Customer Reviews

Get to Know Your Rabbit [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This decades old movie centers around the currently fashionable '99 trend towards voluntary simplicity in lifestyle. It made a huge impression on me when I first saw it at the Orson Wells Cinema in Cambridge, MA, back in the '70's. I told people it was the best movie I'd ever seen, and I tried to find it again. Finally, two decades later, I saw it was playing in Venice CA! --- it seemed somewhat dated, not "the best movie I'd ever seen" but it is unique, a classic, and simply should be experienced.

I came upon this movie late one night on TV and just had to see it to the end. I remember every gag (even if I didn't laugh out loud when I saw them). This was the first post-modern movie... made in 1972! Orson Welles seemed to be playing the role that he really wanted to always play; a tap dancing magician maestro. Are there any other fans out there?

I really liked this movie, but I do have to admit it's not for everyone's tastes. I was a huge Smothers Brothers fan growing up, and I was able to rent this movie from the video store. The film was actually made in 1969 but put on the shelf for three years before it was finally released. I think this is also Brian De Palma's directorial debut. And I do have to agree, the John Astin part is hilarious!

I got 3/4 of this movie late one night and never forgot it. The scene with John Astin in the hotel setting up his exec doodahs is priceless!

Even if it's not the first Brian De Palma's film (The Wedding Party, Hi, Mom! and Dyonnisos 69 were made before), is the first one for a major. And it shows the influences both of the Nouvelle Vague school (De Palma always was a hugue fan of Jean-Luc Godard's work) and the best american filmmakers (Hitchcock, of course, but Welles, Hawks and the animation geniuses on the Warner's Golden Era). Get To Know Your Rabbit is a witty, well made, political and social comedy, with a lot of fun and a precise sense of satire. Even if the "message" it's now a little dated -just a little, the world has not improve itself as much as we could wanted- it's still delivers excellent performances and a comic view both of the entertainment world and the capitalism system. And, of course, you has Orson Welles and John Astin at his finest. This film was made prior to Phantom of the Paradise, so you can see all the style of one of the best american filmmakers on the last four decades.

A guilty -- but perhaps not all that guilty -- pleasure. A small comedic indie made by Brian De Palma way back in his Greetings and Hi, Mom! days, it still retains a charming, if somewhat adolescent, absurdism. Tommy Smothers plays a corporate dropout in a loveless relationship who yearns to become a tap-dancing magician, taught by none other than Orson Welles's Mr. Delasandro in full pretentious mentoring mode. Add Katherine Ross as the adoring new girlfriend, Allan Garfield as a brassiere maker in search of his perfect woman, and especially the wonderful John Astin as a laid off executive-turned-derelict-turned-executive and you have the sort of bizarre, off-kilter type of fun movie you would have seen as a college student at a midnight showing in theaters during the late 60's/early 70's. Innocently subversive.

And can any movie that bills (correctly) an early Katherine Ross as "Terrific-Looking Girl" be all that bad?

This movie is not for everyone, but I love the absurd humor. Every character in it is irrational in some way. Where films today would probably mock the characters in a mean way, this film has more of a sad and sweet acceptance of their eccentricities. It respects the courage of human beings who have obviously been damaged by the hardships of life but still continue to muddle through. Just like real life.

I saw this in New Orleans in 1973 , I then and now believe it was a very smartlly done comedy, with Tommy Smothers playing the hard-working executive , who wants to be ....well see it and you may join me in my praise of this dark comedy... I believe it wasn't supported by the studio and failed to get the proper publicity it deserved, real shame ! This was a brilliant comedy !!!!!

As with They Only Kill Their Masters, another recent purchase, this DVD is from the Warners Archive Collection. Here is the statement from this website concerning this title:

Important Note: This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD and Digital Download release. Click here to preview this film's video quality.

Had I realized this fact, I would not have purchased this DVD from Amazon.

I was a kid magician, then a teen magician (utterly deadly in the late sixties--doug henning had not yet liberated magic nor had geekiness turned chic) and I was a total fan of the Smothers Brothers (it was the hippest show on television, and is still too politically subversive to be shown in it's entirety) and I was a huge fan of Orson Welles (who was also a kid magician, he once went by the stage name "The Great Delassandro" which is, quite intentionally, his name in this movie.

I had this friend named Lisa, a little older than I. Lisa (who now goes by the name Iris) and I used to go to movies, listen to records, hang out and make sandwiches, that sort of thing. In those days you could see many classic movies in 'revival' and 'art' theaters, and at one of these we caught the only week ever you could see this film on a big screen.

Stanley Beeman's life sucks. He is an anonymous faceless executive in an anonymous faceless job at a generic soul robbing company. His girlfriend leaves him, then comes back just to make him crazy (I was thirteen when I first saw this movie and didn't really understand that this was stark realism until some years later) and, mysteriously somebody comes to tune the piano they don't have.

My favorite parts:

Art Metrano describing brassieres. (if you don't fall off your chair laughing at this you have no joy )
Welles teaching how to handle hecklers
Smothers to the thrift store clerk: "I'm looking for something...seedy"

and too many more to mention.

This film lives life at the gut level. Mister De Palma, we LOVE your movies! Please get this one made available on DVD. I would even buy it on a foreign release!