Customer Reviews

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Great fun musical comedy loosely based on T. Maccius Plautus' 2nd century B.C. comedy "Miles Gloriosus" ("Braggart Warrior").
The widescreen format lets you see pratfalls and edge-of-scene antics that are missing in the pan and scan version. Zero Mostel was a comic genius; it's a pity that he didn't leave us more movies to enjoy. Michael Hordern is superb as Senex, as are Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers as Hysterium and Lycus. When I was a child I didn't enjoy the musical numbers, I remember fast- forwarding through to get back to the comedy. I now appreciate the songs as well; they are genuinely funny and full of double-entendres that you have to hear repeatedly to fully enjoy. The entire movie, despite its classical setting, has a swinging-sixties feel that you'll have to watch a Rat Pack film to match. You almost expect Frank Sinatra to walk into a scene, singing a song in between drags on his cigarette.

Not having seen the play, I am able to enjoy the film without comparison to other formats. It is hilarious, frantic and a perfect example of Richard Lester's early work.

The DVD transfer is crisp and colorful with very clear audio - way better than the version shown on TCM. Artifacting is barely existent. The transfer is anamorphic widescreen though the description provided by Amazon does not note this.

For a good, though bawdy, burlesque played broadly and strictly for laughs, you can't go wrong.

If you cherish the memories of Zero,Phil,Jack,and Buster...you must get this very funny and very well-presented DVD.It's a great mixture of slapstick;burlesque;hamming it up for the camera;and silliness that makes you long for the days when these wonderful ,almost obscenely talented, and always hilarious men were making movies.It's a delight.Hopefully,if this is your first exposure to the likes of these fellas,you will be compelled to investigate more of their screen work.One of my friends who watched the movie with me when I received it commented that "they surely had a ball making this movie,didn't they?" That's what you'll have when you watch it! I really miss these guys.If you don't laugh out loud as Zero plays the "soothsayer," check your pulse!!

Ok, when a movie stars Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, you know it is going to be an outrageously funny movie. As is the case with "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." "Forum" was adapted from the highly sucessful, extremely comical Broadway musical of the same name. The show, the first show featuring the music AND lyrics of now legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, was a huge hit.

When it was made into this movie version, many of Sondheim's songs were dropped. In fact, at some points it doesn't even seem like a musical. However, the movie is still extremely hilarious. Mostel played the role of Pseudolous, which he originated on Broadway. When filming began, he was just done wih a little musical called "Fiddler on the Roof". Mostel is great in this , as is the great Phil Silvers.

This movie is highly comical, seeming almost like a Monty Python movie. If your a fan of wild antics and very funny songs including "Comedy Tonight" and "Everybody Ought To Have a Maid", than you'll love this movie. By the way, it also features a very young Michael Crawford, who many years later would win a Best Actor Tony as The Phantom of the Opera.

I remember my Classics Professor at San Francisco State recommended this film as being spot-on accurate in terms of the costumes, hairdos, general feel of the Roman period of the time. I found it interesting that the director went to that kind of trouble for what is obviously a outrageous spoof. I love this film!

"But I don't even look like a girl..."

"LIE DOWN, and think GIRLISH thoughts.........."

Even the names - "Vibrato", "Hysterium", Erronius", "Fertila", "etc" ....... still raise chuckles!
What a treat! [Probably inspired the names in Monty Python's "Life of Brian"!]

AND then there's the dreamcast - headed by Zero Mostel as "Pseudolus", with Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford - even silent star Buster Keaton strutting his stuff on a treadmill circa somewhere BC - searching for his long-lost offspring.

There's also Michael Crawford as "Hero" a few years before "Hello Dolly" and the triumphs that followed. If you've never seen this classic - shame on you!

It's bawdy, ribald, irreverent and very funny, complete with chariot chases, matrons, virgins [male and female], raging hormones, protruding pulchritude, and bonus of all - It's a Musical! The kids will love it!

Just sit back, relax and enjoy this one!

For kicks - add "The Producers" also with Zero, and Mel Brooks "History of the World - Part 1". For the Purist - perhaps Eddit Cantor's "Roman Scandals" with Lucy [and if you don't know from Eddie Cantor - leave the page!].

Toga! Toga! Toga!

Zero Mostel is the inept salve Pseudolus, attempting to earn his freedom through slight and deception. Phil Silvers is the greasy Lycos, a perveyor of women's flesh. Buster Keaton (in his last role) is in search of his children who wear a signet ring (who would create a family crest out of a gaggle of geese?). Oh, did I forget the vestal virgin who really isn't a virgin? Oh, wait. Did I forget the young hero out to collect a cup of mare's sweat as a love potion? And the `G' rated ... scene with room swapping a la the Marx Brothers? Dude! For the love their gods I split a freakin' gut! There isn't a second that doesn't have a musical, verbal, or sight gag. If you have a bit of comedic intelligence, you will love this flick. No Eddie Murphy profanity, no Bill Murray insipidy. This comedy was the groundbreaker. If you do NOT like this flick, e-mail and berate me. I'll put you on my stupid list. Trust me. I am never wrong.

If you want to know where many of the current movie gags come from, buy this film (and It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World). It's repeat viewability is excellent, and though musical moments may turn off some younger viewers, the lyrics tied to the visual will crack you up. I have always been a Zero Mostel fan. His facial expressions punctuate his every word (you've GOT to see The Producers). Every big comedian from early comedy is in this film. Phil Silvers reprises his usual shady character role, and this was Buster Keaton's final performance. Other than his silents, this was his best as the father searching for his lost family, all recognizable by the rings they were gifted at birth. Now, who would put a gaggle of geese on a ring as a family crest? Only Keaton. There is a refined Stoogesesque quality about the `G' rated orgy scene, as well as the search for a cup of mare sweat, and the whole film is performed with dignified lunacy. Buy it, own, and giggle about it in your sleep.

I've never cared for Richard Lester's direction. My initial reaction to AFTHotWttF when it premiered almost 40 years ago (can it be _that_ long?) was similar to Pauline Kael's -- it was irritatingly -- even embarrassingly -- frenetic and unfocused.

Times change. Lester's brisk pace and quick cutting can now be seen as ushering in a new style that's not only acceptable, but appropriate. * When Zero Mostel blackmails Jack Gilford by threatening to reveal his collection of obscene pottery, he goes through a jump-cut sequence of the poses and postures that appear on the pottery (alliteration intentional). Each is only a few frames, and they whip by in less than two seconds. It's funny, in a way it could never be if it were done in real time.

Only five of the original songs remain, but they're well-integrated. Neither the story nor the camera come to a stop when people start singing. And is it just my imagination, or does Marni Nixon sing "I'm Lovely" for Philia? It sure sounds like her.

An entertaining bit of fluff. Doctor Who fans should note Jon Pertwee as Crassus.

* Though it sometimes seems out of place in a film that tries to be historically accurate in every detail, even to showing older women in heavy white makeup. I'd have let Phil Silvers wear his trademark glasses as a comic anachronism. After all, Miles Glorious demands that his bride be delivered in two minutes -- and minutes weren't defined for another 1600 years.

I saw this movie when I was a student of Latin literature and thought it captured the spirt of Plautus's plays brilliantly. Later, I saw a stage prodction which I liked as well. But no one can replace Zero Mostel. He is one of the most naturally funny men in the world. This is vulgar and bawdy and even corny at times but it is lots of fun. It is one of my favourite comedy movies of all time.