It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975)

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Starring: Anthony Newley, Stephanie Powers, Isaac Hayes
Genre: Comedy (allegedly)
Year: 1975
My rating: 
Amazon.com page

Absolutely Godawful. To get you into the right frame of mind, IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME (1975) is a movie where, when being squirted with a mellow stream of water, nobody has the sense to simply take one step to the left or right to get out of the way. They just stand there flapping their lips, looking shocked while the good guys laugh up a storm.

Always be wary when a movie or book contains a "signal from Fred". When it exists right there in the title, you know you're in for trouble. The movie title should not be the film's primary excuse.

And yet, not only do I have that objection to the title (surely no part of this seemed like a good idea), I'm not even sure what it refers to at the story level. What plot point is supposed to have seemed like a good idea? The kidnapping idea? I'm baffled at what else it could mean, but even that doesn't fit.

I'm getting ahead of myself. The story concerns Anthony Newley as an unappealing slacker and his generic ex-wife, played by Stephanie Powers. The Digiview version of this DVD release erroneously states that Newley tries "to have Powers get involved with a local politician". This is false. Clearly whoever wrote it wasn't paying much attention to the film (I can't blame them). Newley's motivation is, in fact, to get her as far away as possible from the politician (and also away from her current husband).

Indeed, the early comedic set pieces involve Newley's sabotage of the budding romance. This includes some "hilarious" hijinks involving Newley bringing a bunch of far-out party-animals to a stuffy formal event (after first slipping laxatives into the food, naturally), and later setting a skunk loose in a cabin. Yes, we aren't talking about the most original gags here. The sad part is they aren't even executed well. It's tired comedy pulled off rather poorly. It has the added indignity of not making any logical sense either. How the hell do you pull someone's suit pants completely off without his noticing? And what pharmaceutical company sells their laxative products in a container that freaking huge? If you need to buy your laxatives by the gallon, there's something seriously wrong with your diet.

The incidental music has been fiercely criticized for sounding absolutely over the top and distracting. It's bad enough to have unfunny jokes thrown at you, but do you really want to hear loud, obnoxious musical cues blasting out of your speakers to remind you that you're supposed to be laughing? I'm glad I'm too much of a luddite to own a high-performance surround-sound system; I'd have been deafened. Between the goofy trombone effects to the electronic farting noises, I could only dream of dignified silence

To distract me from the mind-numbing tedium, I started playing a little game. A plot point involves an upper class twit running for mayor, so I tried to figure out what city it was. We're never told directly; I looked for clues. First of all, Newley has a distinct London cockney accent. On the other hand, Powers speaks with a generic California/Hollywood accent. Her husband attempts a Noo Yawk accent. Several of the characters near the start of the film employ Northeastern US accents (think Connecticut or Massachusetts).

So, where is this movie set? With this mixture of accents, I was stumped. But then a major clue emerged. The politician's license plate is visible in one shot. And the plate reads... Ontario.

Er, well, I'm sure that clears things up.

So, is this guy planning to run for mayor of Toronto? Or were the visible Ontario tags merely a mistake that should never have appeared on film?

Am I putting more thought into the specifics of the movie's fictional setting than the filmmakers did? Probably.

The script has a lot of flaws and unexplained moments. Why, for example, does Newley hate that dog? Why is Power's husband so intent on knocking down his mother-in-law's house? (We aren't even given a greedy reason why he might wish to do so. There's no oil on the land. No big strip mall that needs building on her lot. He's apparently just doing it because he's evil.)

Multiple companies have released this film on DVD, and all of them capitalize on the fact that beloved comedian John Candy has a part in this film. Despite the impression you may get from the packaging, do not buy this movie on the understanding that Candy has a large role. He does not. This film is 91 minutes; Candy's character doesn't even show up until minute 55. He has very few lines.

There are few rays of hope. Isaac Hayes -- in the "best friend" role -- seems to have enjoyed himself. Unfortunately, while this does make the film a little more entertaining, watching someone else enjoying himself isn't quite as much fun as actually enjoying yourself. I could appreciate that Hayes was having fun. I just wish I'd been able to do the same.

Oh, and Stephanie Powers' mother is fun. It took me a little while to figure out who she is. But once I did, I had to laugh (one of the few laughs the picture provides). It's Yvonne de Carlo -- TV's Lily Munster. She's not just amusing for kitsch value; she's actually quite funny.

Yeah, this movie would be vastly improved by cutting out everything except Isaac Hayes' sculpturing scenes and the sequences of Lily Munster taking potshots at a lawyer with a shotgun. This really is a film that only its mother could love and reinforces the rule that there's nothing worse than a comedy that isn't funny. Oh, and the Digiview version clips off a few seconds of the opening animation, but I'm not going to complain about having less of this movie to see.