Get to Know Your Rabbit

Based on the first fifteen minutes of this film I would say that comedy dodged a veritable heat seeking missile when DePalma decided to work exclusively in the horror genre. That's really all I have to say but IMDB has this idiotic new 600 character minimum rule so I'm gonna do a verbal tap dance and just add that there is nothing particularly funny about a piano tuner who comes to the wrong address and is then asked to serve breakfast to the owner even if the owner is Tom Smothers. I mean I guess I could lay the blame on scenarist Jordan Crittenden for writing such mirthless crap but DePalma presumably gazed upon Crittenden's screenplay and pronounced it risible so he has to shoulder a lot of the blame. Can I stop now, IMDB minders?

Tom Smothers of 'The Smother's Brothers Fame' plays high flying executive & magician Donald Beeman, who is destined for fame as Beeman the Marvelous. Trained in magic by the odd Mr. Delasandro(Orson Welles) and issued his own rabbit, Donald finds fulfilment and a special admirer (Katherine Ross of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance kid fame )while wowing locals at strip clubs. There are lots of shades of early Brian De Palma in this one, clever use of overhead shots which Martin Scorsese would use to great effect at the climax of 'Taxi Driver' & also clever use of SPlit screen which De Palma uses to better effect in his later pictures.

Tom Smothers quits his job as an executive under John Astin to become a tap-dancing magician under the tutelage of Orson Welles. This absurdist comedy looks like a vanity project. It is expertly directed by Brian De Palma, and there are some very good performances in it. Astin goes to pieces, until he becomes Smothers' manager and is a fine example of peribathos. Welles is hilarious playing his role absolutely straight. Katherine Ross is the girl with whom Smothers fall in love with while on the role, is beautiful and bubbly. Yet the movie hammers so hard at its anti-Establishment themes, that it seems to go on forever. De Palma is reported to have had a bad time directing it. Warner Brothers fired him, and he did not work with the studio again until THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Whoops.

Another film in my project to watch everything Orson Welles appeared in. This film sees Tommy Smothers play a character who quits his job to become a magician. I see no particular reason for a Brian de Palma fan to watch this. It felt flat and dull most of the time. Orson hams it up this time, playing a magician who mentors Tommy for about five minutes. Its a cool scene, and has a resonance with Orson's life considering he was a life-long practicing magician. The film had good comic potential, but Tommy is clearly not a good leading man or actor. He was hilarious on the Smothers Brothers show, but was just not up to the task here. And it felt like de Palma was asleep at the wheel. Not dreadful, just dull, which actually is worse. Dreadful movies are quite fun to watch, dull ones are torture. In summary, don't spend a fortune finding this one.

This is one of DePalma's least-known films and deservedly so. An unfocused, unfunny, would-be satire starring a smug, dimensionless Tommy Smothers who quickly becomes tiresome, and like Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction(2006) you may just want to slap him. The film shows DePalma merely marking time and wasting ours. Visually the film is monotonous and DePalma's earlier films Greetings(68) and Hi,Mom!(70)are more inventive, anarchic and free wheeling. Even appearances by Katherine Ross and Orson Welles do nothing to liven things up. You may not get to know your rabbit, but you may get to know your tolerance for films that aren't nearly as clever as they think they are. DePalma has done better:Sisters(73),Carrie(76),Casualties of War(89).

One of Brian De Palma's least-known films - also one of his least-successful. The premise is actually relateable and plausibie in its absurdity (corporate executive quits his job to pursue his dream of becoming a tap-dancing magician!), but the film does very little with it. It's also hopelessly unfunny. Occasional use of split-screen is just about the only indication of De Palma's later virtuosity. Orson Welles is at least enjoying himself performing magic tricks, while Katharine Ross is indeed "a terrific-looking girl". *1/2 out of 4.

I think I first ran into this film on cable. Later, I paid over $18.00 for a VHS copy. Tonight, in a fit of nostalgia I decided to search for a DVD copy and found, to my dismay, that there are none. Guess I'll have to nurture my VHS copy until I can transfer it to a DVD for preservation along with HBO's 'Disco Beaver From Outer Space', 'The Traveling Executioner', 'Run For the Sun', 'On The Run', and 'Looping'. Some excellent films are very, very hard to find. The Smothers Brothers were a very popular comedy team on television in the 60's. This film and 'Pandemonium' in 1982 set Tommy apart as he performed alone with wonderful results. Not great films...but a lot of fun to watch. And you'll watch them more than once!