ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

ksf-2 I read about this one years ago, and it has FINALLY come to DVD! Fans of the Dick Van Dyke show will be happy to see (part of) the cast from that show united here. That series ended mid 1966, and Dick V. and Mary T. were on to film careers, so you won't see them in the film. Written and produced by Morey Amsterdam, which makes sense. According to wikipedia, he had started in vaudeville in the 1920s, and worked with his brother in Al Capone's saloon. At the open, the gang works in a diner. A HILARIOUS scene where Mel Cooley, I mean actor Richard Deacon, reads his supply order, and it is intertwined with a couple saying romantic things to each other. Tons of one liners and set-up punchline, set-up punchline. Charlie (Amsterdam) is mistaken for someone else, a missing cosmonaut. After getting fired, he and Annie (Rose Marie) leave the diner and go find their friend Magda (January Jones). She runs a bookstore, but strange things are going on, and Charlie tries to figure it all out.Some great cameos ... Uncle Milty, Steve Allen, Moe Howard, Carl Reiner (Still doing the hairpiece gag), Danny Thomas. And of course, Irene Ryan, still playing Granny. One of the customers in the diner is Percy Helton... played in SO many things back in the day. Did he do the voice of winnie the pooh? sounds like like it to me! Deacon plays two roles, Peter Sellers style. This one is so under-rated. Granted the plot is a bit thin, and the opening diner scene is only added on to get those vaudeville bits in. If you liked the Dick Van Dyke show, you'll probably get a kick out of this, as long as you see it for the low-brow fun that it is. and I think the title is Genius. Directed by Harmon Jones, who was nominated for EDITING Gentleman's Agreement. Directed mostly television for the last ten years.

ffreemon I am watching this film on TV right now. If you are in the mood, it is hilarious. "How did you sleep?" "Terrible. I was up all night, trying to get the window open." "The room doesn't have a window." "No wonder I couldn't get it open." The movie is a terrific period piece (early 60s), with sight gags (man cutting steak with a newly invented electric knife cuts the table in half), period references (hitching a ride from the Beverly Hillbillies). Every B actor from the 1950s has a walk on, and even some greats like Milton Berle and Danny Thomas can be seen. If you want some kind of incredible plot with tricky double crosses and new sports cars driven off bridges, pass on this. If you feel like fun, lean back and laugh.

slardea-1 This was a lost film for decades, until someone at Turner and United Artists resurrected it for a few TV showings. Apropos of all the other reviews here, unless you enjoy 60s culture as viewed by middle-aged men of the period, the movie will leave you at a loss. Morey Amsterdam, who co-wrote and produced, and Rose Marie are alternately embarrassing and silly. Morey's one-liners were dinosaurs on the vaudeville circuit and would have been rejected immediately for the Alan Brady Show. A low-budget and unfunny pastiche of bad jokes that simply painful to sit through. However, there is some amusement in seeing Richard Deacon try in vain to rise above the material. A few of the cameo roles are of historical interest. A bomb at the box office when first released in 1966, this film is best left in the vault.

dial911book I believe this movie represents the last gasp of vaudeville. Shot in beautifully clear black-and-white, on a set that is so obviously a set and not at all realistic, this film presents a stage on which we see the last great vaudeville act for the very last time.It's all about slapstick physical humor where the victim is hurt only for the length of the shot. It's all about one-liners, where the straight-man responds by making an exasperated face or rolling his or her eyes.And gimmicks stolen from other acts (e.g. Get Smart) that are familiar to the audience.And the long pauses between action moments -- giving time for the folks in the back of the theater to realize what just happened and start laughing before the people in front have stopped laughing.And the walk-on cameos of famous performers to keep the people interested, lest they realize that there is no plot worth caring about.Apparently many people watched the film (based on the rash of reviews) on its single showing on TCM. Robert Osbourne did not introduce the film, which is regrettable. I really would like to have seen how he characterized this piece of work.Fans of the The Dick Van Dyke Show (like me) may remember episode 40, "The Secret Life of Buddy and Sally" in which Morey Amsterdam's character and Rose Marie's character create and put on their own show at a club on the weekends. Well, this film is what would happen if Buddy and Sally sneaked off to make a movie on a long weekend, and Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon's character) actually produced and directed it. Vaudeville, filmed in noir, on the cheapest set money could rent.No offense to any of the terrific veteran actors in the movie -- most of them had great roles elsewhere. But you do need a cup of strong coffee and a curious mind to enjoy what they were attempting in ... whatever its title was.