The Films of Merv Griffin

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’re painfully familiar with the late Merv Griffin’s accomplishments as a popular talk show host, game show guru, and hotel-resort tycoon - in short one of the most successful and richest kingpins in the entertainment world - but this is an appreciation of his overlooked and under-appreciated contributions to the motion picture industry.

Merv Griffin made his singing debut as a teen on radio before touring with saxophonist-bandleader Freddy ("Mr. Silvertone") Martin’s orchestra as a big band vocalist. Although "I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" was first recorded by Danny Kaye, the novelty tune became a number one hit for Griffin, selling over three million copies.

Doris Day saw him perform in Las Vegas and arranged a screen test for him, which led to a role in her upcoming Warner Bros. musical "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1953). Griffin moved on to co-star in "So This Is Love," a 1953 screen bio of opera star Grace Moore (the "Tennessee Nightingale"), who died in a 1947 plane crash. Griffin’s smooch with star Kathryn Grayson was allegedly the first open-mouthed kiss in a Hollywood film since the Production Code was introduced in 1934. This from a man who was slapped with a pair of same-sex palimony and harassment lawsuits in 1991! In all fairness, Merv was married for 18 years and fathered a son in 1959. His wife, in fact, composed the theme music for the original "Jeopardy!" series.

Griffin’s seemingly promising screen stardom never flourished, although he had supporting roles in the musical western "Cattle Town" and in another western, "The Boy from Oklahoma" (1954), starring Will Rogers Jr. and Lon Chaney Jr.

His voice can be heard as a radio announcer in the sci-fi cult favorite "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms." "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" (1954) was a 3-D remake of the 1932 Bela Lugosi thriller "Murders in the Rue Morgue," produced by Warner Bros. as a less-than-successful follow-up to their 3-D hit "House of Wax." Karl Malden hammed it up as a crazed zookeeper in an over-the-top reprisal of Lugosi’s role, while a 29-year-old Griffin looked ill at ease as a preppy med school student briefly suspected of murder.

It wasn’t long before Griffin turned his attention to TV, and in 1958 he hosted the game show "Play Your Hunch." In 1965 he launched his long-running syndicated talk show, but in 1976 he made a return to the big screen, singing the national anthem at a championship football game in the sniper-in-the-stadium churner "Two Minute Warning." For those wondering, Merv was spared from the sniper’s bullets.

In 1980 Griffin appeared as an a cappella singer in "One-Trick Pony," written by and starring singer Paul Simon as an aging singer not unlike Paul Simon. The cast included Rip Torn, Lou Reed, Harry Shearer, The B-52s, Lovin’ Spoonful, Sam & Dave, and Tiny Tim.

Two years later, Griffin popped up in "Slapstick (Of Another Kind)," a mess of an adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. novel, featuring an array of otherwise talented individuals whose agents should have known better, among them Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Jim Backus, Pat Morita, legendary director Samuel Fuller, and frequent "Merv Griffin Show" guest Orson Welles.

Griffin went on to appear in the Steve Martin comedy "The Lonely Guy," along with another TV icon, Dr. Joyce Brothers, but it was in 1983 that Griffin delivered his most memorable and endearing role, playing himself as "The Elevator Killer" in "The Man with Two Brains," the third of four comedies Steve Martin made with director Carl Reiner. Confronted as the murderer and asked why, Merv’s hilariously priceless reply is, "I don’t know. I’ve always loved to kill. I really enjoyed it. But then I got famous and it’s just too hard for me … Everybody recognized me. I couldn’t even lurk anymore … So I came to Europe to kill. And it’s really worked out very well for me."

So, a toast to the neglected - but humbly recalled here - film career of Merv Griffin. In parting, as a tribute, here are the opening lyrics to his million-selling hit:

"I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts,
There they are all standing in a row,
Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head."