Unknow movie for the Unknown Comic
My review was written in July 1989 after watching the movie on IVE video cassette.
"Up Your Alley" is an engaging shoestring production in which numerous comedians play it straight in limning the plight of homeless street people. Pic had a brief theatrical run in Miami in April ahead of video release.
The brainchild of erstwhile bag-over-head "Unknown Comic" Murray Langston, pic is a sweet tale of marginals, investigated by undercover reporter Linda Blair, who fakes being one of them. The largely unsung Czech director in Hollywood, Hugo Haas, made similar pics, "Paradise Alley" and "Edge of Hell", 30 years earlier.
Some extraneous suspense is introduced in a subplot of a mad killer preying on L. A. bums, but it works in its character study of oddball types. Langston scores as the taciturn, sometimes drunken beggar whose demeanor is softened by the friendship of a big, slow-witted guy fresht to the streets (Bob Zany), as well as a platonic romance with Blair.
Blair has a nice change of pace from her horror assignments. Various standup comics, including Langston, inject needed comic relief with their crazy routines, which fit the characters.
"Up Your Alley" is an engaging shoestring production in which numerous comedians play it straight in limning the plight of homeless street people. Pic had a brief theatrical run in Miami in April ahead of video release.
The brainchild of erstwhile bag-over-head "Unknown Comic" Murray Langston, pic is a sweet tale of marginals, investigated by undercover reporter Linda Blair, who fakes being one of them. The largely unsung Czech director in Hollywood, Hugo Haas, made similar pics, "Paradise Alley" and "Edge of Hell", 30 years earlier.
Some extraneous suspense is introduced in a subplot of a mad killer preying on L. A. bums, but it works in its character study of oddball types. Langston scores as the taciturn, sometimes drunken beggar whose demeanor is softened by the friendship of a big, slow-witted guy fresht to the streets (Bob Zany), as well as a platonic romance with Blair.
Blair has a nice change of pace from her horror assignments. Various standup comics, including Langston, inject needed comic relief with their crazy routines, which fit the characters.
- lor_
- Apr 12, 2023