By Steven Suskin
16 Jul 2006
The 1960s were a time of immense social change, as they like to say. The change in morals and mores found its way to the cinema as well. Warner Home Video has brought us the first-time-on-DVD releases of five offbeat comedies with a self-described "cult" following, several of which are well worth a look. (These five DVDs have been issued separately, not as a box set.) Combine Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters and Rod Steiger with cameo stars John Gielgud, Tab Hunter, Margaret Leighton, Roddy McDowall and the unlikely team of James Coburn and Liberace. And, Milton Berle, too. "The Loved One" (1965) — as in "the dearly departed," in this satire of the funeral business -- came from director Tony Richardson (following "Tom Jones") and screenwriters Terry Southern (following "Dr. Strangelove") and Christopher Isherwood (of "I Am a Camera"). A wildly frantic if uneven black comedy, I suppose, is how you might best describe it.
"A Fine Madness" (1966) is similarly unusual, starring Sean Connery — just then in the middle of his James Bond career -- as an offbeat poet on the loose in New York. Joanne Woodward and Jean Seberg co-star; theatre fans will be happy to see Colleen Dewhurst and Clive Revill in support. And then there’s Peter Sellers-gone-hippie in "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!" (1968). Now there’s a title for you. Julie Christie and George C. Scott star in Richard Lester’s "Petulia" (1968), with Arthur Hill, Shirley Knight and Joseph Cotton. The fifth of the group, from 1971, is the Jimmy Breslin-derived "The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight," starring Jerry Orbach and Robert De Niro among others. Fans of fine acting will want to watch the unjustly neglected Jo Van Fleet, who co-stars in both "The Gang" and "Toklas."
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With Alan Bennett back on Broadway with his deservedly lauded History Boys, theatre fans might want to look back at his humble and uproarious origins, in the legendary Beyond the Fringe [Acorn Media] (in what appears to be the final London performance in 1962, prior to the show’s trans-Atlantic transfer). This intellectual revue was written and performed by newcomers Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore. It was a sizable Broadway hit at the Golden, enjoying a 667-performance, 19-month run. Bennett, Cook, Miller and Moore, needless to say, went on to successful and notable careers; they are each and every one of them fascinating here. (For those who’d rather listen than watch, the cast original album has also just been re-released on CD [DRG 19089].) Some of the material is dated, perhaps, static to watch, and maybe even sophomoric; these were university boys, after all. But the Beyond the Fringers brought forth a new style of British humor. Where would Spamalot, and the Pythons, be without ‘em?
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