MovieChat Forums > A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) Discussion > Funny thing and Python, etc...

Funny thing and Python, etc...

posted 18 years ago by jcole-6
6 replies | jump to latest

I never saw "A Funny Thing..." all the way through and rented it tonight. Just as you can hear Chuck Berry in the Stones I was struck at how much of "A Funny Thing..." reminded me of Monty Python, in particular "Holy Grail". I saw Spamalot this past Spring on Broadway, so things I have come full circle. Interesting how the bloodlines flow in art over time.

I've never heard Eric Idle or any other Pythons specifically mention "A Funny Thing...", but I'd find it hard to believe they didn't take it in and incorporate it, consciously or not.

Also worth noting...

Richard Lester directed "A Funny Thing...", he of "A Hard Day's Night" (and the excellent "Three Musketeers" and some other interesting stuff), and Python of course had relations with The Beatles over the years.

Larry Gelbart (Mash, Your Show of Shows) was one of the writers on "A Funny Thing...", and Nicholas Roeg was Director of Photography.

A gem, and a treasure of a time capsule.

[–] Indie_Mod 18 years ago

I don't know if I would compare A Funny Thing and Python so closely together, but there are some things that match.

I always saw A Funny Thing resembling "Rowen and Martin's Laugh-In", "The Monkees" and "A Hard Days Night". In this era, humor with this sort of look, a lot of energy, unusual camera angles, random eccentricity was common. This movie was made in 1966 which was kind of the hype of this humor.

Python to me was all it's own.

Good eye though.

[–] OeditpusRex 17 years ago

I just saw the play tonight, and I was thinking the same thing. Every time the virgin couldn't count, I thought, "One... two... FIVE!"

[–] DD-931 17 years ago

Since Richard Lester had a huge influence on British comedy in the mid-60s (just before Python happened), it would be very hard to believe the members of Python hadn't all seen this movie and been influenced by it on some level. If you check out the cast of this film, you'll notice that besides some of the broadway veterans, almost every other actor (including Michael Crawford, long before he conquered Broadway) is British. In fact, there is even a future Dr. Who in the cast. See if you can find him.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the funniest film version of a musical comedy ever made. Precisely because it breaks out of stage musical conventions while bringing the best parts of it along for the ride. For instance,the asides to the audience by Mostel - and others - are brilliantly transferred to film, mainly because Lester loved using that particular theatrical trick in most of his films.

[–] patronus06 16 years ago

It's kind of like Mel Brooks meets Python.

[–] DD-931 16 years ago

Well put.

[–] bobgallico 16 years ago

Correct- The Pre-Who Jon Pertwee, amongst a stellar cast of British comedy actors.