Busy Body, The (1967)
** (out of 4)
Pretty weak comedy about George Norton (Sid Caesar), a pushover member of the mob who accidentally buries a man in a suit, which just happens to have a million dollars that belongs to the mob. When he's forced to dig the body up it turns out to be missing so this leads to many misadventures as he tries to track down the body and the money. This later day Castle production is pretty much a miss from the first scene to the last but there's a fairly interesting cast that at least keeps you somewhat entertained even if we're not given many laughs. Caesar actually does a pretty good job in his role as his timing was on the mark throughout and I thought he was very believable as someone who would get pushed around and even have their mother constantly picking at them. The supporting cast includes Robert Ryan, Kay Medford, Jan Murray and Anne Baxter playing a woman named Margo Foster Kane. All of them are fairly good in their roles even if the screenplay doesn't do much for them. Richard Pryor appears in his first film role but sadly the director and screenplay doesn't use him too well. The screenplay is a pretty active one as we've got quite a bit more plot that you'd expect from a film like this but unfortunately there's not too much done with it. I'm thinking there's all of this extra plot because we're suppose to be interested in the mystery unfolding but I personally found it to be rather lame. I just didn't think there was enough energy to make one really care about the end results and I'd add that director Castle just didn't seem too interested in bringing any of it to life. I think another problem is that the director struggles with comedy and that trend continues here.
** (out of 4)
Pretty weak comedy about George Norton (Sid Caesar), a pushover member of the mob who accidentally buries a man in a suit, which just happens to have a million dollars that belongs to the mob. When he's forced to dig the body up it turns out to be missing so this leads to many misadventures as he tries to track down the body and the money. This later day Castle production is pretty much a miss from the first scene to the last but there's a fairly interesting cast that at least keeps you somewhat entertained even if we're not given many laughs. Caesar actually does a pretty good job in his role as his timing was on the mark throughout and I thought he was very believable as someone who would get pushed around and even have their mother constantly picking at them. The supporting cast includes Robert Ryan, Kay Medford, Jan Murray and Anne Baxter playing a woman named Margo Foster Kane. All of them are fairly good in their roles even if the screenplay doesn't do much for them. Richard Pryor appears in his first film role but sadly the director and screenplay doesn't use him too well. The screenplay is a pretty active one as we've got quite a bit more plot that you'd expect from a film like this but unfortunately there's not too much done with it. I'm thinking there's all of this extra plot because we're suppose to be interested in the mystery unfolding but I personally found it to be rather lame. I just didn't think there was enough energy to make one really care about the end results and I'd add that director Castle just didn't seem too interested in bringing any of it to life. I think another problem is that the director struggles with comedy and that trend continues here.