What's So Bad About Feeling Good?

I remember this fun comedy as a kid and have been hoping and waiting for it to be released on Video & DVD...not yet. While silly on the surface, the ideas expressed were thought provoking. The crazy 60s style of the film would would lend it a current popularity promoted by films like Austin Powers.

I almost can't find anything significant to criticize about this film. Amigo the toucan is as cute as can be, the humor is good, the mood is very positive, the scientific foundation is plausible, the political implications are right on target, the fragments of '60s psychedelic music are good, and there are deep philosophical issues underlying it all. Excellent!

The only part I regard as a minor fault is that after the drop-out philosophers become euphoric with the happiness virus, they want to cut their hair, get jobs, and get married. The implication is that American society's current conventions are the optimal route to happiness. Sorry, but I can't buy that. Other than that one lapse of insight, though, the film is well thought-out, charming, and humorous.

Some of the humorous high points are Liz (Mary Tyler Moore) giggling hysterically as the toucan hidden under her dress begins tickling her, Pete (George Peppard) putting on his German philosopher disguise in order to infect as many friends as possible with the airborne happiness virus, a morose beatnik lady called "The Sack" who lives with a sack permanently draped over her head, a hotheaded Greek freighter captain who undergoes a complete personality change, and the voyeuristic officials watching a couple on their honeymoon night via hidden cameras with suspiciously excessive eagerness.

In this era of explicit torture films and child murder films, it's practically a sin that such an upbeat, positive film about happiness isn't even available while all those other depressing movies are. This film is definitely among my top 20 favorite films of all time.

This is a movie that should definitely be brought out on video, or played on television, or somehow brought into availability now. It is such a great commentary for our time, and probably more significant now than it was when it came out. I haven't seen it since 1968, and yet I still remember the lessons I learned from it. With all of the drugs and medications that are used to make people feel "good" and "happy", maybe we need to be reminded that if it's real, it comes from the inside. It is a silly movie, and certainly a dated one (beatniks?), but a young George Peppard is worth seeing in this one.

This incredible film starring the late Mary Tyler Moore and the late George Peppard deserves a lot more attention than it received at the time of its initial release. It is difficult to locate today and that is a shame. Funny and profound, it offers wonderful entertainment for all ages. The story seems timeless in many ways. Although the plot might not please Madison Avenue, it perhaps reflects truths about a consumer economy. Yet its uplifting spiritual message and completely charming plot make it truly memorable. It seems to me this really overlooked gem of a movie sets a high standard. Very well acted and directed, beautifully written and filmed with visual power, it deserves a 10 in my opinion. Watch this film to spend an enthralling period of time. It is really, really, really excellent!

I saw this film during my impressionable teen years. Its message has haunted me since. Suppose a virus exists that alters human brain chemistry and folks become happy? What would that do to contemporary society based on fear, insecurity and petty neuroses? What would be the response of our critical, western socio-economic institutions that were established to deal with those very fears, hang-ups and neuroses? From our consumer society to our police, mental health, religious and military institutions? How would these institutions and hierarchies react and respond to the a spontaneous outburst of mass euphoria? I have looked for this comedy for decades. Only once to my memory has it been shown on television. I have always been suspicious about that, considering it is wrapped in rather cutesy, mid-60's Paramount-picture-esque, candy-coated plot much like the Rock Hudson/Tony Randall/Doris Day comedies typical of that era. Don't get me wrong, this comedy is no "Dr. Strangelove" but unlike the Doris Day pap of the day, under all the silliness, this movie hides a seditious message. I don't know who wrote or directed it, but if you told me Norman Lear, Buck Henry, or Terry Sothern (sp?) it would not surprise me. This is the kind of message-laden stuff Lear taught us to expect in the early 70's. Only three other comedies from that era stayed with me, "The President's Analyst," "Watermelon Man," and "Cold Turkey." All hid powerful messages under their surface silliness.