Another Nice Mess

At 14 I was a big fan of Rich Little (and Nixon, I'm ashamed to say), and badgered my mom in to taking me to see this at the Americana 5 in Panorama City, CA. If she knew something was up when we turned out to be nearly alone in the theater, she never let on. I'm sure she regretted it, but I remember enjoying it a lot. I don't remember a lot about the film, but I do recall that several times during the film they'd flash to Rich Little doing Nixon as Nixon (with a very good make-up job) watching the film in a screening room, and making comments. I don't know what made me think of this film today, but I'm happy to see that others remember this film, fondly or not...

I'm glad this film finally has been listed! I thought that it was locked away in a vault, unseen, and was lost forever.

The only thing I ever knew about this film was that, sometime around 1972, Rich Little appeared on the Tonight Show and told Johnny Carson a little bit about the making of the film. He also told how, as a gag, he, in full makeup, was in the back seat of a limo that pulled into a gas station for refueling. Mimicking Nixon's voice, Little then threw a mock temper tantrum much to the amazement of the gas station attendant.

I never, ever heard of Another Nice Mess having any release whatsoever. I remember, also, that I'd swear Little referred to the film's title as Another FINE Mess. Maybe there was a last-minute title change?

Anyway, I'm hoping for an eventual DVD release.

I first became aware of this movie back in 1971 when Rich Little plugged it on Dick Cavett's show. A clip showed 3 minutes worth of Nixon & Agnew doing Laurel & Hardy's dance steps from "Way Out West." Not only that, Rich Little as Nixon and Herb Voland as Agnew were dead-ringers. The uncanny part is the President and Vice-President spoke and even moved like Stan & Ollie. Sounds like a riot right? Well...if playing golf with Hitler, and getting duped into eating Alice B. Toklas brownies where they go into a "Blotto" laughing fit and hallucinate seeing white robed Ku Kluk Klan members playing hardball in slow motion, doesn't discount you, then this may be your movie of all time for political incorrectness. You won't find it in the credits but Steve Martin makes his feature film debut as a long haired hippie. Steve was writing for the Smothers Brothers back them. In short, the L&H stuff is fun. The padding, i.e. Secret Service (Bob Einsein) is painful. They'll never release this, but I hope they do.

I'm amazed that this film finally showed up on IMDB. For year's I've called it the most obscure movie ever made, since not a single reference source - Maltin, Variety, Screen World - has ever listed it, despite the presence of familiar names like Smothers, Little and Einstein in the credits. Made during the brief spurt of anti-Nixon movies in the early 70s, it's a one-joke movie, and not a very good one. The premise is that Nixon and Agnew have the vocal patterns and mannerisms of Laurel and Hardy. The result is an all-too familiar collection of imitation L & H gags with hardly anything that could pass as political satire...

The film reflects Einsteins politics and slap stick sense of humor. Nixon asked to see it, It was also used as a fun raiser at the Canon Theater in Beverly Hills for the democratic party. The songs were much more controversial than Einstein wanted. But he was away and the mice did play.