Typical hit-and-miss filmmaking by the relentlessly antsy Richard Lester, but lots of fun all the same. Based on the smash Broadway musical, the film toplines Mostel as a Roman slave desperately trying to win his freedom and Gilford as his unwitting accomplice. Plot complications involve
Silvers as a brothel owner, Andre and Crawford as young lovers, and Keaton searching for his lost children. Lester's direction is full of the flashy technique which worked better in his Beatles movies. Sometimes he would have done better to just let some of the farcical set-pieces alone. His sense
of timing is sometimes off, and laughs are lost as a result. The songs are quite deli...
Released:
1966
Rated:
NR
Length:
99 mins