July 24, 1978
Universal
Musical, Fantasy
VHS
B+
This may well be the most enjoyably bad movie I own. I'd seen it many times, although not recently, and I still found myself laughing out loud this time. Much of it was at the rich, creamy WTFness of the plot. I think if any one of us were given the task of writing a story inspired by the music of (mostly) the Sgt. Pepper album and Abbey Road, no one would come up with anything remotely resembling the screenplay by Henry Edwards. At least half of us would think to set the story in England, given not only stars Peter Frampton and the Gibbs, but also the lyrics of "A Day in a Life." But we don't have the pointlessly vivid imagination of Henry Edwards.
Here's the link to my review of Edwards's novel inspired by the film: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/11/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band.html. Yes, I gave it an F+, while this I'm ranking quite a bit higher. There are a few reasons for that. One, some of the flaws in writing didn't make it onscreen, like all the extraneous characters. (There is, however, a dog that romps with Billy and Strawberry in flashbacks, although it's entirely absent from the rest of the film.) The egregious sexism is milder. And, yes, it really makes a difference when you can see and hear the performances. (Also, my criteria on that blog was different, ranking quality rather than enjoyment.)
Now I suppose I may as well say right up front that I have no beef with disco, not even the process of disco-fying uber-classic rock like the Beatles. Except for a few notes that are clunkers, and yes, that syllable elongation that the Bee Gees do, their renditions, with and without Frampton, are actually pretty good. I think Earth Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" and Aerosmith's "Come Together," while different than the originals, are good matches. Then there are the contributions from the leading ladies, the understandably obscure Sandy Farina and Dianne Steinberg, as respectively Strawberry Fields and Lucy. They're good singers, but, as happens with a lot of the songs, no one has thought through the lyrics, so that we have Strawberry singing about going down to herself and Lucy telling us about being in the sky (well, against a billboard) with her band, the Diamonds. The worse examples though of the lyrics having little or nothing to do with what's happening onscreen are the misapplied "She's Leaving Home," "Getting Better" (when did Billy beat "his woman" and keep her apart from the things that she loved?), and most of all "Get Back." (Unless Billy is the "mama" in the high heels and the lowneck sweater.)
Some of the songs are just straight up badly sung. As with Lucille Ball in Mame, George Burns (Mr. Kite) was never known for his singing, even before decades as a smoker. (By the way, this movie earns Burns the Longevity Award, since it was made 45 years after International House. Even Groucho didn't make movies for that long, although he came close.) Frankie Howerd and Steve Martin are other comics not known for their music. (And, yes, I like "King Tut," but not for the singing.) Even Alice Cooper fails to acquit himself, but then "Because" was never meant to be used for brainwashing. Worst of all are the "computerettes" (digitally altered versions of the Bee Gees) who ruin a song or three.
Watching the movie this time, I was struck by how much of what was associated with the various villains-- plastic surgery, punkers in a video arcade, greed, and, yes, computers-- would all be considered good in the following decade. But Good in the sense of Heartland and "kindness," and disco and men with shoulder-length soft hair and unbuttoned soft shirts, of course must triumph in the end. Except for poor Frampton, whose career this pretty much killed. The acting, Burns's aside, ranges from forgettable to embarrassing to excruciating. If Chase and Hawn were one of the all time cutest screen couples in Foul Play, Frampton and Farina deserve some sort of award as perhaps the most brain-dead couple. When in doubt, which is often, he wears a goofy grin, while I MSTed Mr. Kite's line about the threat of Strawberry being turned into a "mindless groupie": "Well, she's halfway there." The Bee Gees at least have moments, Maurice especially, when they seem to be in on the joke of what a travesty this movie is. No wonder their careers survived relatively unscathed.
Of "Our Guests at Heartland" in the big finale, Keith Allison was a waiter in Sextette; Stephen Bishop would go on to write the Oscar-nominated "It Might Be You" for Tootsie; Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" would pop up in The Spirit of '76; Randy Edelman would be the arranger for "Kumbaya" in Troop Beverly Hills; D.C. LaRue did a couple forgettable songs for Thank God It's Friday; Curtis Mayfield's "Mama Didn't Lie" would be one of the songs in the original Hairspray; Lee Oscar would contribute "Pass That Dutch" to Mean Girls; Frankie Valli had recently sung the theme to Grease, while Sha-Na-Na was the band at the big dance contest in that movie; Johnny Winter would contribute several songs to Roadie's soundtrack; and Gary Wright would appear on the soundtrack of Wayne's World ("Dream Weaver"). (And several of the guests ended up writing for the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode "Tormented.")
It's not entirely clear what Connie Stevens is doing there, to say nothing of Carol Channing, but at least they're known as singers as well as actresses. The real question is how Barry "Dame Edna Everage" Humphries got in.
John Wheeler, who's Mr. Fields, was Judge Bregoff in Mame. Ellen Travolta (John's sister) was a waitress in Grease, and though she's uncredited here, she's pretty recognizable in a couple scenes as some relative of the band.
Jeffrey Weissman was also in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and would be in Johnny Dangerously.
Pat Crenshaw, looking older than his 59 years in the role of a Western Union delivery "boy," would be "Man Dying in Elevator" in The Gong Show Movie. Stanley Coles, who's in Sgt. Pepper's band in the early scenes, would be a guard in Love at Stake.
You'd think Michael Schultz would never work again, but he directed, among many other things, Scavenger Hunt the next year.
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| It's sort of like the Pottersville sequence in "It's a Wonderful Life," only with extra cheese. |
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