The Busy Body

Still having a years-old bad t aste in my mouth from William Castle's abomidable remake of THE OLD DARK HOUSE(1963), I approached THE BUSY BODY warily. You can't NOT get laughs with that cast,but there's a little TOO much of Sid Caesar and offbeatly-cast Robert Ryan's deadpan mobster boss eventually does the same(as does Kay Medford's nagging Jewish Mom)/ I noticed the movie poster was done by MAD MAGAZINE'S Jack Davis(who also did IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD) and the similarities are too strong to ignore.

Richard Pryor makes his film debut--playing a straight arrow cop!!

Anne Baxter gets to seduce Dustin Hoffman and Sid Caesar in the same year.

Caesar is a mob flunky who accidentally buries one million dollars and is ordered to recover it--but somebody has stolen t he body. "Frantic" is the basic tone of the whole movie--sometimes it works. Jan Murray as a murderer???

A nice gag appearance by George Jessel,who was famous for delivering eulogies at celebrity funerals and spoofs that role here.

A criminally underbilled Arlene Golonka steals the comedy show--hurrah for Bibbo The Boom Boom Girl.

I was surprised to see that 'William Castle was the director for The Busy Body that Paramount used. Castle is best known for ow budget horror films with special effects and sometimes cheesy ones at that. This cast of name players was something wasn't used to.

I also note that sSd Caesar was the star. As this is a Paramount this film had the look and feel of a Jerry Lewis film. If Lewis had starred and maybe a Frank Tashlin directed The Busy Body might have been a classic.

Top crime boss Robert Ryan puts his gofer Sid Caesar on the syndicate board and tells him to retrieve a blue suit from a recently deceased board member. Instead Caesar has him buried in it. With a million dollar sewn in the lining of said suit.

One of the big problems is that Robert Ryan just doesn't do comedy. His part would have worked better with a Lionel Stander or a Sheldon Leonard in it.

In a large supporting cast of familiar faces standing out is Kay Medford as Sid's gangster widow mom.

Nice film, funny in spots, but could have been better.

This comedy has all the elements of the type of comedies Don Knotts and Jerry Lewis were performing in during the 1960's. An ordinary man gets involved with murder (I forgot to mention Dick Van Dyke). The comedy was tailored around the talents of Ben Blue and Caesar, with the other comics filling time. It's a pleasant comedy, but don't go out of your way.

This late-period William Castle film is one of his pallid attempts at comedy. It's amiable, yet mediocre in its delivery. Sid Caesar (during one of the lesser parts of his career) plays the scapegoat for Robert Ryan's gang of hoods. Looking at the cast of this film, as well as the original publicity material, it's obvious that Castle was trying to make his own version of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". In addition to Caesar, there is also Dom Deluise, Kay Medford, Godfrey Cambridge, Marty Ingels, and Richard Pryor in his first film. Arlene Golonka is also present as the ditzy young dancer in the ridiculous feather get-ups.

The main problem with this film, is that the two main actors are totally unlikable. Ryan is unnecessarily mean to Caesar, and Caesar in turn, is too much of a wuss. The other actors all seem so oblivious to what's happening...like they are all doing their own stand-up routines instead of furthering the story. The script is OK, I think Castle just didn't know how to direct comedy.

On the plus side, though, this film has a very catchy theme song, composed by Vic Mizzy, and a funny sequence where a woman tries talking to a mannequin at a bus stop. It's a slight step up from Castle's "The Spirit is Willing", but that's not saying very much.

With Sid Caesar recently departed and this movie finally available to order from Netflix, I finally got this a few days ago. I watched it with Mom just now and she wasn't too crazy for it. I wasn't either though I was highly amused by Caesar much of the time I was watching whenever he had scenes with Dom DeLuise, Ben Blue, or Richard Pryor whose movie debut this was. His highlights, however, was when he took a dummy (don't ask) to a bus bench where he spoke Russian gibberish to a woman from there and when he encountered Arlene Golonka when she was in her stripper costume and he reacts to her moves. Director William Castle, who usually made gimmicky horror movies, doesn't seem to have much of a comedy flair but the players do the best with what's given them. So on that note, The Busy Body is worth a look. P.S. It was a nice surprise to see the Chicago landmarks since it was made at the time my parents were living there and when I was the first-born of the family. And to find out Ms. Golonka was also born there.