Another well made film that bombed with the general public. The idea here was to spoof 1930's movie genres, a black and white fight film and a Busby Berkley musical. The film was written by Larry Gelbert a funny guy, and directed by Stanley Donen, a classy guy.
George C. Scott stars in both of the double features and it has a cast of very talented veteran and at the time new actors and talent. The production design is perfect the black and white and color photography very good. Michael Kidd the choreographer did a good job recreating the 1930's musical numbers. The film was just too well made for it's own good.
If you were going to make fun of old Hollywood movies in 1978, you would probably need to really go way over the top with the poor humor and taste. This was the approach Mel Brooks got away with when he made Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
But in the end maybe recreating and spoofing old movies is self defeating. Even Mel Brooks finally ran out of ideas by the time he made Robin Hood: Men In Tights. Stanley Donen's problem was that he had too much taste and style too lower himself to Mel Brook's level of humor.
105 minutes.
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