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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum: Review

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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 delightful, but somehow the production numbers don't quite fly as they should and just end up bogging down the story. To his credit, however, Lester does add a certain energy and spirit to many scenes, and some great comic moments result. Also, the overall performances make this film well worth watching--Gilford in particular is a gem. FUNNY THING now seems one of the more enjoyable of the many overcooked musical adaptations Hollywood was desperately cranking out during the 1960s. leave a comment
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