The Busy Body

Since Sid Caesar died a few days ago, I decided to watch one of his movies. "The Busy Body" makes no pretense about being silly. The characters are pretty much what we expect: Caesar is the nervous everyman mixed up in a murder case, Robert Ryan is the slimy exec, Arlene Golonka is the cleavage-flaunting blonde bombshell, and Kay Medford is the overprotective mother. The movie features the first appearance of Richard Pryor but he doesn't have much to do. I figure that an old-school director like William Castle wasn't about to let Pryor play the kind of character for which he eventually became renowned. In the end it's not any kind of comedy classic but funny enough for the brief period that it runs.

This is definitely not the greatest film comedy, but it has it's moments.

The plot has to do with mob boss Ryan's discovery of a large scale theft of cash that seemed about to be uncovered by his mob's bookkeeper, Bill Dana. Dana is killed in front of Ryan and his right hand gopher Sid Caesar while barbecuing (somebody tampered with the oil used on the barbecue grill). When the discovery is made, Ryan zeroes in on Caesar as the thief, and probable murderer of Dana. Caesar spends the film trying to 1) keep out of the hands of Ryan and his goons (Godfrey Cambridge and Marty Ingalls), 2) keep out of the hands of the police (Richard Pryor), 3) keep his meddlesome mother out of his hair (Kay Medford), 4) solve the mystery of the death of Dana and his disappearing corpse, 5) find out who, exactly, is trying to frame him, and 6) looking after Dana's newly made widow (Arlene Golonka) who is looking very appealing to Caesar.

Actually the plot fits pretty well, but it is a so-so plot for all that. I think by the time the film is half-way through you will realize who the framer is. But it is the little shticks by borscht belt comics, Caesar, Jan Murray, Cambridge (with Ingalls), Dana (briefly), and with long time comedian Ben Blue and recent arrivals Richard Pryor and Dom DeLuis, that should hold one's attention. Blue is the perennial nervous nelly, a witness against Caesar who is confronted by him (not threatened by him, mind you, but confronted) and keeps collapsing in fear of being tortured. As mentioned in another comment on this thread, a woman tries to vamp a dummy that Caesar has left at a bus stop. You have to understand that Caesar introduced her to the dummy as his friend , Matthias Kreplach, who was rich. The woman leaves in a huff when Matthias just won't respond to her chatter - he just sits there like a dummy.

I may add that while that scene is good, my favorite moment is the last scene involving Jan Murray and Anne Baxter as a larcenous husband and wife. He gets a final rise out of her that George Sanders did not achieve in ALL ABOUT EVE.

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.

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.

This crime comedy is played strictly for laughs. Sid Caesar stars as the impeccably dressed right-hand man of mob leader Robert Ryan. When one of the 'boys' (Bill Dana) is blown up while barbecuing, Caesar helps his grieving widow (Arlene Golonka) select a suit to bury him in; unfortunately it was his 'traveling suit'.-the one that had a secret lining that held a million dollars from his last 'job' for Ryan.

Ryan plays the stone faced, controlling boss without blinking despite the chaos around him. Caesar is ordered to find the suit by whatever means, including digging up Dana, but when Dana isn't in the grave he's supposed to be in, it becomes a frantic search for Caesar to avoid Ryan and mob members Godfrey Cambridge and Marty Ingels, as well as outsiders pulled into the story like Dom DeLuise, Ben Blue, Jan Murray and his wife Anne Baxter.

Caesar also has to deal with his meddling mother, Kay Medford, and the cop that always seems to be tailing him, Richard Pryor. If that seems like a great cast, you are correct. Although there are some lags that keep it from being really good, it's entertaining and a nice little double twist at the end ties everything up nicely (one is easily predicte, the second, not so much). I wasn't wild about the Vic Mizzy score as it seems too Green Acres, but overall an overlooked 60s film.