Wow is this bad. New Jersey caterer Jackie Gleason and wife Estelle Parsons, along with their daughter, have their plan hijacked & get caught behind the Iron Curtain in the country of Vulgaria. Coming to their aid is nincompoop junior attaché Ted Bessell as the family tries to outwit commie hardliner Michael Constantine. Directed without a shred of style by TV-funny-man Howard Morris, this film, based on the hit Broadway play by Woody Allen, is almost completely devoid of any laughs. It's a curiosity from a bygone era that has not aged well at all. Gleason is stranded here, barking at everyone and acting like a boob, while Parsons, ever the ham, mines humor by over sharing ("meet my daughter, she was a cesarean") and by barking back at Gleason. Joan Delaney plays the couple's unusually level- headed daughter and character actors like Howard St. John, Avery Schreiber and Richard Libertini offer up brief bits. A dreadful movie.
Review of Don't Drink the Water
