Chu Chu and the Philly Flash

OMG! I've been looking for this movie for years. I don't think it even got a DVD release. I'm watching on YouTube. I saw it first on HBO about the time it was released. It's a cute story about a community of underdogs, two in particular, trying to get by in life. It speaks volumes to anyone who has been dealt a low blow in life. The comedic acting is fist rate and the story, although familiar, is touching. I kind of get the critic reviews. It takes a special personality type to appreciate this kind of movie.

Alan Arkin is a bum, surrounded by characters crazier than himself, who has finally dried out and has the chance to play minor league ball. (He was known as the "Philly Flash" when he was a major league pitcher, before becoming a major drunk.) The only catch is, he's got to get there (Minnesota as I recall) himself. So he does all the things street people do, wash car windshields, do small errands, sell bogus crap to people to get the bus ticket money. He has friends and colleagues, but not the kind that will finance him (Hey,we're talking $40 here). So he's trying to earn the bus ticket money.

Enter, Chu Chu (Carol Burnett) a street performer who teaches music to the desperately untalented from her one room apartment and does a very funny one woman band show for spare change on the street. When they meet, its love at first sight, okay, maybe second sight. Although the main comedy instrument is the discovery of secret government documents, which the Flash informs Chu Chu are worth "fifty bucks, maybe seventy five", this movie is about the love between two hapless characters who's talents aren't enough for fame and fortune, but gives them the hope that they can have a better life than the ones they have.

What makes this film really work is that their best friends sitting in the bus depot basically recalling the events of the last few days while waiting for their friends to arrive. If Chu Chu and the Flash are life's losers, then Charlie (played by Adam Arkin) and Theresa are a few rungs below that. Everyone should have friends as loyal and selfless as these two.

Carol Burnett is so talented! She can be dramatic, silly, downright hilarious. I am a huge fan of Carol's 70's variety show. However, this movie is a terrible load of crap. You won't believe how bad this is unless you have seen it. Burnett is street entertainer "Chu Chu" (a "Charo" imitation that Burnett got loads of laughs for on her television show, but it is strangely unfunny in this debacle.) Chu Chu meets up with a homeless bum, (Alan Arkin), who is known on the streets as the "Philly Flash" because he was once a professional baseball player. Somehow, these two stumble upon a brief case that contains secret government documents...and, well, I can't write anymore. This has to be seen to be believed.

I was born in 1970, and this movie came out in 1981. I had grown up during the 1970s thoroughly enjoying the old "Carol Burnette Show," so I pestered by mother to take me to see it at the old AMC Pruneyard theater in Campbell, California (now the site of the Camera 7 Cinemas). Man, was I ever disappointed! Its been nearly 26 years since I've seen this film, and I have no desire to repeat the experience. I can't remember there being anything funny about it, or being moved to laugh in any way, shape, or form. The script was an implausible mess of a story that I never gave a damn about. As interesting side notes, however, this movie must have been one of the first feature films to have Danny Glover and Danny Aiello in the cast. It also took place in San Francisco, which was probably the only thing about it I liked (having grown up in the Bay Area, I enjoy seeing places that look familiar on screen). Skip it!

Must be a good kids film. In the mid-80's I watched this CBS broadcast VHS recording several times. For some reason this captivated me. Perhaps because Arkin and Burnett are treasures to watch. I wanted to see this again, but where is it??? It looks like it only had one limited VHS release, and is not even VOD on Warner archives or streaming, nor is it ever mentioned. I believe this received widespread undeserved 1 star ratings in 1981. This deserves more. Maybe it won't hold up, viewing as an adult. I'd like to find this though.