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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Widescreen)
 
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Widescreen)

Zero Mostel (Actor), Phil Silvers (Actor), Richard Lester (Director) | Rated: NR (Not Rated) | Format: DVD
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

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"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!" Those words from the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, 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 a pixilated romp and 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, amidst all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. --Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

44 Reviews
5 star:
 (24)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (44 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2.0 out of 5 stars Horribly Dated, May 28 2004
By 
brewster22 "brewster22" (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Widescreen) (DVD)
With apparently no faith in the pretty strong material, the filmmakers decided to do away with most of the aspects that made the musical charming in the first place (like, oh, most of the music!) and replace it with groovy 60's trickery that looks like something right out of Benny Hill (look, the action is sped up to make everyone look like they're running really, really fast...isn't that funny?)

Zero Mostel does what he can, but he can't salvage this. No one else even registers.

I saw this on stage, and that version blows the film version out of the water.

Grade: D

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5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Classical Comedy, Mar 1 2010
By 
Elizabeth Yip (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Widescreen) (DVD)
Stephen Sondheim wrote the original musical with many memorable tunes like Comedy Tonight. Themes that were common in Roman comedies such as mistaken identity, cross-dressing abound. The plot doesn't make the most sense but who cares? Great performances by all but the show really belongs to Zero Mostel. I can't imagine anyone else doing this role. Memorable turn by Buster Keaton. A very young Michael Crawford is the clueless but sweet young master. Chariot chase scene at the end is kinetic and fun.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Overall not great, but has its good isolated moments, Jun 4 2004
By 
Kenji Fujishima (East Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Widescreen) (DVD)
I do not claim to have a broad knowledge of Broadway musicals, and so this, Richard Lester's film version of Stephen Sondheim's A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, was my first experience with this musical.

Mr. Sondheim is certainly something, isn't he? In such classic musicals as GYPSY or WEST SIDE STORY, his lyrics always seem to sparkle with such exhilarating wit. It's the same here, at least in the few numbers the filmmakers retained from the Broadway show in the film, particularly with the catchy opening tune "Comedy Tonight" (a tune that's still stuck in my mind right now).

As for the stretches without music---well, for me it's a mixed bag. Having not seen Richard Lester's more famous previous films (like A HARD DAY'S NIGHT), I can't say whether the frantic editing style he employs here is a trademark of his or not. Mostly it works here, giving the material a welcome screwball farcical edge. Lester, though, pursues this chaotic style at the expense of clarifying the story, resulting in a movie that eventually becomes a mess in terms of plot (since so much seems to be going on at once). Perhaps the climactic chase scene towards the end is the prime example of this fault: Lester and his editor John Victor-Smith hardly bother to clarify at certain points who's chasing whom---it's simply chariots and horses flying by, in a visceral whizz of fast motion. That's basically the problem with the storytelling overall. In short, the style is mostly effective but self-conscious (although perhaps it is a forbear of the blitzkrieg comedy style of later movies like AIRPLANE!).

Still, the movie has its moments, although most of those moments come in the witty songs and Zero Mostel's likably over-the-top performance as Pseudolus (a precursor to his classic portrayal of Max Bialystock in THE PRODUCERS). It's not a great film, but for the most part, it's good entertainment.

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