The Maltese Bippy (1969)

Strictly average movie

Beautiful, moving film.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Blistering performances.

Before I watched this on YouTube, I saw segments on the site of the only previous movie that starred the comedy team of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin-Once Upon a Horse from 1958. What I saw there wasn't very funny though I'll wait until I've seen the whole thing before I review it here. This second one-which they made 11 years later-is mostly lame to the point that I was ready to give this one star...until the scene in which the Julie Newmar character convinces Rowan that she can turn into a dog before a dog shows up before Dan comes back. The ending scene involving lots of shooting was also pretty amusing. Otherwise, I was bemused by how lame most of the punchlines were. Maybe it should have had some cameos from the co-stars of their "Laugh-In" TV show from that time like Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, or Goldie Hawn who herself was making her first starring picture called Cactus Flower during this time. Verdict: The Maltese Bippy is nice to look at, but nothing worth talking about otherwise.

Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In" was one of the cultural icons of the late 1960s, the "don't-miss" show if you wanted to be considered cool at the water cooler (or the playground, in my case). I never saw this movie when it was released. My parents would have found it scandalous. These days, it's much tamer than the majority of prime-time comedy shows, even those for "family viewing." It opens with a funny stand-up routine by Dan and Dick, commenting on the credit roll. This is the closest the movie gets to capturing the spirit of the TV show, and R&M are the ONLY cast members from the series to appear. So it's not really a "Laugh-In" movie; as others have pointed out, it's more like an Abbott and Costello monster film, or a racy episode of "Scooby-Doo." The plot is paper-thin, but that's OK, because the screen is always brimming with 60s goodness, especially in the forms of Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar. How can you miss with character actors like Mildred Natwick, Fritz Weaver, David Hurst, Dana Elcar, and 60s TV staples Leon Askin (Hogan's Heroes) and Robert Reed (Brady Bunch)? The ending has a Pythonic twist to it (a few years before 'Holy Grail'), with a funny version of the "who shot the gun" film cliché.All in all, this is probably a film that only veterans of the 60s will enjoy. It's mindless, but an entertaining way to spend an evening.

I SO wanted to like this one, since i LOVED Laugh In, but the script was SO weak. None of the jokes are funny, but at least we get to see some familiar faces: Rowan & Martin, with Leon Askin (General Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes), Robert Reed, from Brady Bunch, is the Lieutenant, and the fantabulous Catwoman Julie Newmar. So we go around the mulberry bush a few times, everyone gets a few one liners, and it ends. The funniest part of the whole movie is the last two minutes, but you'll have to watch it for yourself. Looks like Martin went on to direct a whole lot of TV, after the Laugh In days. This film directed by Norman Panama, who actually had directed many a comedy, but didn't really shine on this one. Maybe they lacked the budget for big names, or screenwriters to jazz up the script. As of today, it only rates a 4 out of 10 stars.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, famous TV cut-ups from the then-current hit show "Laugh-In", go a curiously different route for their second theatrical film as a team (the first was "Once Upon a Horse" from 1958). In a weak spoof of monster movies, Martin plays the landlord of a suburban boarding house who believes he's a werewolf and eternally-tanned Rowan is a moocher who makes stag films. Carol Lynley is also around as a college student-turned-amateur detective, Mildred Natwick is the housemother, and Robert Reed sniffs about sourly as a police lieutenant. The worst, however, is saved for former-Catwoman Julie Newmar playing the bloodthirsty daughter of a scary Count (with an even-scarier accent). Newmar, looking tired, seems to have wandered over from the old "Munsters" set--or perhaps the latest Don Knotts picture. Odd that two TV swingers would choose to plod through this unfunny comedy like a couple of square schnooks, and the phony sets and cheap backlot look gives the entire enterprise a depressed spirit. 1969 was not a good year for Carol Lynley (she also starred in the clinker "Once You Kiss a Stranger..." around this time), but at least Reed had "The Brady Bunch" to fall back on! NO STARS from ****