His first non-musical film, Bob Fosse's biopic Lenny (1974) confirmed the breadth of the former hoofer's -- and his star Dustin Hoffman's -- protean talents. Detailing socially conscious pottymouth comic Lenny Bruce's trailblazing rise and self-immolating fall in a series of flashbacks, Fosse and screenwriter Julian Barry inject grim drama into an unsentimental portrait of the artist as a highly flawed man. Along with re-staging pieces of the straight-talking routines that made Bruce famous, Fosse and Hoffman relentlessly reveal his demise as a performer in an unwavering long take of Bruce's drug-addled on-stage meltdown after his obscenity trials. Bruce Surtees' rich black-and-white photography lends a note of documentary authenticity as well as an appropriately somber nocturnal atmosphere. Oscar nominee and critics' prize-winner Valerie Perrine hit her career peak as Bruce's stripper-turned-junkie wife, Honey. Hoffman's embodiment of the comic illuminates Bruce's own destructive role in his free speech martyrdom. Praised by the critics and well appreciated by a culturally savvy 1974 audience that didn't mind cinematic downers, Lenny went on to receive six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Fosse's second nod for Best Director, and Best Actor.