Hammersmith ist raus

This very silly movie is one of the only ones where you can catch Richard Burton playing comedy. He's more of the "straight man", leaving Elizabeth Taylor and Beau Bridges to get all the laughs, but it's still a rarity.

I absolutely love Liz in this movie. She's adorable and hilarious. Had she made more comedies in her career, she might have been one of my favorite actresses. She has a bright, shining face, a mischievous smile, and that famous cackle. In this odd flick, she's a low-class, bleach blonde diner waitress who gets seduced by cutie pie Beau Bridges, a night guard at an insane asylum. Beau gives her promises of wealth and an easy life, which are, in turn promised to him by a dangerous prisoner (Richard Burton). It's supposedly a take on Faust, but Peter Ustinov's screenplay is so loosely based, if you watch the whole movie and don't figure it out, don't feel bad.

Very few people will probably actually like this movie, but if you loved Liz in The Flintstones, you'll want to watch her in this. She's so funny! In one scene, she's in bed with an oil tycoon, hoping to get all his money, and he requests dirty talk. She thinks about it for a minute, then tentatively tries out, "Pee-pee." In another, after a raunchy quickie with Beau in the diner, he admits to her that he's had gonorrhea twice. She gives him a flat look and asks, "Well, how's it now?" Her comic timing is fantastic, and after seeing her in this silly '72 movie, I know you'll wish she used it more often.

I saw this film years ago and it is one of the insecurities I remember best along with "The Man w/ the Balloons" and "Always Leave Em Laughing". Tho not an especially good movie (way over the top to be "good") it is memorable! Some scenes stick in my head 40 yrs after seeing it! If you get a chance to see it, take the dive. It's fun, just don't take it seriously.

"Hammersmith Is Out" (1972)a hilarious take on "Faust" has stayed with me all these years. I hadn't seen it in almost 50 years, but when it came out on DVD, I had to buy it!

This movie is a scream!

Why it's so rarely on TV, cable or otherwise, is beyond me. I've only seen it listed twice in 40 years. It's directed with decidedly politically incorrect tongue-in-cheek satirical panache by none other than Peter Ustinov, letting down his stiff British upper lip.

Richard Burton as Hammersmith was in full-blown "have fun living life with a nod, a wink and a fifth of Scotch" phase, this coming at the phase-out of the Swingin' Sixties and four years after the masterfully, purposefully over-the-top glory of his poet, Macphisto, in the cinematic wonder that is "Candy" (1968).

Through a manner I'll never explain (my lips are sealed), complete psycho Svengali Hammersmith is able to turn the absolute dumbest hayseed the world has ever known, Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges, who's a riot) into the world's richest man.

Along the way, they pick up the dame, an almost equally dumb and hilarious Elizabeth Taylor, who is such a knockout that words defy description. Zonga!

One pretty good example of Ustinov's ribald, blue-collar Southern type of comedy this is, is demonstrated by the band playing onstage at a club the trio check out: it's an all-girl topless band called the Tits.

Let's hope some enterprising programmer digs this one out. The world must see "Hammersmith Is Out"!.

I must admit that I did not see this film until around 1995, when the film was already 23 years old.

I have never read Faust, or even had an understanding of his works, but that did not lessen the pure escapist joy I had watching this film. The theme music stays with me to this day, and I have only seen the film ONCE! That's right, saw the film ONCE 15 years ago, and I can still hum the theme song, even with the campy 70's chorus...

Burton is solid as always - not quite up there with "Where Eagles Dare", but certainly watchable. Ustinov and Bridges (and Taylor) do a decent enough job in keeping up.

This film is a (very) rare gem, I have only seen it on television ONCE, and I have never seen it on VHS or disc. This film has achieved cult status with myself, mainly due to the fact that I saw it once only, and watched it with my wise-cracking comedian brother. Whenever we need to make a hippie in-joke, we'll start singing the theme tune.

A film so strange (not Eraserhead strange, but odd and out-of-place) that it rightly deserves a cult-film status. I gave it a 7 rating, but this may have been as low as 4 if I had been subjected to repeated viewings... like "It's a Beautiful Life"! Enjoy it if you can ever find it...

Peter Ustinov's unjustly obscure Burton-Taylor vehicle. A black comedy updating of Faust to 1970s America, in which obnoxious, nose picking hick Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges) who works at an insane asylum is taken in by the literally devilish inmate Hammersmith (Richard Burton) who promises to make Breedlove "rich and strong, strong and rich" if he releases him from his cell. Now on the run from the law, the pair are joined by a white trash waitress (Liz Taylor) for a satirical road trip across America, where Hammersmith's ability to make good on his promise sees Breedlove transported from stripclub owner, to big business tycoon to political office. As tends to be the case in Burton-Taylor vehicles though, its not long before everyone is miserable, drunk and yelling insults at each other. Being accused by Taylor's character of having a "monkey penis...peanut balls" is but one of many indignities to befall Breedlove as his pursuit of money, lust and power turns sour. Dare you turn Mr Hammersmith loose?