This stinks.
Oh, it starts out well with the boys sneaking onto the MGM lot and as the credits roll, you're wondering how they got all those stars to sign on.... Well, they didn't. The one "star" that shows (for an unfunny walk-on) on the day R & M stood on an empty MGM stage reading the script -- with canned laughter added later -- is Herb Alpert.
Everyone else -- with a few exceptions -- appears in 2-second clips from previous savings bond PSAs, all jammed in near the end of this mess. The exceptions are also in clips: Martin applies lip music to Doris Day from one 2 films they did together (beats me what this has to do with buying bonds); Barbara McNair in a USO clip, singing to (I guess) US troops in Vietnam; Andy Griffith & Don Knotts (appearing separately) in brief clips maybe directly connected to this (or not) and then there's a bizarre, truncated clip of the Young Americans singing......inserted to placate Nixon? (Now THAT's funny.)
Worse than all of above: the PSA's message gets lost! Another reviewer here says R & M are plugging WAR bonds. Not for Vietnam in 1968, they weren't. It's SAVINGS bonds and the new savings notes (AKA freedom shares, issued from May 1967 to October 1970). But because Paul Keyes' script rigidly requires the boys stick to their act -- that this come off as another version of their show -- Martin's jokes get in the way of Rowan's explanations. R & M were hot back in '68; I can see why the government jumped at the chance for them to do this PSA. But Keyes' script puts "entertainment" (for lack of a better word) ahead of the message. This thing probably created more protesters than buyers.
Yes, I'm viewing this 40 years later. But I was a teen back then and thought R & M were very funny (still do today). This is NOT.
Oh, it starts out well with the boys sneaking onto the MGM lot and as the credits roll, you're wondering how they got all those stars to sign on.... Well, they didn't. The one "star" that shows (for an unfunny walk-on) on the day R & M stood on an empty MGM stage reading the script -- with canned laughter added later -- is Herb Alpert.
Everyone else -- with a few exceptions -- appears in 2-second clips from previous savings bond PSAs, all jammed in near the end of this mess. The exceptions are also in clips: Martin applies lip music to Doris Day from one 2 films they did together (beats me what this has to do with buying bonds); Barbara McNair in a USO clip, singing to (I guess) US troops in Vietnam; Andy Griffith & Don Knotts (appearing separately) in brief clips maybe directly connected to this (or not) and then there's a bizarre, truncated clip of the Young Americans singing......inserted to placate Nixon? (Now THAT's funny.)
Worse than all of above: the PSA's message gets lost! Another reviewer here says R & M are plugging WAR bonds. Not for Vietnam in 1968, they weren't. It's SAVINGS bonds and the new savings notes (AKA freedom shares, issued from May 1967 to October 1970). But because Paul Keyes' script rigidly requires the boys stick to their act -- that this come off as another version of their show -- Martin's jokes get in the way of Rowan's explanations. R & M were hot back in '68; I can see why the government jumped at the chance for them to do this PSA. But Keyes' script puts "entertainment" (for lack of a better word) ahead of the message. This thing probably created more protesters than buyers.
Yes, I'm viewing this 40 years later. But I was a teen back then and thought R & M were very funny (still do today). This is NOT.