The Maltese Bippy

So what's a Bippy? Well if your old enough to remember Rowan and Martins Laugh-In you'd know. This film actually goes no where but does feature the gorgeous Julie Newmar. It's terribly dated like Laugh-In but in a weird sort of way it's entertaining.

I SO wanted to like this one, since i LOVED Laugh In, but the script was SO weak. None of the jokes are funny, but at least we get to see some familiar faces: Rowan & Martin, with Leon Askin (General Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes), Robert Reed, from Brady Bunch, is the Lieutenant, and the fantabulous Catwoman Julie Newmar. So we go around the mulberry bush a few times, everyone gets a few one liners, and it ends. The funniest part of the whole movie is the last two minutes, but you'll have to watch it for yourself. Looks like Martin went on to direct a whole lot of TV, after the Laugh In days. This film directed by Norman Panama, who actually had directed many a comedy, but didn't really shine on this one. Maybe they lacked the budget for big names, or screenwriters to jazz up the script. As of today, it only rates a 4 out of 10 stars.

Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In" was one of the cultural icons of the late 1960s, the "don't-miss" show if you wanted to be considered cool at the water cooler (or the playground, in my case). I never saw this movie when it was released. My parents would have found it scandalous. These days, it's much tamer than the majority of prime-time comedy shows, even those for "family viewing." It opens with a funny stand-up routine by Dan and Dick, commenting on the credit roll. This is the closest the movie gets to capturing the spirit of the TV show, and R&M are the ONLY cast members from the series to appear. So it's not really a "Laugh-In" movie; as others have pointed out, it's more like an Abbott and Costello monster film, or a racy episode of "Scooby-Doo." The plot is paper-thin, but that's OK, because the screen is always brimming with 60s goodness, especially in the forms of Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar. How can you miss with character actors like Mildred Natwick, Fritz Weaver, David Hurst, Dana Elcar, and 60s TV staples Leon Askin (Hogan's Heroes) and Robert Reed (Brady Bunch)? The ending has a Pythonic twist to it (a few years before 'Holy Grail'), with a funny version of the "who shot the gun" film cliché.

All in all, this is probably a film that only veterans of the 60s will enjoy. It's mindless, but an entertaining way to spend an evening.

If you're like me and like the crazy comedies of the 60's, then it would be worth checking out this one. The chemistry of Dan Rowan (1922-1987) and Dick Martin (1922-date) was fantastic and at times was sorely needed to carry this film which starts out slow, but picks up laughs as it goes. The story involves Ernest Gray (Dick Martin) buying a house in Flushing, Queens, New York. There's a murder in the neighborhood, wacky neighbors who act like vampires, and it turns out everybody's looking for $2 Million worth of diamonds left in the house by the previous owner. By the end of the movie, just about everyone is dead, and in wacky '60's style, Rowan and Martin actually argue on camera as to how the movie should finish. The hysterical ending, along with beauties Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar, make this otherwise lame comedy bearable.

Good for a rainy Saturday Afternoon!

Recommended from the '60's: Peter Sellers in: I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Party (1968), The Magic Christian (1969).

This curious filmic transplant of Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In" is notable for being the first movie I've ever seen in a movie theater and the first one I recall seeing at all. I was five years old and my family was traveling in a rinkydink town in Minnesota (Duluth, if you're interested) and it was on the same day as Neil Armstrong and company's landing on the moon. The only scene I remember from the original viewing was the one in which Dan Rowan is under the impression that the foxy vampiress can transmogrify into a tiger and, consequently, acts strangely intimate with the tiger. A most strange movie, like the TV show, and worth seeing for sixties psychedelia buffs.