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out of 5) Director
Steven Paul
Cast
Jerry Lewis - Wilbur Swain / Caleb Swain
Madeline Kahn - Eliza Swain / Letitia Swain
Marty Feldman - Sylvester
Jerry Lewis - Wilbur Swain / Caleb Swain
Madeline Kahn - Eliza Swain / Letitia Swain
Marty Feldman - Sylvester
John Abbott - Dr. Frankenstein
Jim Backus - The President of the United States
Samuel Fuller - Col. Sharp
Merv Griffin - T.V. Anchorman
Pat Morita - Chinese Ambassador Ah Fong
Jim Backus - The President of the United States
Samuel Fuller - Col. Sharp
Merv Griffin - T.V. Anchorman
Pat Morita - Chinese Ambassador Ah Fong
The nostalgia and marketability of the 1980s and 1990s still linger. I've discussed it before: the kids of the '80s and '90s are today's movie producers and toy marketing executives. The IP that was popular when I was a kid still lurks around in toy aisles, on movie screens, and wherever other merchandise is sold. Sometimes it's like watching geriatrics shuffle around the nursing home trying to convince the youths they're still culturally significant. In reality, by "nursing home," I mean YouTube and podcasts.
Some properties, however, are remembered more for being odd than for actually being worth remembering. They fall into the "Hey, do you remember..." category when it comes to film and television. Videos about these oddities are given the biographical treatment with documentary videos about how they were made, why they were made, and what happened while they were being made. I think a lot of people simply call that stuff "cult."
Well, one '80s movie that nobody seems to remember, even barely, is director Steven Paul's 1984 sci-fi comedy "Slapstick of Another Kind." And yet, here I am writing about it.
This is no small comedy. It's loosely based on author Kurt Vonnegut's 1976 novel, "Slapstick." It stars three giant comedy legends—Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman.
It also features Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Morita, along with the voice acting of none other than Orson Welles.
But who still talks about this movie? Does anyone who lived through the decade even remember hearing about it?
Honestly, I don't know. I don't think it's even considered a "cult classic."
Regardless, if anyone does recall this movie, my heart goes out to them. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I sincerely mean that!
I never heard of it until I saw it pop up on the Hoopla app as I went looking for sci-fi movies to watch and comment on.
In this movie, Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn play the wealthy and beautiful couple Caleb and Letitia Swain, whom the press has dubbed "the most beautiful of all the beautiful people." Well, they're about to welcome a set of twins into the world.
However, their newborn twins, Wilbur and Eliza, are born grotesquely deformed. The doctors think they'll be mentally disabled. Their personal doctor, Dr. Frankenstein (John Abbott), thinks the twins won't survive past a few months.
So, Caleb and Letitia isolate their children inside a mansion with a private staff. However, the twins, also played by Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn, end up living in the mansion for 15 years, acting completely stupid in imitation of the staff's behavior. The staff, by the way, is headed by the butler, Sylvester (Marty Feldman), who certainly fits the position perfectly.
Meanwhile, the People's Republic of China has cut ties with other nations because they've made a scientific breakthrough in shrinking humans.
The Chinese Ambassador, Ah Fong (Pat Morita), thinks these twins are actually the most extraordinarily intelligent geniuses the Earth has ever known. He thinks if they put their big heads together, they could easily solve every problem in the world. How he comes to that conclusion, nobody in the audience knows.
Caleb and Letitia haven't seen their kids in that entire 15 years.
They learn that Wilbur and Eliza have a telepathic connection with each other and are virtually omniscient when they touch heads.
For reasons I can't explain, this makes Letitia worry that her kids will develop an incestuous relationship. How she comes to that outlandish conclusion is beyond me.
So, she and Caleb decide to separate the twins by sending Wilbur to some kind of military academy where scientific experiments are conducted. Eliza will have to stay in the mansion.
Wilbur and Eliza completely break down emotionally without each other.
So, after an awkward and weird song, Eliza goes to find her brother, and the two are soon reunited.
Then their real father, an alien called "The Beaver" (voiced by Orson Welles), shows up. The Beaver determines that Earth just isn't ready for the superhuman intelligence Wilbur and Eliza collectively possess. So, he takes them back to their true home. The end. Oh, that's a spoiler. Sorry!
There's no creative or impressive way to express my thoughts. This is one of the most painfully stupid and pointless movies I have ever seen. I didn't just pick those two words haphazardly. This movie is stupid and pointless.
I struggled to stay focused on the story and follow along. I struggled not to avert my attention over to my phone or to whatever else was around me.
The story is impressively unfocused. I say "impressively" because while I've seen my share of unfocused movies before, I can't compare any unfocused movie I've seen to "Slapstick of Another Kind."
This pointless waste of time tosses the audience one weird and nonsensical idea after another. There's the premise of miniature Chinese people, something that has absolutely nothing to do with the ultimate plot of the story; fears of incest; telepathy; world-saving intelligence; aliens; ugly twins; and a random song from Madeleine Kahn. She sings this depressing ditty in the mansion's attic as terrible stop-motion bats fly around her. Oh, and Marty Feldman runs around without his pants on in too many of his scenes. It's one big mixture of pointless and sometimes uncomfortable plot points. All these tropes could support a strange comedy. I am not above watching strange and surreal comedies. I've seen a few that I enjoyed.
But all these ideas and plot points, used so often haphazardly in "Slapstick of Another Kind," do not give the story any sort of coherency. It's just a big bag of disconnected cheap gags, cheesy jokes, and goofy faces made at the camera. I've seen funnier infomercials.
I know this won't sound right, but while watching this, there was a moment when I hoped that no one would walk in on me as I watched Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn act like toddlers in baby blue and pink onesies for the first 20 or 30 minutes of their initial screen time. It's embarrassing and awkward to watch.
Surely someone in this movie—maybe Jerry Lewis himself—must have thought to himself at some point, "What the hell am I doing here?"
Some properties, however, are remembered more for being odd than for actually being worth remembering. They fall into the "Hey, do you remember..." category when it comes to film and television. Videos about these oddities are given the biographical treatment with documentary videos about how they were made, why they were made, and what happened while they were being made. I think a lot of people simply call that stuff "cult."
Well, one '80s movie that nobody seems to remember, even barely, is director Steven Paul's 1984 sci-fi comedy "Slapstick of Another Kind." And yet, here I am writing about it.
This is no small comedy. It's loosely based on author Kurt Vonnegut's 1976 novel, "Slapstick." It stars three giant comedy legends—Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman.
It also features Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Morita, along with the voice acting of none other than Orson Welles.
But who still talks about this movie? Does anyone who lived through the decade even remember hearing about it?
Honestly, I don't know. I don't think it's even considered a "cult classic."
Regardless, if anyone does recall this movie, my heart goes out to them. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I sincerely mean that!
 |
| Madeline Kahn and Jerry Lewis as Eliza and Wilbur Swain in "Slapstick of Another Kind." |
I never heard of it until I saw it pop up on the Hoopla app as I went looking for sci-fi movies to watch and comment on.
In this movie, Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn play the wealthy and beautiful couple Caleb and Letitia Swain, whom the press has dubbed "the most beautiful of all the beautiful people." Well, they're about to welcome a set of twins into the world.
However, their newborn twins, Wilbur and Eliza, are born grotesquely deformed. The doctors think they'll be mentally disabled. Their personal doctor, Dr. Frankenstein (John Abbott), thinks the twins won't survive past a few months.
So, Caleb and Letitia isolate their children inside a mansion with a private staff. However, the twins, also played by Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn, end up living in the mansion for 15 years, acting completely stupid in imitation of the staff's behavior. The staff, by the way, is headed by the butler, Sylvester (Marty Feldman), who certainly fits the position perfectly.
Meanwhile, the People's Republic of China has cut ties with other nations because they've made a scientific breakthrough in shrinking humans.
The Chinese Ambassador, Ah Fong (Pat Morita), thinks these twins are actually the most extraordinarily intelligent geniuses the Earth has ever known. He thinks if they put their big heads together, they could easily solve every problem in the world. How he comes to that conclusion, nobody in the audience knows.
Caleb and Letitia haven't seen their kids in that entire 15 years.
They learn that Wilbur and Eliza have a telepathic connection with each other and are virtually omniscient when they touch heads.
For reasons I can't explain, this makes Letitia worry that her kids will develop an incestuous relationship. How she comes to that outlandish conclusion is beyond me.
So, she and Caleb decide to separate the twins by sending Wilbur to some kind of military academy where scientific experiments are conducted. Eliza will have to stay in the mansion.
Wilbur and Eliza completely break down emotionally without each other.
So, after an awkward and weird song, Eliza goes to find her brother, and the two are soon reunited.
Then their real father, an alien called "The Beaver" (voiced by Orson Welles), shows up. The Beaver determines that Earth just isn't ready for the superhuman intelligence Wilbur and Eliza collectively possess. So, he takes them back to their true home. The end. Oh, that's a spoiler. Sorry!
There's no creative or impressive way to express my thoughts. This is one of the most painfully stupid and pointless movies I have ever seen. I didn't just pick those two words haphazardly. This movie is stupid and pointless.
I struggled to stay focused on the story and follow along. I struggled not to avert my attention over to my phone or to whatever else was around me.
The story is impressively unfocused. I say "impressively" because while I've seen my share of unfocused movies before, I can't compare any unfocused movie I've seen to "Slapstick of Another Kind."
 |
| Lewis and Kahn as Caleb and Letitia Swain along with Samuel Fuller. |
But all these ideas and plot points, used so often haphazardly in "Slapstick of Another Kind," do not give the story any sort of coherency. It's just a big bag of disconnected cheap gags, cheesy jokes, and goofy faces made at the camera. I've seen funnier infomercials.
I know this won't sound right, but while watching this, there was a moment when I hoped that no one would walk in on me as I watched Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn act like toddlers in baby blue and pink onesies for the first 20 or 30 minutes of their initial screen time. It's embarrassing and awkward to watch.
Surely someone in this movie—maybe Jerry Lewis himself—must have thought to himself at some point, "What the hell am I doing here?"
Speaking of Jerry, back in 2016, the Hollywood Reporter interviewed ten acting legends in their 90s and beyond still alive and working. One of those legends was Jerry Lewis. While the other interviews seemed to have gone well, Jerry's interview is anything but cheerful. I bet if the interviewer from the Hollywood Reporter, Andy Lewis, wanted to really irk Jerry Lewis, he would have thrown caution to the wind and asked him, "'Slapstick of Another Kind." Why?" The interview was already unsalvageable almost as soon as it began. I'll share that interview down below. It's better than any clip from this stain of a film.
The pacing, aside from the comedy, is also awkward. With all this nonsense happening, the movie takes its sweet time establishing its premise. The audience has to sit through 40 minutes of confusing and uncomfortable scenes, such as the opening scene of Jerry Lewis in the hospital waiting room, refusing to look at his deformed children, all played for laughs. I didn't laugh once. Not once! Nothing was funny in this movie. None of the performances. None of the jokes. Nothing.
The pacing, aside from the comedy, is also awkward. With all this nonsense happening, the movie takes its sweet time establishing its premise. The audience has to sit through 40 minutes of confusing and uncomfortable scenes, such as the opening scene of Jerry Lewis in the hospital waiting room, refusing to look at his deformed children, all played for laughs. I didn't laugh once. Not once! Nothing was funny in this movie. None of the performances. None of the jokes. Nothing.
The major turning point of the story occurs when it's revealed that the twins actually have extraordinary intelligence. But the movie doesn't do much with that premise. It's like the writers didn't know what to do with this crucial point in the story.
The entire movie deserves to remain in its place of obscurity. Hopefully, that place of obscurity exists several feet underground...or somewhere up in space. Nobody would find it up there.
The entire movie deserves to remain in its place of obscurity. Hopefully, that place of obscurity exists several feet underground...or somewhere up in space. Nobody would find it up there.
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