Another Nice Mess

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...

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.

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 thought I dreamed this movie! Growing up in North Hollywood I saw this "GEM" at the Lankershim Theater with my brothers (who confirmed that it existed). We thought it was hysterical as Rich Little imitates Oliver Hardy /Nixon and Herb Voland plays Stan Laurel /Spiro Agnew. Why? I don't know,but it was funny.They go golfing and Nixon swings back and hits Spiro in the crotch with his golf club (which at 8 years old is a big laugh)....maybe it's bad, but as a kid I thought it was the funniest film ever made. I ranked it right up there with George C. Scott in "Bank Shot" and Dick Van Dyke in "Cold Turkey"! ...so when's the DVD release?

I saw this film the first week it was released. I'm glad I did, because it was also the only week it was released! It opened and closed in Los Angeles within five days. Then, it disappeared forever.

It was silly, politically incorrect, and, for me, very enjoyable. I don't believe that Nixon, if he saw it, was amused. At 60 minutes, it moved right along, much like the Laurel and Hardy features it emulated. Rich Little did a perfect Nixon as Oliver Hardy impression, and if you are a Laurel and Hardy fan, you would probably get a kick out of it.

I would buy it, if it came out on DVD, but I have a feeling that it will never see the light of day again.

1/18/16 All these years later, I found the full film on youtube. https://youtu.be/0sImm2R6amU Enjoy.