The Maltese Bippy (1969)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Excellent but underrated film

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A number of people have commented negatively on this film, and also slam Rowan and Martin, Laugh-In, and the fact that this movie was made in 1969 and is therefore dated. I wonder why they bothered watching it.I was but a toddler when Laugh-In was on, but I watched it with my older siblings. I've seen clips from it more recently, and yes, it is horribly dated now. So are bell bottoms, peace signs, and harvest gold appliances, but they were very popular at the time. People seem to have a hard time believing that something they really like today will ever look ridiculous, but it happens to every generation.This movie is not particularly dated. Maybe 3 lines will go over your head if you have no knowledge of Sixties culture. This film is a silly spoof of monster/mystery films. Rowan and Martin act a lot like Hope and Crosby in their "Road" pictures, without any singing, and even speaking to the audience and acknowledging that they are in a movie. Every cliché from the aforementioned genres is skewered in this film, and I think it accomplishes everything it sets out to do. You don't need to know anything about Laugh-In, Rowan & Martin, or the Sixties to enjoy this film. If you've ever enjoyed, or enjoyed groaning at, movies about werewolves, vampires, old houses, hidden treasures, and dead bodies appearing unexpectedly, you will get a laugh out of this movie. Personally, I watched it expecting the worst, and was very pleasantly surprised.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, famous TV cut-ups from the then-current hit show "Laugh-In", go a curiously different route for their second theatrical film as a team (the first was "Once Upon a Horse" from 1958). In a weak spoof of monster movies, Martin plays the landlord of a suburban boarding house who believes he's a werewolf and eternally-tanned Rowan is a moocher who makes stag films. Carol Lynley is also around as a college student-turned-amateur detective, Mildred Natwick is the housemother, and Robert Reed sniffs about sourly as a police lieutenant. The worst, however, is saved for former-Catwoman Julie Newmar playing the bloodthirsty daughter of a scary Count (with an even-scarier accent). Newmar, looking tired, seems to have wandered over from the old "Munsters" set--or perhaps the latest Don Knotts picture. Odd that two TV swingers would choose to plod through this unfunny comedy like a couple of square schnooks, and the phony sets and cheap backlot look gives the entire enterprise a depressed spirit. 1969 was not a good year for Carol Lynley (she also starred in the clinker "Once You Kiss a Stranger..." around this time), but at least Reed had "The Brady Bunch" to fall back on! NO STARS from ****

After watching Rown & Martins Laugh In I expected something better than this. There are a few humor touches but I really thought the scenes with Rowan & Martin doing stand-up including in the opening credits would have been better.The plot such as it is is strange in that there are no vampires next door even though plot synopsis of the movie says there is. The center of the plot has to do with a large diamond everybody is looking for, yet at the end we are never quite sure if it was found or not.Some major continuity moments happen when the film jumps from day to night suddenly & some of the scenes ending & the next one beginning make no sense either. This would have been better if they had stuck more to comedy & less with a plot that falls kind of flat.This film does have some well known television folks. Carol Lynnely was better known for other films & isn't given much script in this. Julie Newmar is best known as a Catwoman on TVs Batman. Even though she is already 36 in this one, for many years she was ageless in the beauty department. She is the only cast member who worked with another comedy team Noonan & (Peter) Marshall during the 1950's.Leon Askin is better known for Hogan's Heros roles. Robert Reed in a small supporting role is more known for Mr. Mike Brady.For Rowan & Martin fans, this is OK. Both of them get to use Dick Martins line "I didn't know that!" The opening & closing of the film are bits of whimsy, but the rest is only sporadically funny. Say Good Night Dick.

If you're like me and like the crazy comedies of the 60's, then it would be worth checking out this one. The chemistry of Dan Rowan (1922-1987) and Dick Martin (1922-date) was fantastic and at times was sorely needed to carry this film which starts out slow, but picks up laughs as it goes. The story involves Ernest Gray (Dick Martin) buying a house in Flushing, Queens, New York. There's a murder in the neighborhood, wacky neighbors who act like vampires, and it turns out everybody's looking for $2 Million worth of diamonds left in the house by the previous owner. By the end of the movie, just about everyone is dead, and in wacky '60's style, Rowan and Martin actually argue on camera as to how the movie should finish. The hysterical ending, along with beauties Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar, make this otherwise lame comedy bearable.Good for a rainy Saturday Afternoon!Recommended from the '60's: Peter Sellers in: I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Party (1968), The Magic Christian (1969).