Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie -- Film Review

4:36 PM PST 12/9/2010 by Frank Scheck

NEW YORK — Best known today as a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor, Wavy Gravy is a minor but ubiquitous 1960’s counter-cultural figure who is still going strong in his mid-70’s. While Michelle Esrick’s "Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie" is not a particularly deep portrait of its iconoclastic subject, this loving documentary should be of interest to aging baby boomers with long memories.

Born Hugh Romney in 1936, Wavy began his career in the cafes and clubs of Greenwich Village in the early ‘60s, performing poetry and stand-up comedy and opening shows for such musicians as John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Peter, Paul & Mary, among many others. He briefly roomed with the young Bob Dylan, who supposedly wrote the lyrics for “A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall” on Wavy’s typewriter.