A fantastic early comedy from Brian de Palma, and stylistically it's very much his - he loves his tracking shots and overheads. Tom Smothers is just damn likable as the dissatisfied business executive who quits his lucrative job in order to become a tap-dancing magician. From this little plot summary alone you can
probably surmise that the movie is a ridiculous one, and it is wonderfully so: there are random funny bits inserted everywhere, and Orson Welles lends the unique hilarity that only Welles can to the character of the magic instructor. This movie combines de Palma's almost surreal craziness with Tom Smothers's casual humor as well as a bit of old-fashioned madcap zaniness. (Bob Einstein, known for his work on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, even turns up for one scene, as do several other familiar faces of cinema, including M. Emmet Walsh.) Maybe all the parts don't quite all fuse into a single expertly crafted vision, but so what? The movie's wonderful - wildly off-kilter and entertaining. Love it!
October 28, 2008
