The Magic Christian - the movie that was on (last night/29th aug) BBC2

I only saw the boxing match and Milligan-as-traffic-warden bit. Indulgent satirical whimsy with Peter Sellers as Ringo Starr's dad. Wish I'd stayed with it but the eyelids were sagging.

total bobbins would be my choice though there was the odd moment where i laughed out loud, and enjoyed raquel welch scene.

yes it was part of mertons night in.

Quite a few years later, saw the film, and thought "Ah they obviously thought it was a Religious film..."

Yul was good.

I do not want to see footage of Paul Merton pretending to chortle at his choices.

I do not want to see Paul Merton selecting footage of his own comedy as examples of brilliant timeless comedy, whether or not it is brilliant and timeless.

The Magic Christian was a great disappointment. It must have been very easy to write in the late sixties, or rather to have writing accepted, when plots were not required to make sense and places were not required to retain their basic physical properties. I gave up when my eyelids were sagging (Hattie Jaques had just got off a train) and it occured to me that I had seen pretty much the same thing several times already. Perhaps it got better.

On the plus side, I had forgotten all about liking The Beatles just because they were funny.

On the whole, I wish I had watched Roger Daltrey on the other side.

e.g. money floating in cesspool, right at the end.

Essentially, though, it was a bad rewrite of Bedazzled, which in itself could have been better.

I saw this last night. It was as bad as most hippie propaganda - imagine no possessions while you're sitting in a big mansion. I couldn't tell if it was nieve or just making cash off of nieve hippes. A generally dishonest movie, I thought.

Ringo was good tho, reminded me of a big stupid mongrel dog that's always pleased to see you.

I suppose what it boils down to is that I don't enjoy watching cunts being cuntish to cunts.

lol ilx

I've never read the book; the film was such an ordeal.

Ha, can't believe pretty much nobody on this thread likes it. I think it's fucking fantastic.

In fairness, I'll mention that I hate virtually all over-the-top absurdist comedy I've seen from the same era--there's a whole bunch of like-minded American films from that time. I just don't have a feel for that tone.

I saw it since starting this thread, liked it a lot.

Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with Bedazzled.

I just remember what Grand Guy got folks to jump into, recalled fairly often in this American election year.

i liked this film just fine when i saw it. book's a classic too.

Haven't seen it in years but, some dated goofiness aside, I really liked it back in the day. Especially just generally like the idea of it, which I've addressed a number of times during this election season. Book is quite good (as I recall, again).

bizarre to see it described upthread as "hippie propaganda," seems like a pretty uh inaccurate description of terry southern's sensibility

Especially just generally like the idea of it, which I've addressed a number of times during this election season.

Which is what prompted me to watch it (specifically, its prominence in a piece Frank Rich wrote about Trump a few months ago) in the first place. I strongly suspect the book is better than the film.

Film rather stinks, nearly belongs on a trash bill w/ Casino Royale and Skidoo. It has *maybe* two funny scenes (probably the one w/ Cleese).

Book is very good; it's a spoof of AMERICAN materialism and is set in NYC.