Underground Aces

Definitely "buck night" drive in fare but there are well-handled bits that recall Shakespeare, Mack Sennett, Chuck Jones, Rube Goldberg, The Three Stooges, and burlesque sketches ("I'm bearish!" "I'm bullish!" "I'm chicken!"). Frank Gorshin's cigarette shtick is fun as well. Enjoy those elements and ignore the excuse for stringing them together.

I missed the plot basis for years until I rewatched it.

This is Much Ado About Nothing set in a snazzy hotel.

The Sheik is the Prince.

Frank Gorshin as the House Detective is the Sheriff.

We have the woman the Sheik is trying to woo as his bride. Dirk Benedict as his coach. Bunches of misunderstanding. Assorted recreation including Auto Soccer.

I'm not sure who the Commodores owed a favor to, but the ending theme is catchy and pop for the era.

Entertaining fluff, with decent actors. Worth an occasional watch.

This was a minor comedy that I'm pretty sure never made it to theatres. It is basically a Car Wash style comedy only with parking valets instead. It may have sat on the shelf for awhile as the opening theme song is very mid-70s ish. Most of the plot deals with the zany PG and PG-13 slapstick shenanigans of the guys and an obligatory romantic subplot involving a shiek masquerading as one of the valets in an attempt to win over a girl. There's plenty of knockabout humor and stunts. What really makes this film a curio is the cast: Dirk Benedict (The A-Team) Melanie Griffith (who would be a major movie star in a few years) Robert Hegyes (Welcome Back Kotter) Frank Gorshin (the Riddler) Michael Winslow (Police Academy,yes he does get to do his sound effects in this movie as well) and TK Carter (Punky Brewster) It's fascinating to see all of these actors together in one movie, mind you, Gorshin has an awful role. Another odd thing is that the actor playing the shiek, who is far less known than the other cast members, seems to get more screen time than them. The film as a whole isn't much and is fairly predictable. Oddly, the film doesn't turn up very often on TV and few seem to remember it, or even know of it's existence. Though no comedy classic, Underground Aces deserves a better fate.

"Underground Aces" had some good moments but there were some scenes that went on too long and some of the acting in the movie was second rate, fortunately the good moments outweigh the scenes that dragged and there were some good performances by Dirk Benedict, Melanie Griffith (before she became a household name), Robert Hegyes, Jerry Orbach and Frank Gorshin, some of my favorite moments of this movie includes them driving erratically in the hotel parking lot, bowling balls falling out of the back of a car, them reassembling a car at a fast pace, the Blitz night scene and the finale scene (won't give that away), this movie is similar to the better known "Car Wash" but they have parking lot attendants instead of car washing attendants, overall I give this movie a 6/10

"Underground Aces" was released to movie theaters...I saw it as a youngster. Remember, this was back in the day, as cfc_can mentioned, of movies like "Car Wash"...which were a dime a dozen. Comedy ruled the day. I agree, though, that this film can be a guilty pleasure, just like "The Gumball Rally." (Another obscure 1976 film.) I went to see "Underground Aces" because I loved "Battlestar Galactica." Worth noting is "Underground Aces" director Robert Butler, who cut his teeth on many a Disney film and television show. Another star of note (and a staple of television) in an early film role (after her appearance in "1941") is Audrey Landers.