Hairy wallets were the box office results of this starry but flat caper comedy that is delightful to look at but thanks to a tepid script the audience cold. You'd think with a cast including Elliott Gould, James Caan, Michael Caine and Diane Keaton that this film would have been a smash Hit. But obviously word-of-mouth got around and the audience, having felt stung several times with big cast/big budget comedies they could afford to miss this one. It's another period game supposedly written to be funny that is nice to look at with its gaudy sets but ultimately a visit to dullsville.
On-screen, the cast looks like it's having a blast, perhaps unaware of the big turkey that they are in. It wasn't until afterwards when the final results were seen that they all realized that it's just an empty-headed retread caper comedies that they've seen dozens of times and not nearly as good. It's hard to believe that any third-rate burlesque or vaudeville house would hire the wretched singing and dancing entertainers that Gould and Caan play here, so when the two men end up in jail for theft, it's the movie audience that's applauding, not only the minimal audience in the theater within the film.
In his initial conversation with the two, sophisticated criminal mastermind Caine should have been instantly aware of the dim light bulbs he was talking to. In fact, there doesn't seem to be an intelligent character in the film until suffragette reporter Diane Keaton shows up, and fortunately, this is a performance without her usual tics. The character actors who have smaller roles also fared better, with Charles Durning, Jack Gilford, Bert Remsen and Burt Young all delivering their usual dependable performances. This is the type of bad comedy that critics loved tearing apart with bad puns, and as a result, hardly anybody went to see it which is why it is basically forgotten today.
On-screen, the cast looks like it's having a blast, perhaps unaware of the big turkey that they are in. It wasn't until afterwards when the final results were seen that they all realized that it's just an empty-headed retread caper comedies that they've seen dozens of times and not nearly as good. It's hard to believe that any third-rate burlesque or vaudeville house would hire the wretched singing and dancing entertainers that Gould and Caan play here, so when the two men end up in jail for theft, it's the movie audience that's applauding, not only the minimal audience in the theater within the film.
In his initial conversation with the two, sophisticated criminal mastermind Caine should have been instantly aware of the dim light bulbs he was talking to. In fact, there doesn't seem to be an intelligent character in the film until suffragette reporter Diane Keaton shows up, and fortunately, this is a performance without her usual tics. The character actors who have smaller roles also fared better, with Charles Durning, Jack Gilford, Bert Remsen and Burt Young all delivering their usual dependable performances. This is the type of bad comedy that critics loved tearing apart with bad puns, and as a result, hardly anybody went to see it which is why it is basically forgotten today.