Groovy Movies 2: Silly Spies

Interesting list, although I imagine that Inspector Closeau would be the better known of all these. Even though, for an actor, I don't think for one second that Peter Sellers ever thought that it was being silly. He's not exactly a "spy", though, but a detective.

Some funny weird things. "What's Up Tiger Lily?" ... is really more about Woody Allen's ability to take a foreign film, change everything around, and give it different dialogue, which is reminiscent of the SUBTITLES in a lot of foreign films at the time, specially the ones that were dubbed when the mouth and the words never really matched up properly. I imagine that Woody thought that could be stretched to a very crazy and bizarre extent and ... it worked. No one ever heard, or saw the original, or bothered with it, but this film is remembered.

The Matt Helm series were kinda funny, but in my book, it was too much about a drunk Dean Martin a lot more than it was a story ... it had its funny moments.

The Flint series, was funny to the extent that James Coburn could stand up and deliver. it dried up, specially trying to make fun of the better known Bond films.

Casino Royale, in the original film, was a mess that could not be defined or designed. Maybe having Woody Allen involved was a problem, because he would have gone completely left handed and everyone wondering what was going on, but it had a lot of funny, weird and memorable moments, some actors not withstanding, in trying to be bigger than themselves and the characters, which I think hurt the film some, and might have been better if Woody Allen had a stronger hand on it, but I'm not sure that the big money involved in this film wanted a Woody Allen destroying their "investment". It was a fun spoof, and crazy in its own way, but I think we all wanted more from it, and only got 3 laughs and went home.

The Assassination Bureau was funny, weird and off kilter, and it's opening is probably the best part of the whole film, although the many performances make the film fun to watch. But I think the film was sort of like a Closeau film where a gag was introduced simply because it fit and was the right time ... never mind it had nothing of value otherwise. But it was funny, and I'm not sure that the casting for the film was right ... Diana Rigg was not cut out to play a floozy or a dolly, and Oliver Reed was too serious an actor (at the time) to do this better and not be "funny" as he probably could/should have been. Maybe, at the time, he just wasn't drinking enough and having enough parties with Keith Moon yet!

I was just thinking that one of the silliest "spy" of all was Neddie Seagoon, done by Harry Secombe in THE GOON SHOW ... and the stories, though all of them on radio .... so the VISUAL IS IN YOUR HEAD, not given to you in cardboard (massive difference if you haven't tried it!) ... you will never learn some of the great secrets ... 

Some examples:

1. The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler

2. Tales of Men's Shirts

3. The Great Bank of England Robbery

4. The Whistling Spy Enigma

5. The Phantom Head Shaver of Brighton

6. The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (Solved)

7. The Case of the Missing Heir

8. The Secret Escritoire

9. Napoleon's Piano

10. House of Teeth

11. The Great Tuscan Salami Scandal

12. Six Charlies in Search of an Author

This is a small listing out of the 130 shows I have on CD ... and certainly not the only ones. Pay particular attention to Six Charlies, for its clever story all the way to the end, is far out, and very funny and twists your imagination perfectly.

In general, by comparison to the antics that you got in your imagination from these things, the movie stuff rarely came close to its idea and intended madness. Even Spike Milligan finally said that what Richard Lester did with the Beatles, was put the Goons on film ... something they had no money for as the BBC only paid them in nickels and insults by their "censors" (John Snagge and others!) that spent a lot of time trying to ensure that The Goons did not get away with it, but still they did, and beautifully so ... and their political satires are fabulous ... asking one of their members why this or that ... I RESIGN ... and nothing is said! And it ends there!