Prominently emblazoned on the poster advertising “Gilda Live” is the curious assertion that “Things like this can only happen in the movies”, a rather bizarre statement for a film which is a shameful compendium of lukewarm leftover material previously presented- with obvious alterations -on broadcast television. Collecting a number of characters she made famous on the “Saturday Night Live” television show, original cast member Gilda Radner follows fellow alumni Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd to the big screen in this concert film which replicates her 1979 one-woman stage show “Gilda Radner: Live From New York” during its run at the Colonial Theater in Boston, though instead of making the broad leap to the cinema with material which might challenge the young comedienne out of the comfort zone of already proven, repetitive presentations of characters, the material is very familiar territory to veteran watchers of those early years of “SNL” with the venerable staples of her comedic repertoire- Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, Judy Miller, Lisa Looper et al., though what proved funny on initial broadcast, and more so in the live stage performance, becomes tiresome and strained on the third go-round, the film coming across as a crassly mercenary attempt to suck the well dry of an experience that was already on a screen only smaller, and free.
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