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This really doesn't belong in this section at all. It's a movie. A movie starring this guy:
The Wacky Iconic View informs you that Morey Amsterdam was fully established as a madcap fellow, a crrrrazy guy whose very appearance guaranteed hiliarity. Why, even the title of the movie assures you that they're breaking all the rules:
That's the title. Tells you a lot: haphazard movie, made on the fly, confident of its manifest wackiness. What's funnier than Mel Cooley getting a puss full of frosting? If the movie has Mel and Buddy, Sally can't be far behind:
Get the picture? The Dick Van Dyck show was over, these three had nothing to do but still some remnants of fame, so let's bang out a cheapie to capitalize on their fame. Oh, and toss in some crumpet:
She never did another movie. The plot? Why, yes! It's a spy spoof. Morey's mistaken for a cosmonaut who may have defected to the US. He's discovered by a spy who walks into the the diner where he works -
- you can smell 1966 all over her, can't you. Mod! Kicky! With a secret camera in her secret hat! Why she would believe a short-order cook with a Borscht-Belt accent and the girth of a beer keg would be a Soviet spaceman, I've no idea, except that it's essential to the plot. She reports back to the Secret Cabal for whom she works, a SPECTRE-like group that obviously didn't have Ken Adam design their lair. He would have pointed out that you really want the tables to face the viewscreen.
Obligatory henchman garb; did they buy them in bulk from Unitog?
Among the members of the group, the grandfather of the woman about whom the Toto song "Rosanna" was written:
That's Charlie Weaver, real name Cliff Arquette. I think Morey's playing Hitler.
The movie has three sets - a restaurant, the villain's HQ, and the bookstore where the last half takes place. What they lacked in budget, they had in chits: apparently they called in every marker they had, and populated hte movie with Famous People. It's like a mid-60s roll call of all the old guys who'd be ushered off the stage by the changes in popular culture. The age of men in suits with cigars and one-liners, the Time of the Ham, the Yuk, the Gag - it was all about to change. It's a pop culture quiz! Can you name them all?
This one we recognize first by her ride:
Moe always scared me. Moe should have scared everyone:
The last fellow? The last man standing. |
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