

BIKINI BEACH (Regie: William Asher)

POOR WHITE TRASH

1967

WATERHOLE #3 Wasserloch Nr. 3 (Regie: William Graham)

A TIME FOR KILLING/THE LONG RIDE HOME Der gnadenlose Ritt (Regie: Phil Karlson)

1968

HEAD Head (Regie: Bob Rafelson)

1971

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? Was ist denn bloß mit Helen los? (Regie: Curtis Harrington)

MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ Minnie und Moskowitz (Regie: John Cassavetes)

1972

THE OUTFIT Revolte in der Unterwelt (Regie:John Flynn)

1975

PEEPER/FAT CHANCE Die falsche Schwester (Regie: Peter Hyams)

1976

THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE Mord an einem chinesischen Buchmacher (Regie: John Cassavates)