A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

Wonderful character development!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Has its moments but mostly quite silly. A farcical comedy, set in Roman times. Has some good one-liners but is mostly quite silly. Almost every plot development is merely an excuse for some pointless, mostly unfunny slapstick. It gets quite predictable after a while: you get some random detour and you can imagine how it is going to end up.To compound the misery, the movie is partly a musical! Yeah, you know, people randomly breaking into campy tunes. Not a recipe for a good movie.Zero Mostel is reasonably good in the lead role. His clowning around gives the movie some of its best moments. Cast also features Buster Keaton, though his performance is fairly subdued.

I rate every musical movie I saw before the age of 12 as a "9" or "10," since the songs are as familiar as smells from the childhood kitchen, but I'm well into adulthood seeing this for the first time. I notice a lot of the people rating FORUM as a "7" or higher are filling in the blanks in the movie with their memory of the play. The closest I was to FORUM before the movie was watching Phil Silvers as "Sgt. Bilko" a few times on TV. If you come to FORUM with fresh ears, you'll join me in noticing there are two real songs ("Comedy Tonight" and "Lovely") included in the film, plus a few scraps of incidental blather from Leon Greene as Captain Miles Gloriosus (which makes Franco Nero's posturing with Lancelot's "C'est Moi!" in the movie CAMELOT--based on a Broadway hit preceding FORUM--look like the performance of the decade). The dubbing on the DVD is EXTREMELY out-of-synch, even by 1960s or foreign movie standards. Coming to IMDb and reading that 75% of Stephen Sondheim's original Broadway score was deleted for the movie because "the producers thought musicals were blase" produces one giant yelp of "WTF!" Why bother even doing a cinema version, then? Evidently this is a travesty along the lines of doing MUSIC MAN without "76 Trombones," or GUYS & DOLLS sans "Luck Be a Lady Tonight." Apparently the Oscar voters felt so ashamed for their industry that they tried to cover up the misfire by giving this flick a statuette for "Best Score." Well, if I'm going to get a Reader's Digest version, I'd prefer something even shorter--perhaps a 60-second rendition by those five-minute Shakespeare guys--to this heartlessly amputated truncation.

As the popularity of big budget Broadway musicals grew over the course of the 1960s, it was inevitable that a series of corresponding film adaptations would follow - a more affordable and easily mass marketed alternative. As such, while it may not have been one of the most well known stage musicals, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum had proved a sufficient hit to make an intelligent transfer to the big screen. And while fans of the live show may find the film somewhat lacking in scope or creative vision, the resulting zany, energetic comic romp is sufficiently cheerful and endearing to easily entertain nonetheless.While Sondheim's musical numbers seem scarce (the majority of the Broadway show's numbers are noticeably excluded cut from the film) and lacking in the energetic zest which would bring them to life with the same engaging spark as a live show or other efforts in the genre, the few tunes prove sufficiently catchy and executed with enough endearing charm to make up for their somewhat lacklustre quality. However, the film truly reaches its potential on the irreverent comedy front, never presuming to take itself overly seriously with breaches of the fourth wall, (including the number "Comedy Tonight", an amusing prologue where Mostel introduces the principle locations and characters, one of the film's highlights) and a madcap final chase sequence which visibly takes influence from the similarly bawdy What's New Pussycat. Director Richard Lester, his musical credentials seasoned by numerous film adaptations of The Beatles, experiments with several similar sequences of blindingly fast editing and cartoon backgrounds, used to suitably comedic effect. Of course the cunning script's requisite slew of slapstick gags and witty repartee proves the film's real highlight, though the period sets and costumes prove comparatively expansive and impressive given the period in which the film was made, suitably immersing the viewer within the realm of ancient Rome. The film's inspired casting lend comedic credulity to the film, bringing the script's cheerful irreverence to life with enthusiastic silliness and charm to spare. Reprising his starring role from the Broadway production, Zero Mostel is nothing less than a scream as cunning slave Pseudolus, a bundle of comedic energy and hysterical mannerisms whose mere presence lights up the screen and makes the movie immediately more enjoyable. Jack Gilford similarly raises many a laugh as bewildered and constantly put upon slave Hysterium, as does Phil Silvers as a quirky brothel owner. Buster Keaton, tragically in his last screen performance is delightfully hysterical in a tiny role as a doddering old man prone to superstitious laps around the city, and while Keaton is given little character to work with, his mere persona and tremendous presence make him hilarious regardless. While bestowed with little character, the lovely Annette Andre adds class and distinction to the film while making quality use of her few comedic lines as ethical virgin Philia, and Michael Crawford is just silly enough without quite going overboard as the young noble who becomes smitten with her. While lacking the profundity of some of Sondheim's later musical efforts and the vivacious splendour of other such musical adaptations, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum offers unapologetic entertainment to a nearly unprecedented degree, excelling as a comedy if not as a movie musical. With delightful performances aplenty, (especially Zero Mostel's dynamo of a performance) the film may have little particularly memorable about it, but proves a suitably joyful and charming diversion, easily worth experiencing for those seeking a warm smile on their face above all else. -7/10

In ancient Rome, a sloppy, lazy slave must unite his young master with a virginal courtesan just imported from Greece, but she has already been bought by a virile Captain. Richard Lester's New York/Jewish burlesque revue, a 'throw everything at the screen and see if it sticks' slapstick comedy based on the hit Broadway show. With Nicolas Roeg as his cinematographer, Lester (aided by the wizardry of his editors) stages one breathless, breakneck scene after another, not attempting to top himself with each one but rather trying for any laugh he can buy. The cast of old pros mug to the camera shamelessly, slinging those wisecracks home with gusto, but the film isn't a gut-buster. It works intermittently and has some nice musical sketches (and the Madrid locations were a fine visual choice), but the jokes don't connect with the audience in a human way. It's just a series of boffo vaudeville routines, some of which get hammered home and others that are handled gingerly, making a lilting comedic impression. **1/2 from ****