1979 - 1941, attempt at a large scale comedy.

 Obviously the plan was to make a large scale comedy like It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World.  The film's critical failure probably had more to do with the screenplay then Spielberg's direction which in many scenes was quite inventive.

Spielberg by this point in his career could do no wrong, so two studios ponied up money for this very expensive film.  The large cast included John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Robert Stack, Ned Beatty, Tim Matheson and Toshiro Mifune to name a few.  Belushi and Matheson had been in Animal House so I suspect audiences were looking for that kind of irreverent humor.  But if anything Belushi's tiresome slob shtick had gotten very old by this point in his career. The same holds true with Dan Ackroyd.  

1941 was not the huge moneymaker that Spielberg and the studios intended but I believe it did make it's costs back.  The film is an old school production in many ways, with models and miniatures used in the special effects and action scenes.

 

The film appears to have had a profound change on Spielberg's career.  He entered into a period of good but somewhat safe crowd pleasers like Raiders of the Lost Ark.  1941 is an interesting film probably worth taking a look at but it's biggest problem is that it's just not funny.

The screenplay was by Robert Zemeckis, Robert Gale and John Milius, the running time in the extended version is 146 minutes which plays a little better than the theatrical cut of 118 minutes.