The Busy Body

Since Sid Caesar died a few days ago, I decided to watch one of his movies. "The Busy Body" makes no pretense about being silly. The characters are pretty much what we expect: Caesar is the nervous everyman mixed up in a murder case, Robert Ryan is the slimy exec, Arlene Golonka is the cleavage-flaunting blonde bombshell, and Kay Medford is the overprotective mother. The movie features the first appearance of Richard Pryor but he doesn't have much to do. I figure that an old-school director like William Castle wasn't about to let Pryor play the kind of character for which he eventually became renowned. In the end it's not any kind of comedy classic but funny enough for the brief period that it runs.

This late-period William Castle film is one of his pallid attempts at comedy. It's amiable, yet mediocre in its delivery. Sid Caesar (during one of the lesser parts of his career) plays the scapegoat for Robert Ryan's gang of hoods. Looking at the cast of this film, as well as the original publicity material, it's obvious that Castle was trying to make his own version of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". In addition to Caesar, there is also Dom Deluise, Kay Medford, Godfrey Cambridge, Marty Ingels, and Richard Pryor in his first film. Arlene Golonka is also present as the ditzy young dancer in the ridiculous feather get-ups.

The main problem with this film, is that the two main actors are totally unlikable. Ryan is unnecessarily mean to Caesar, and Caesar in turn, is too much of a wuss. The other actors all seem so oblivious to what's happening...like they are all doing their own stand-up routines instead of furthering the story. The script is OK, I think Castle just didn't know how to direct comedy.

On the plus side, though, this film has a very catchy theme song, composed by Vic Mizzy, and a funny sequence where a woman tries talking to a mannequin at a bus stop. It's a slight step up from Castle's "The Spirit is Willing", but that's not saying very much.

This comedy has all the elements of the type of comedies Don Knotts and Jerry Lewis were performing in during the 1960's. An ordinary man gets involved with murder (I forgot to mention Dick Van Dyke). The comedy was tailored around the talents of Ben Blue and Caesar, with the other comics filling time. It's a pleasant comedy, but don't go out of your way.

Busy Body, The (1967)

** (out of 4)

Pretty weak comedy about George Norton (Sid Caesar), a pushover member of the mob who accidentally buries a man in a suit, which just happens to have a million dollars that belongs to the mob. When he's forced to dig the body up it turns out to be missing so this leads to many misadventures as he tries to track down the body and the money. This later day Castle production is pretty much a miss from the first scene to the last but there's a fairly interesting cast that at least keeps you somewhat entertained even if we're not given many laughs. Caesar actually does a pretty good job in his role as his timing was on the mark throughout and I thought he was very believable as someone who would get pushed around and even have their mother constantly picking at them. The supporting cast includes Robert Ryan, Kay Medford, Jan Murray and Anne Baxter playing a woman named Margo Foster Kane. All of them are fairly good in their roles even if the screenplay doesn't do much for them. Richard Pryor appears in his first film role but sadly the director and screenplay doesn't use him too well. The screenplay is a pretty active one as we've got quite a bit more plot that you'd expect from a film like this but unfortunately there's not too much done with it. I'm thinking there's all of this extra plot because we're suppose to be interested in the mystery unfolding but I personally found it to be rather lame. I just didn't think there was enough energy to make one really care about the end results and I'd add that director Castle just didn't seem too interested in bringing any of it to life. I think another problem is that the director struggles with comedy and that trend continues here.

This crime comedy is played strictly for laughs. Sid Caesar stars as the impeccably dressed right-hand man of mob leader Robert Ryan. When one of the 'boys' (Bill Dana) is blown up while barbecuing, Caesar helps his grieving widow (Arlene Golonka) select a suit to bury him in; unfortunately it was his 'traveling suit'.-the one that had a secret lining that held a million dollars from his last 'job' for Ryan.

Ryan plays the stone faced, controlling boss without blinking despite the chaos around him. Caesar is ordered to find the suit by whatever means, including digging up Dana, but when Dana isn't in the grave he's supposed to be in, it becomes a frantic search for Caesar to avoid Ryan and mob members Godfrey Cambridge and Marty Ingels, as well as outsiders pulled into the story like Dom DeLuise, Ben Blue, Jan Murray and his wife Anne Baxter.

Caesar also has to deal with his meddling mother, Kay Medford, and the cop that always seems to be tailing him, Richard Pryor. If that seems like a great cast, you are correct. Although there are some lags that keep it from being really good, it's entertaining and a nice little double twist at the end ties everything up nicely (one is easily predicte, the second, not so much). I wasn't wild about the Vic Mizzy score as it seems too Green Acres, but overall an overlooked 60s film.