re-en-actor

This movie is highly under-rated, Malton lists it as a BOMB, well if S. O. N. Is a BOMB then so is Sound of Music and many reviews are just malicious without justification and not sure why. Theatre musical adaptations for the cinema are very difficult to pull off, it reminds me more of the musical movie version of The Christmas Carol than Sound of Music. The story makes sense and the acting is well done. The choppy editing that so many reviews talk about is done to match the music and not due to lousy editing and the scenery and wonderful film color is dazzling and looks like Technicolor. It is almost a travel advertisment for Norway. Since this was made after Sound of Music the director probably had that movie in mind when he made this.

This is a wonderful movie about how the outsider, portrayed by Edward G Robinson, casted off by the fascist establishment and his employers as a "loose cannon" achieves greatness by not giving up on his ideas. The sad thing is that this movie gave no credit to the original 1926 book that inspired the story which was "The Microbe Hunters" written by Dr. Paul de Kruif in which he discussed several scientific discoveries one of which was the discovery of a cure for syphilis referred to as the "Magic Bullet" and known by the name "606" which was the formula containing arsenic. This type of treatment and harrassment of people continues today in the modern world and will probably never stop as long as money, power, and bureaucracy try to win over the truth.

I love this movie! Barbra Streisand is so cute and funny and sexy, I think it is my favorite movie of hers because she is not trying to be Barbra, she is acting. The farce is one the most difficult genres to pull off in cinema because there is such a fine line to maintain. If it doesn't reach far enough it is a boring drama, if it goes overboard it is stupid and silly. The director lets the viewers know it is a farce in the very first scene, which is very important for the viewer, when Gene Hackman is laying there after attacking his boss you can hear a medical person in the background asking questions about him and then he concludes, "and he's kind a cute" and you see Hackman's eyes open up. Even the news reports on the television are wild unrealistic stories about people so you have to pay attention. The cast is great and always slightly overboard and the script is very well written weaving the love story and the wild situations together. This movie was a bomb in the theatres like most farces are in their cinematic release because most viewers don't understand it and don't know what to do with it. Good farces always improve with age.