"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" Review

 

by Daniel White

Determined to pay tribute to the great Stephen Sondheim, I watched A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) last night. To be honest, it's a musical that has never interested me much. I'm a guy who likes a story that revolves around a gal, and Forum struck me as a Bawdy Borscht Belt Boy's Club Bash, a scenario certain to put me to sleep.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is exactly that, schtick performed by (mostly) aging male comics, a show where all the women are buxom bimbos or shrewish spouses, and yet, and yet, I enjoyed it very, very much! Directed by the formidable Richard Lester and starring the fabulous Zero Mostel, Forum is gads of fun, my only real complaint being that they cut half of Sondheim's music out of it. For a musical comedy, there is very little music, but thankfully loads of laughs.

Mostel plays Pseudolus, a scheming, fast-talking slave who hopes to attain his freedom by procuring for his master's son (a young, gangly Michael Crawford) the girl from the neighboring bordello that he has fallen in love with. Zero Mostel is tremendous, an actor who knows how to milk schtick and make it work. Like Oliver Hardy, he's a big man who is both graceful and clumsy. He's the total package: verbally adept, physically spry, a pro at pratfalls, sly innuendos, and a master at mugging. He created the role on Broadway after both Phil Silvers and Milton Berle turned it down and is the primary reason for watching the film.

Primary reason but not the only one. You also have Phil Silvers and Jack Gilford offering superb back-up support for the the amazing Mr. Mostel. Both men end up in drag at one point, and are able to make the tired gag of a dude in women's duds seem fresh and funny.

Mostel, Gilford, and English actor Michael Hordem have the best number in the movie, "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid." A silly, breezy skit that is as politically incorrect as it is entertaining, it highlighted the film's greatest flaw: not enough musical comedy

routines!

Silent movie legend Buster Keaton shows up, and while always a welcome presence, he's tired looking and wan. Suffering from terminal cancer (unknown to him), he would die shortly after the film's completion, in early 1966. His plotline as Erronius, a man searching for his lost children, is unremarkable, but he has one scene where he mistakes Jack Gilford for a woman and the dead chicken he's carrying for a baby. It's lowbrow, corny, and unsophisticated, but it got a guffaw out of me.

Part Benny Hill, with a dash of Monty Python, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is diverting silliness that hits the bullseye more than it misses.

We lost a musical genius yesterday, a man who reshaped, reimagined, and reinvented the American musical theater. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was the first musical he wrote both music and lyrics for (he was supposed to do the music for Gypsy as well as the lyrics but Ethel Merman wasn't about to entrust both tasks to a novice, so she had Jule Styne brought in to handle the score) and it was a Broadway smash. The movie version may not be the most faithful rendition we have of the show, and the skimpiness of his songs make this less than a masterpiece but it still offers up some juicy numbers that are delivered by true legends of comedy. So why not grab a bag of popcorn, settle into your favorite chair, and get ready for some Comedy Tonight!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is available on Tubi, a free app on the internet that is a wonderful source for movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood to today.