Main Cast: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Jack Gilford, Michael Crawford
Release Year: 1966
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Director Richard Lester uses the Burt Shevelove/Larry Gelbart/Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical hit as a launching pad for some of his wildest slapstick gaggery. Zero Mostel repeats his stage role as Pseudolus, the cunning Roman slave who'll do anything to win his freedom. The plot hinges on three Roman houses next door to each another. One is the home of Pseudolus' masters: the philandering Senex (Michael Hordern), his domineering wife Domina (Patricia Jessel), and their handsome but empty-headed son Hero (Michael Crawford. The second house is a brothel belonging to unctuous procurer Lycus (Phil Silvers). The third house has long been empty, in that its owner, the senile Erronious (Buster Keaton), has gone on a long journey to find his children, who were kidnapped in infancy by pirates. Other principals include Pseudolus' fellow slave, the aptly named Hysterium (Jack Gilford); vain warrior Miles Gloriosus (Leon Greene), who marches triumphantly into Rome declaring "I am a parade!"; and the virginal Philia (Annette Andre), a resident of Lycus' "domicile" who is loved by Hero but who has been promised in marriage to Miles Glorious. There are also acrobats, transvestites, a phony funeral, and an outsized climactic chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Merging director Richard Lester's 1960s verve with old-fashioned Broadway and vaudeville entertainment, the movie version of the stage hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is an engagingly frenetic slapstick musical. Though the number of winning Stephen Sondheim songs is scaled back, stars Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, and Buster Keaton pile on the schtick as Mostel's labyrinthine scams lead to nonstop mugging (except from Keaton), sexual shenanigans, hilarious one-liners, an elaborate chariot chase, and (naturally) hairy men in drag. Lester packs the screen with visual jokes and historically accurate Roman trappings; any residual staginess is mitigated by cinematographer Nicolas Roeg's and editor John Victor-Smith's New Wave flair for jump cuts and variable camera speeds. Broadway veteran Mostel is in peak form, especially when he goes toe to conniving toe with courtesan merchant Silvers and gauzily woos Gilford with a rendition of "Lovely," while Keaton remains a scene-stealer in one of his last films. A crowd-pleaser if not a Sondheim purist-pleaser, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum maintained the age-old attraction of "Comedy Tonight." ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Annette Andre - Philia; Patricia Jessell - Domina; Michael Hordern - Senex; Leon Greene - Miles Gloriosus; Inga Neilsen - Gymnasia; Myrna White - Vibrata; Lucienne Bridou - Panacea; Helen Funai - Tintinabula; Jennifer Baker - Geminae; Susan Baker - Geminae; Alfie Bass - Gatekeeper; John Bennett; John Bluthal; Pamela Brown - Priestess; Peter Butterworth; Frank Elliott; Andrew Faulds; Bill Kerr; Roy Kinnear - Instructor; Beatrix Lehmann - Domina's Mother; Jack May; Jon Pertwee; Ingrid Pitt; Frank Thornton - Roman soldier; Ron Brody
Credit
Syd Cain - Art Director, Ethel Martin - Choreography, George Martin - Choreography, Tony Walton - Costume Designer, José Lopez Rodero - First Assistant Director, Richard Lester - Director, John Victor Smith - Editor, Stephen Sondheim - Composer (Music Score), Trevor Crole-Rees - Makeup, Jose Maria Sanchez - Makeup, Tony Walton - Production Designer, Nicolas Roeg - Cinematographer, Melvin Frank - Producer, Cliff John Richardson - Special Effects, Gerry Humphreys - Sound/Sound Designer, Leslie Hammond - Sound/Sound Designer, Melvin Frank - Screenwriter, Michael Pertwee - Screenwriter, Ken Thorne - Additional Music, Larry Gelbart - Play Author, Burt Shevelove - Play Author, Stephen Sondheim - Lyricist
Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251-183 B.C.) – specifically Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus and Mostellaria – it tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door.
The musical was adapted for the screen by Melvin Frank and Michael Pertwee from the stage musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. They rearranged the plot and cut most of the songs. The movie was not well-received when first released, although it did turn a profit, and the creators of the musical have frequently expressed their dissatisfaction with it.
This film takes place in the city of Rome sometime during the reign of Emperor Nero. Pseudolus (Zero Mostel) is "the lyingest, cheatingest, sloppiest slave in all of Rome", whose only wish is to buy his freedom from his master's parents, the henpecked Senex (Michael Hordern) and his dominating wife Domina (Patricia Jessel). When he finds out that his master, Senex's handsome but dim son Hero (Michael Crawford), has fallen in love with Philia (Annette Andre), a beautiful virgin courtesan from the house of procurer (i.e. brothel owner) Marcus Lycus (Phil Silvers) next door, Pseudolus makes a deal: he will get the girl for Hero in return for his freedom. Unfortunately, the virgin has been sold to the great Roman soldier, Captain Miles Gloriosus (Leon Greene), who even now is on his way from conquering Crete to claim her as his bride. Pseudolus blackmails his overseer, Hysterium (Jack Gilford) into masquerading as the corpse of Philia to fool the captain, but things go wrong at every turn.
In the end, the boy gets the girl; Senex's next-door neighbor Erronius (Buster Keaton) finds that Phillia and Miles Gloriosus are in fact his long-lost children; and Pseudolus gets his freedom, a beautiful concubine to be his wife, and a dowry of 10,000 minae, compliments of Marcus Lycus.
"Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" — Pseudolus, Senex, Lycus, and Hysterium
"Bring Me My Bride" — Miles Gloriosus and Company
"Lovely" (reprise) — Pseudolus and Hysterium
"Funeral Sequence" - Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus and Company
"Finale" — Company
Sondheim's music was adapted for the film version of Forum by Ken Thorne, who previously worked with The Beatles on Help! (1965).[3][4] Thorne won the only award that Forum received, a 1967 Academy Award for "Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment".[5]
It was filmed at Samuel Bronston Studios in Madrid, Spain, and on location around that city,[7] on an estimated budget of $2 million. Filming took place from September to November of 1965.[8]
Jack Gilford was also re-creating his stage role, as "Hysterium",[6], and there are other connections to the Broadway production. Tony Walton, who designed the production, including the costumes, was also the designer of the Broadway show.[6][9]
George Martin, who with Ethel Martin is credited with the choreography of the film,[10] was the assistant to choreographer Jack Cole on Broadway.[11] (Jerome Robbins also did some uncredited work on the stage show as well.)[6]
Forum premiered in New York City on 16 October 1966[12] and in London on 14 December of that year.[13]. It went into general release in January 1967. It received about $3 million in rentals in the U.S.[8]
Awards
Music director Ken Thorne received an Academy Award for "Oscar Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment" in 1967. In addition, the film was nominated that year for a Golden Globe as "Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy".[5]
