The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder

I saw this movie while in the U.S. Navy in the 70's. I only saw it one time. I loved it. My memory (now 25 years old) is seeing Vrooder sliding on the floor under the beds as he visits his friends in the VA ward. And also the elaborate underground home he built for himself. The love story was very touching and I recall he had to make a hard decision in the end.

For many years after seeing this movie I fondly remembered the movie and wondered when I would see it again. There was a period of about 15 years that I couldn't remember the title. In the past couple of years I have recalled the title and happy to find the movie listed in many movie databases. Unfortunately, I have not seen that this movie was ever marketed on video or reappeared in theatres.

I still wonder today if I will ever have the opportunity to see this movie again.

Troubled Vietnam vet Julius Vrooder (Timothy Bottoms) plays pranks on his VA hospital doctor Passki. Passki's girlfriend nurse Zanni (Barbara Hershey) is taken with Vrooder and follows him into the woods. First, she falls into his trap and then joins him in his bunker.

Playboy made movies? I guess that makes sense but they're not using their main assets in this. It's trying to be a character study. It's interesting that this came out a year before One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). It's nowhere near as compelling. Vrooder is not in enough danger for this to be compelling. In essence, this movie struggles to find stakes. If the cops find him, he wouldn't be in that much trouble. He's perfectly content where he is and in the worst case scenario, he stays there. The romance is cute but it's done after the first fifteen minutes. Passki is a dud and the love triangle has no juice. These are interesting characters but they don't do much. It's nice enough but it's not quite enough.

Modern day whimsical tale about a offbeat Vietnam vet who resides at the local V.A. Hospital. He escapes and builds a underground fortress in a wooded area next to the highway. The place looks cleaner and better furnished than most people's apartments. He concocts a scheme that allows him to steal both electrical and phone service. This is a major consternation to the heads of the local phone and electrical company. They go on a mission to find out who he is and how he is doing it. They even go through a list of mug shots consisting of 'dangerous' looking people known to have stolen service. This actually proves to be the films funniest moment (though the tired, elderly vets who have to do a perpetual ten gun salute isn't bad either). He also creates a romantic bond with his doctors fiancee (Hershey).

The film does try to have it's serious moments, but they tend to be clumsy and draggy. However on the charm scale this thing scores very close to the bullseye. There is even a touching performance by 83 year old veteran director Marshall. Though the material is just not enough for feature film length, 1 in 20 people will probably fall in love with it. It can probably best be described as a poor man's version of A THOUSAND CLOWNS, but without the satire or sharp dialogue.

Produced by, of all people, Hugh Hefner.

Too many loose ends in this for me to enjoy, but at bottom - it was just boring. Who's going to believe a well-adjusted doctor is going to get involved with a guy with as many mental challenges as the lead actor? Then, all the contrived scenes such as his radio-cpnotrolled start of the tape machine... just couldn't pass the sniff test

i just happened to catch this today (09/06) and found it mildly amusing, typical fare for the post Vietnam era..,not to mention it was produced by playboy productions aka Hugh hef. the best part is the conversation with the doc and the word association bit, other than that i knew i recognized Barbara seagull aka Barbara Hershey but couldn't think of her name (boy she was a hottie back then) anyway i digress,, so if your bored and have nothing better to do and remember the 60's and 70's fondly like i do (and had friends who had hair down to their butts both guys and girls and wore American flags as capes) you just might enjoy it rick f