Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title

The (non-)title is a dead giveaway.

This movie is notable for having its cast derived from the old Dick Van Dyke Show. Buddy, Sally, Mel, and Alan, they're all here, only this time they're not funny. We know the actors and actress are good, and their characters are tried and true. All we lack is a script. Don't worry, we'll think up a script after we start shooting.

This was a lost film for decades, until someone at Turner and United Artists resurrected it for a few TV showings. Apropos of all the other reviews here, unless you enjoy 60s culture as viewed by middle-aged men of the period, the movie will leave you at a loss. Morey Amsterdam, who co-wrote and produced, and Rose Marie are alternately embarrassing and silly. Morey's one-liners were dinosaurs on the vaudeville circuit and would have been rejected immediately for the Alan Brady Show. A low-budget and unfunny pastiche of bad jokes that simply painful to sit through. However, there is some amusement in seeing Richard Deacon try in vain to rise above the material. A few of the cameo roles are of historical interest. A bomb at the box office when first released in 1966, this film is best left in the vault.

I believe this movie represents the last gasp of vaudeville. Shot in beautifully clear black-and-white, on a set that is so obviously a set and not at all realistic, this film presents a stage on which we see the last great vaudeville act for the very last time.

It's all about slapstick physical humor where the victim is hurt only for the length of the shot. It's all about one-liners, where the straight-man responds by making an exasperated face or rolling his or her eyes.

And gimmicks stolen from other acts (e.g. Get Smart) that are familiar to the audience.

And the long pauses between action moments -- giving time for the folks in the back of the theater to realize what just happened and start laughing before the people in front have stopped laughing.

And the walk-on cameos of famous performers to keep the people interested, lest they realize that there is no plot worth caring about.

Apparently many people watched the film (based on the rash of reviews) on its single showing on TCM. Robert Osbourne did not introduce the film, which is regrettable. I really would like to have seen how he characterized this piece of work.

Fans of the The Dick Van Dyke Show (like me) may remember episode 40, "The Secret Life of Buddy and Sally" in which Morey Amsterdam's character and Rose Marie's character create and put on their own show at a club on the weekends. Well, this film is what would happen if Buddy and Sally sneaked off to make a movie on a long weekend, and Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon's character) actually produced and directed it. Vaudeville, filmed in noir, on the cheapest set money could rent.

No offense to any of the terrific veteran actors in the movie -- most of them had great roles elsewhere. But you do need a cup of strong coffee and a curious mind to enjoy what they were attempting in ... whatever its title was.

Writer / Producer Morey Amsterdam attempts to spoof the spy film genre. The style is very similar to "Get Smart", but not nearly as well-written. Most of the jokes fall flat. The endless stream of cameos a la "Mad Mad World" is occasionally amusing, but not enough to save this film.

This was obviously made on the cheap -- most of the action is confined to a bookstore, and there are only about 3 other sets in the entire film.

Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie were perfect sidekicks on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Their chemistry is one of the reasons that show is such a classic. Unfortunately, they can't carry a film on their own, at least not one as badly written as this. Even their one-liners, of which there are plenty, are pretty lame.

If you think this might be worth a look just for curiosity, especially if you're a Dick Van Dyke Show fan, then do yourself a favor -- skip it.

Even by the dismal standards of mid-1960s spy spoofs (others have titles like "The Last of the Secret Agents?" and "The Maltese Bippy"), this is a forlorn little comedy, shot on Desilu sets and looking like a quickie TV show. Every Desilu TV star on the lot that day puts in a witless cameo (Irene Ryan, Danny Thomas, Carl Reiner); the rest is Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam, Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers in all but name, exchanging lame repartee as a bumbling pair of friends to a nubile bookstore owner (the conspicuously untalented January Jones), all of them caught up in labored international intrigue. Amsterdam co-wrote the screenplay and thus has only himself to blame, but he and Rose Marie look distinctly unhappy amid the low-budget surroundings, and the movie's reputation as a legendary stinker is well deserved. Harmon Jones, who actually has a good movie or two to his credit, directs in a grab-the-paycheck-and-run style that's winceworthy.