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THE BIG SCREEN; It hasn't been exactly a comedy renaissance, but during the past few months we've had a goodly supply of them. Well, a supply, anyway. Let's see; Silent Movie; Harry and Walter Go To New York; The Big Bus; Murder By Death; Won Ton Ton; the Disney confection, Gus; couple of sagebrush spoofs like The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox and The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday, There may be more, but the above come immediately to mind, Without keeping a scorecard, I figure in the entire batch it's possible to summon about a dozen protracted chuckles, several grins, and a couple of Hollywood nods (the Hollywood nod is where you remain straightfaced, nod and remark; “That's funny,” which as Mort Sahl once explained is murder on
a working comic). This doesn’t come from one of the flicks mind you, but in toto, or about twelve hours of comedy filming. Not what you'd call a good average,
But then, that's what's the trouble about criticizing comedies, What you may sit through like, in Lenny Bruce's terminology, an oil painting may have your neighbor falling on the theatre floor in hysterics. For instance, most of my fun with the above came from Oliver Reed's impersonation of an Indian in the Cathouse caper, which was partially offset because Lee Marvin was playing his role in a different style and Robert Culp his in yet another fashion, causing the movie to bump along to a watery conclusion, and grab your fun where you may find it, However, this may be unfair to the film, comparatively speaking, for it's far from the worst of the lot. The Dirtwater Fox is an embarrassment for all concerned, including Goldie Hawn, and even George Segal, who's been trapped in more than his share of embarrassments, The Big Bus is supposedly a spoof of disaster epics but is geared at about the level of one of those subliterate imitations of Mad magazine, everybody nudging everybody over how clever they are. Won Ton Ton, also a spoof, is positively sickening, with all those oldtime guest players doing bits without laughs and looking embalmed,
Murder By Death pleased a lot of people, but the idea of a houseful of sleuthing parodies has about enough substance for a skit on the old TV Show of Shows, or approximately seven minutes' worth. Since Neil Simon wrote it, perhaps the TV files were dusted off--easy to imagine Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris doing the turns in place of Sellers, Falk, Niven, Maggie Smith etc, Harry and Walter has James Caan and Elliott Gould attempting Abbott & Costello, or two-thirds of The Three Stooges, It's a flatfooted two hours, courtesy of mistimed direction; the reviewers creamed it, but it softened me somewhat because it seemed anxious to please and not
smugly secure that it was a laugh riot. Disney is Disney no matter, so onward. continued on page 3
CAPTAIN GEORGE'S PENNY DREADFUL, a weekly review established in 1968, is published by the Vast Whizzbang Organization, 594 Markham Street, Toronto, Ontario.