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Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, A
Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, A
Stars: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, Buster Keaton, Michael Crawford, Michael HordernDirector: Richard Lester
Summary: A comical and bawdy romp through the days of the Roman Empire. Phil Silvers stars as Pseudolus, slave to a wealthy merchant, and narrator of the story. Lots of debauchery, earthy humour and belly laughs.
Based on the Broadway musical comedy, this bawdy burlesque farce is set in Ancient Rome and follows slave and scam-artist Pseudolus (Zero Mostel in a signature role) as he attempts to win his freedom by brokering the sale of a virgin courtesan. Stephen Sondheim's score adds to the appeal. Boasting a wild and wacky chariot race and with a glittering sandal-footed cast featuring Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford and Buster Keaton, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED... is a fast and furious toga-tugging romp.
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The words of the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum--"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!"--a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, based on the Latin comedies of Plautus and set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent.
This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hottest directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title--though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amid all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. Frankie Howerd, who played Pseudolus on the London stage, kept the tradition going with his Up PompeiiTV series. --Robert Horton
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