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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"!.

Certainly with a cast of this caliber, you expect much, much more. Maybe the problem is with the uninspired directing, awkward screenplay, thin story line and some very choppy editing. Maybe all the money was spent on the stars' salaries giving it a low, low production budget feel. Maybe Burton and Taylor should have quit acting together after 'Virginia Woolf.' But something sure went wrong with this project.

The cassette version I watched recently was just under 102 minutes of running time, but the cassette itself was labeled 108 minutes. Makes you wonder what was left out. I saw this film when it originally played in 1972 and could see no differences between that version and the cassette. So who knows what went on here. Maybe it was just meant to be a quickie, 'What the hell. Let's make it anyway.' turkey.

This amazingly bizarre film directed by Peter Ustinov has been largely forgotten.At the time it was released, it made quite a sensation because it featured that 'star couple' known as 'Burtonandtaylor' in it. If Burtonandtaylor agreed to appear in something, money was no object, as they were super-bankable. My wife and I knew Peter Ustinov extremely well about this time. He was one of the wittiest and most amusing men we ever knew, and was never pompous or self-important. It was possible to sit spellbound for hours just listening to his stories and his wonderful jokes, especially in private, as we often did. But Peter had a deeply serious side, and wanted to make serious films, such as for instance BILLY BUDD (1962), from the Hermann Melville story, and this one, which is a version of the Faust theme. Peter was a successful playwright and a highly intellectual, cosmopolitan, and profound person. He did not always pull off his efforts at profundity, however. This film is chilling and fascinating, and of course has moments of exquisite humour and satire, but it does not really work somehow. Richard Burton plays a very calm and quiet madman who sits in a solitary confinement cell in a lunatic asylum wrapped in a straight-jacket. In fact, he himself affects the straight-jacket as a favourite outfit, which he can whip off anytime he pleases because it is never fastened. His steely blue eyes look straight through you as he asks you to 'let me out'. All you have to do is sell your soul to him. So Beau Bridges, who works in the asylum, does just that, because Burton, who is really a Satan figure, promises to 'make you rich and strong, strong and rich'. And he does. Bridges has taken up with a floozy waitress played by Elizabeth Taylor, who is hilarious in such roles, and throws herself about with total abandon, and to great effect. There is no questioning the fact that Burtonandtaylor are such old pros! So Bridges and Taylor get richer and richer and richer with Burton as their financial adviser, they move around the world changing identities, and taking over more and more big corporations. Bridges and Taylor both play total idiots, and Burton puts up with them because he knows he will get their souls, the silly fools. Burton is eerily, almost terrifyingly, convincing. I think perhaps the script was one of the problems. The story just does not really work, despite the hair-raising performances. The music is very bad, which is strange considering that Peter was knowledgeable about classical music and should have had better taste. Peter did have a problem concentrating and focusing, I must say, as it was always tempting for him to stop and tell another funny story. And I think perhaps he knew Burtonandtaylor at the personal level too well. The film is a little bit too much of a 'wouldn't it be fun if we did it?' type of project, and with Burtonandtaylor starring, there was just no struggle involved, and there cannot have been enough rewrites, and probably not many retakes either. Peter was a man of such immense talent and yet he did not always enter top gear, or at least he did always remain there. Too many stoplights, too many jokes. But the film is well worth seeing and is phenomenal in certain ways. Peter himself plays the doctor and is, as usual, very good indeed.

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?