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are pitch perfect.with one glaring exception. From the credits, I see it was filmed in Madrid, Spain, which must have an incredible treasure trove of Ancient Roman buildings. Directed by Richard Lester (Hard Days' Night, Three Musketeers), the film is particularly beautiful in its period setting - Lester had a spectacular eye for detail - and I honestly believe that this is the most realistic film ever done VISUALLY about Ancient Rome. No one can really approach Mostel for his comic timing, ability to not only sing but sing FUNNY and the expressiveness of his face. "Funny Thing" is more brilliant vintage Mostel from roughly the same period, but we get the real thing as he reprises his performance. When they made the film, they inexplicably passed over Mostel to cast the much lower keyed Topol as Tevye. Zero Mostel was an incredible Broadway comedic genius, but his most famous work was probably in "Fiddler on the Roof", where it only exits as the wonderful Broadway cast album.
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"Funny Thing" is just as funny as I remembered it to be - a marvelous opportunity to see the brilliant and hilarious Zero Mostel, plus a dream cast that includes Jack Guilford, Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford (very young), Roy Kinnear, etc.
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I hadn't seen this in twenty years, and then on TV (with many cuts and commercials), so I jumped at the chance to view a video recently. The final madcap chariot race is hilarious. There's so much action here you have to watch this several times to catch all the background jokes. Lots of other good performances in small parts: Beatrix Lehman as the 104- year-old with no working organs, Peter Butterworth as the Roman soldier, Frank Thornton (Are You Being Served?) as a Roman citizen, the grunting Janet Webb as Fertilla, Roy Kinnear as the trainer, Alfie Bass as the sentry, Ronnie Brody as the short soldier. Greene is also very funny as the overblown general. Crawford (decades later The Phantom of the Opera) is really funny as the dopey Hero and does most of his own stunts. Mostel, Silvers, and Gilford are masters of this sort of broad comedy, and Silvers and Gilford make truly ugly women. Hilarious jokes (Mostel as the soothsayer) and sight gags abound. Lots of scantily clad girls and horny old men.
Michael Hordern is a surprise as the old lecher and gets to sing, "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid." Jessel is a scream as the hag wife. Then there are all those slave girls - Annette Andre as the virgin Inga Neilsen as the mute.
Jack Gilford plays a fellow slave, Leon Greene plays the pompous Roman general looking for his bride. The great Buster Keaton (in his final film) plays Erronius, an old man seeking his long-lost children.
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Mostel is just wonderful and gets to use his full bag of tricks as a comedian as well as sing "Comedy Tonight." Equally good is Phil Silvers, who sells slave girls next door to the snooty matron (Patricia Jessel) her husband (Michael Hordern), and their innocent son Hero (Michael Crawford-yes THAT Michael Crawford).
Mostel reprises here as the wily slave who drives the manic action. And the fond look at slapstick (speeded up film, drag, pratfalls, etc.) is especially apt here considering the great Buster Keaton is in the cast. Director Richard Lester uses film technique to keep the few musical numbers from stopping the pace of the film, and it works surprisingly well.
The plot is zany and convoluted and the style of comedy is similar to 60s slapstick used in everything from Tom Jones to Lock Up Your Daughters. This show was a major success on Broadway for Zero Mostel and decades later for Nathan Lane. Sort of a bawdy tribute to slapstick comedy and vaudeville, the film is uniformly wonderful, the pace fast, and the jokes funny. Funny insult for girlfriend.Very funny film version of the smash Broadway musical, but minus most of the music.