Tom Smothers quits his job as an executive under John Astin to become a tap-dancing magician under the tutelage of Orson Welles.
This absurdist comedy looks like a vanity project. It is expertly directed by Brian De Palma, and there are some very good performances in it. Astin goes to pieces, until he becomes Smothers' manager and is a fine example of peribathos. Welles is hilarious playing his role absolutely straight. Katherine Ross is the girl with whom Smothers fall in love with while on the role, is beautiful and bubbly. Yet the movie hammers so hard at its anti-Establishment themes, that it seems to go on forever.
De Palma is reported to have had a bad time directing it. Warner Brothers fired him, and he did not work with the studio again until THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Whoops.
This absurdist comedy looks like a vanity project. It is expertly directed by Brian De Palma, and there are some very good performances in it. Astin goes to pieces, until he becomes Smothers' manager and is a fine example of peribathos. Welles is hilarious playing his role absolutely straight. Katherine Ross is the girl with whom Smothers fall in love with while on the role, is beautiful and bubbly. Yet the movie hammers so hard at its anti-Establishment themes, that it seems to go on forever.
De Palma is reported to have had a bad time directing it. Warner Brothers fired him, and he did not work with the studio again until THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Whoops.