I had never heard of Walter Winchell before Paul Mazursky's movie came out. I was pretty impressed by his movie. We see Winchell's beginnings and rise to mild gossip (where he started ratting on philandering politicians) until he became a major part of the political discourse. But there came a major split. While Winchell befriended Franklin Roosevelt and tried to make the Nazis' actions known to Americans - and went so far as to oppose the bombing of Hiroshima because Harry Truman "didn't do it right" - after WWII he sided with Joe McCarthy and started red-baiting people. When a former girlfriend got blacklisted, he didn't come to her aid. I'm not surprised that few people attended his funeral.
Stanley Tucci does a really neat job bringing Winchell to life. You gotta love how he reports on the issues of the day, even if it was sort of a forerunner to infotainment. Christopher Plummer looks almost exactly like FDR, and Paul Giamatti makes Winchell's promoter Herman Klurfeld really something. Also starring is Glenne Headly as the former girlfriend.
Overall, I recommend "Winchell". It shows that Paul Mazursky is in fact a capable director, even if a few of his movies haven't been masterpieces.
