A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1966). Director: Richard Lester. Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. 

The slave Pseudolus (Zero Mostel) is hoping to acquire his freedom and comes up with a plan. His master's son, Hero (Michael Crawford), has fallen for a virginal courtesan, Philia (Annette Andre), just installed in Marcus Lycus' (Phil Silvers) brothel next door, and Hero will free Pseudolus if he arranges a relationship between the two. The problem is that Philia has already been bought by the egomaniacal Captain Milos Gloriosus (Leon Greene), who is on his way from Rome that very afternoon to claim his bride. Pseudolus schemes to get Philia away from Gloriosus even as his master Senex (Michael Hordern of Theater of Blood) schemes to get away from his termagant of a wife, Domina (Patricia Jessel).  

The first half hour or so of this adaptation of the Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is delightful -- although it takes too long for someone to finally sing a song -- with Mostel fully in charge of his material along with Silvers, Jack Gilford as Hysterium, Hordern and Jessel, and especially Greene as the captain. But after awhile this farce just becomes a bit labored, and the film completely falls apart with a tasteless scene in the arena and especially a drawn-out slapstick sequence that falls completely flat. Others have noted that the film has a typically sixties attitude towards women: they are either young beauties lusted after by ugly old men or old hags unworthy of consideration. One could also argue that anything having to do with roman slavery is not exactly a great subject for the comedic treatment to begin with. I think the main problem is that this is the type of material that works much, much better on the stage. However, the producers wisely kept on Mostel and Gilford from the Broadway production. Unwisely, because they thought big movie musicals were on their way out, they cut most of Stephen Sondheim's tuneful score. What remains is the lovely "Lovely," sung by Philia; the captain's song as he comes into town and the dirge he sings later on; the spritely "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid;" and the infectious opening number "Comedy Tonight."

Leon Greene and Zero Mostel

As the young lovers Michael Crawford (who would find fame on Broadway as The Phantom of the Opera) and Annette Andre fail to make much of an impression. British actor Leon Greene, however, makes quite an impression and went on to have many more credits, mostly in the UK. Buster Keaton [Backstage], in his last role as a man looking for his kidnapped children, is, unfortunately, not good at all. 

Verdict: Some fun to be sure, but it just becomes too silly. **1/2. 

HOLLYWOOD CAVALCADE

Alice Faye and Alan Curtis

HOLLYWOOD CAVALCADE (1939). Director: Irving Cummings.

Michael Connors (Don Ameche) a brash wannabee director, talks new Broadway actress Molly Adair (Alice Faye) into going to Hollywood with him to have careers in silent pictures. They manage to become very successful with movie after movie. Michael thinks of himself and Molly as an unbreakable team, but the lack of romance in their lives causes Molly to do the quite sensible thing and marry her handsome co-star, Nicky Hayden (Alan Curtis of Good Girls Go to Paris). This starts Michael on a downward spiral, and eventually a tragedy results. Hollywood Cavalcade is a colorful look at the silent movie era with an attempt at a dramatic underpinning that doesn't quite come off. Alan Curtis' character is so under-developed (and comparatively unmourned) that he hardly exists, and Michael is too unlikable to be sympathetic, despite the obvious heartbreak he's undergoing. The performances are fine, with Faye [King of Burlesque] beautifully underplaying her very emotional sequences; Ameche [Guest Wife] is good if a bit less effective. Donald Meek is wonderful as a producer, and there are guest appearances by Buster Keaton. Rin Tin Tin Jr., and Al Jolson, who recreates a scene from The Jazz Singer. The other recreations of silent movies are all well done and mostly quite funny. Irving Bacon and Robert Lowery have small but well-played parts. The movie is said to be loosely inspired by the lives of Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett, who briefly appears as himself in the film.

Verdict: Glorious technicolor can't quite disguise the pic's deficits, but the film is entertaining. **1/2.

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME

Van Johnson and Judy Garland

IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949). Director: Robert Z. Leonard.

"I have hardly any voice at all." -- Judy Garland

This venerable story was originally filmed as The Shop Around the Corner. This (first) semi-musical remake casts Van Johnson and Judy Garland in the roles originally essayed by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and both are fine. The two are clerks in a shop (in this version a perfumery has been turned into a music store) who can't stand each other, but unknowingly have been sending romantic letters to one another via mailbox. (The third version of the story, You've Got Mail, turned the letters into email.) Johnson and Garland, both at their most charming, play very well together whether they're antagonists or falling in love. "Cuddles" Sakall is swell as the old man who owns the shop, with Spring Byington her usual adept self as the clerk who has unofficially been engaged to him for decades. The only cast mate who doesn't really deliver the goods is silent star Buster Keaton, who seems completely out of place as the boss' nephew, although he tries. This version drops some sub-plots relating to the other employees, and adds a completely unnecessary one involving Johnson's fellow boarder, Louise (Marcia Van Dyke), who plays the violin and is in love with him; Van Dyke is fine but had very few credits. Of course, Garland is given ample opportunities to sing (and for a mere music ship clerk she sure sings like a trouper!), and she delivers, especially on the "Barbershop Chord" production number, although some may feel the quivering lips bit during other numbers is a little too much. The sequence when Johnson and Garland first bump into each other, literally, is very funny, as is their encounter in a restaurant. The same story was the basis for the Broadway musical "She Loves Me."

Verdict: A Technicolor treat with music and romance. ***1/2.

LI'L ABNER (1940)

Pansy washes Pappy and Salome the pig together

LI'L ABNER (1940). Director: Albert S. Rogell.

"Pappy, you are the most ignoramus creature I ever did see!"

"That's the code of the hills!"

In the hillbilly mountain village of Dogpatch, Li'l Abner Yokum (Jeff York aka Granville Owen) tries to avoid the clutches of the gal who loves him, Daisy Mae (Martha O'Driscoll of Henry Aldrich for President). But when Abner mistakenly thinks he's got one day to live, he decides to get engaged, but there are complications. Wendy Wilecat (Kay Sutton) also has her eyes on him, and he wants no part of weddin' anybody once he realizes he isn't really doomed. So his fate will be decided on Sadie Hawkins day, when the two gals will race to see who can land him first. Both his Mammy, Pansy Yokum (Mona Ray), and Pappy, Lucifer Yokum (Johnnie Morris), do their best to help their boy behind the scenes. Jeff York certainly resembles the beautiful-but-dumb Abner, and he isn't bad in the part, although it could be argued that he's not exactly a skilled comic actor. [That same year he played Pat Ryan in the serial Terry and the Pirates, and did a lot of TV work thereafter.] Billie Seward is fine as Daisy's cousin, the sexy "Delightful," and Maude Ebern is as fun as ever as Daisy's Granny Scraggs. Buster Keaton has a small role as the Indian Lonesome Polecat. The movie has some amusing scenes, such as a bath Pansy gives to Pappy and their pig Salome at the same time, and there's a tiny little bit of suspense during the Sadie Hawkins Day race, but all in all this isn't a very memorable movie. Al Capp's Li'l Abner was again made into a film 19 years later and if memory serves me well it wasn't all that much better. 

Verdict: Love that pig! **.

SUNSET BOULEVARD

"I'm ready for my close-up."

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950). Director: Billy Wilder.

A down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), meets and moves into a mansion with silent screen star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Together the pair intend to fashion a major screenplay that will give Norma an opportunity for her comeback. But Joe eventually feels trapped by Norma and her cobwebs, and figures her project is utterly hopeless in any case. But will Norma let Joe go before she's through with him ...? So how well does Sunset Boulevard hold up after 58 years? Pretty well. Okay, maybe it's not an out and out masterpiece, but it undeniably exudes a certain fascination. If I had one problem with the movie it's that I feel there's way too much narration. Although Joe's narration is well-written, it's describing (albeit poetically) things that we can already see. Swanson gives a terrific performance (her "over-acting" at times is appropriate given the flamboyant, emotionally disturbed nature of Norma Desmond) and Holden isn't bad as Joe, although there's no doubt that the first actor cast in the part, Montgomery Clift. would have brought a lot more to the role. Better than Holden is Nancy Olsen, who gives a lovely and often passionate performance as the young lady who falls in love with him. The scene when Norma returns to her studio to see DeMille is touching. Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton are among the more interesting bit players, as well as an uncredited Yvette Vickers of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches fame -- yes, that's her as the girl on the telephone during the New Year's Eve party scene. Less a drama than a weird black comedy, Sunset Boulevard always threatens to go over the top but never quite gets there.

Verdict: Certainly unique. ***.