Those Fantastic Flying Fools

source: Those Fantastic Flying Fools

1967's "Those Fantastic Flying Fools" harkens back to Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon," a rare big budget extravaganza from the normally conservative producer Harry Alan Towers, best remembered for reviving Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu in a 5 picture series starring Christopher Lee. Even with a top cast and solid director at the helm (Don Sharp), it refuses to Blast Off (original shooting title), and fails to even live up to the similar title "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines." Sharp delivered excellent work for Hammer ("The Kiss of the Vampire," "Rasputin - The Mad Monk") and Lippert ("Witchcraft" with Lon Chaney, "Curse of the Fly"), but working from a Towers script conceived under his usual Peter Welbeck pseudonym presents a series of blackout sketches designed to amuse rather than an actual voyage into space. Burl Ives as Phineas T. Barnum proves there's a sucker born every minute, but here it's the viewer watching every self involved character connive to discern any personal benefit from a fruitless attempt to launch a single occupant aboard a ship to the moon and back. Worst of all for a patient audience, liftoff takes place with less than 5 minutes remaining, defiantly not going out with a bang. Terry-Thomas and Dennis Price can be counted on for lively performances, but it's really an uphill battle for the entire wasted cast.

The acting in this movie is good, but the story could have been better. The general plot was a good one, but was pulled off poorly, the writers must have been sniffing something (like some of the professors did in the movie[hehe]) to not revise and edit this more. This was a really enjoyable movie to watch anyway though, but could land on Mystery Science Theater 3000 some day.

The transition of these movies is an odd mix to observe. Let's begin with Around The World In 80 Days, decently done. Then Journey to the Center of the Earth, also decently done, and the comedy relief goose is killed. From here, there are other movies, based on H.G. Wells or Jules Verne, and maybe even ERB. Yes, Lionel Jeffries in the '64 Earth To the Moon is very good (rewatched it just this past weekend, after Chicken Run). So where did the glitch emerge? Let's say Mad World ('63), said to be a spoof of the silent movie escapades, triggered it, but it wasn't in the Victorian era. From here, we get efforts like The Great Race, Daring Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies, all which kind of miss and reflect more an idea of the '60s, namely parodying half a century earlier (for some odd reason). What I can best say about this effort is Verne's book actually did not have the characters reach the moon and engage in adventures, so clearly someone thought this allowed space to fill. Unfortunately, we receive these incredibly dull love interests. The movie begins with some idea of Tom Thumb going up, and that is dropped very early on. Why include it then? There will be plot changes throughout the entire film like this. Many figures and characters are astonishingly unnecessary, such as the Hermione Gingold bit. What makes this scornful dismissal so difficult was the intriguing bit of refueling a car by siphoning gas from a street lamp and a family's chandelier, and the automatic bullhorn that didn't work at all. In the end, the movie doesn't stand as novel recreation, or a colorful depiction of a past era and is instead a head-scratcher about what was going on in the '60s in regards to the turn of the 19th century.

Terry Thomas played a caddish villain in 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines' and 'Monte Carlo or Bust' both big hits with an all star cast. Rocket to the Moon sees Thomas again playing the bounder. Based very loosely on the Jules Verne novel, its another madcap romp with wacky inventions. This time building a moonship to go to the moon in the Victorian era with little Jimmy Clitheroe being the unlucky pilot. Burl Ives turns up as the money scheming PT Barnum, there is a French damsel following one of her two boyfriends to England. Gert Frobe plays a madcap explosives expert. Whereas Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines was frenetic fun with many amusing vignettes. This is an unfunny badly written drivel, overlong, scenes padded out so much it tries your patience, poor acting from one of the leads (Troy Donahue, I assume James Fox was not available,) implausible scenarios such as the chase scene between the car and a penny farthing (where incidentally you see some geese being run over.) I could not wait for this film to finish it really tried my patience as it was one overlong, padded and stupid scene after another, wasting the talents of some good actors. Thankfully Terry Thomas and Graham Stark lift it from a total bomb rating. I recently re-watched Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and in comparison that film is vintage champagne with this being vinegar.

There is nothing wrong with 'Blast Off", if you are willing to travel back to Victorian England, and enjoy the era. The era of scientific wonder and adventure, is depicted quite nicely. What is not depicted quite nicely is any kind of cohesive story. Vascillating between science fiction, farce, and romance, gradually scrambles the story to the point of bewilderment. While things start off with master showman P.T. Barnum and his miniature sidekick Tom Thumb trying to stage one of their spectacular "events", the movie eventually deteriorates into slapstick. "Blast Off" does have a few moments of dark comedy intertwined with all the nonsense. "Don't they usually give medals after the return trip?" - MERK

If this movie is based on Jules Verne (or even simply inspired), well "Ttanic" is an adaptation of Tolstoi's "War and Peace". This is not based on the original book by Le Grand Verne (characters, story, basically everything is different...), this is not even funny. When you look at the very professional cast, you wonder how it was not possible to at least salvage some part of the movie. But, no, they could not even managed to do that. "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" was not a great movie but it looks like "Citizen Kane" compared to that... thing. Truly awful.

From exploitation writer-producer Harry Alan Towers comes this curiously upmarket but essentially lowbrow comic adaptation of the Jules Verne adventure "From The Earth To The Moon" – already filmed straight under that title in 1958, and which I also own recorded off TCM U.K. For what it's worth, both versions managed to attract notable actors to the fold: in this case, it's Burl Ives (as real-life showman P.T. Barnum – apparently, the role had first been offered to Bing Crosby!), Gert Frobe (amusing as a German explosives expert), Dennis Price, Lionel Jeffries (as a flustered engineer – basically a variation on his role in the superior FIRST MEN IN THE MOON [1964]), Terry-Thomas (as a vindictive financier and Jeffries' shady partner), not forgetting Troy Donahue (unconvincing as an American scientist and made to don a silly astro-nautical outfit more attuned to dystopian allegories!), Daliah Lavi and Edward de Souza who supply the obligatory (and bland) romantic triangle. Whilst readily conceding that it doesn't have much of a reputation to begin with, the film itself proved a bit of a let-down for me – especially since, unlike the earlier version, we never even get to go in outer-space!! Besides, the pace is inordinately slow for this type of film; director Sharp was clearly more adept at deploying atmosphere and suspense than at he was at comedy timing. That said, the first half is undeniably pleasant with the amusing trial-and-error experiments of the various people involved (often witnessed by a perpetually unperturbed Queen Victoria) and, later, Frobe's disastrous attempts to find the correct amount of Bulovite (his own invention) to fire the rocket (Donahue's design of which is favored over that of the more experienced, and consequently inflamed, Jeffries) all the way to the moon! Alas, the film's latter stages – involving Jeffries and Terry-Thomas' attempts to sabotage the launching, Lavi's determination (after being abducted by them and escaping) to reach Donahue and alert him of their nefarious plan, and which also needlessly throw in a number of other characters (including even more romantic complications!) – tend to fall flat; the finale, though, as the rocket actually does go off with Jeffries, Terry-Tomas and, unbeknownst to them, a Russian spy inside (and which rather than land on the moon as intended takes them all the way to Siberia!), is quite nicely done. A measure of the film's overall failure can be gleaned from the fact that it was released in several quarters under a multitude of different titles, including THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS in the U.S. where it was marketed as a would-be follow-up to the highly successful epic spoof THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES (1965) which had also starred Terry-Thomas and Gert Frobe. Unfortunately, my viewing of the film was somewhat compromised by the faulty copy I acquired, with the audio being ever so slightly off, while the picture froze – though not the soundtrack! – for about 10 seconds half-way through!!

JULES VERNE'S ROCKET TO THE MOON is a clear rip-off of the British ensemble comedy THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, employing much of the same cast in a second attempted bite of the apple. Despite the best efforts of the actors involved, this is second rate stuff indeed, badly written and deeply disjointed throughout. First off: the title is a misnomer as this isn't based on a Verne story, instead simply "inspired" by his work. Secondly, the narrative is just very poor. There are too many characters spoiling the broth and the story just kind of meanders all over the place. There's no real consistency in tone and the characters veer from good to bad to in-between. Thirdly, the laboured humour just feels forced and unfunny. It's a shame, because there are some great stars here, including Burl Ives making a decent stab of the larger-than-life P. T. Barnum. Gert Frobe is an eccentric oddball as always, Terry-Thomas is reliably Terry-Thomas, and Jimmy Clitheroe is good value for money, although underused. Lionel Jeffries and Dennis Price bag the best roles as two driven Empirical men but too much screen time is given to the wooden Troy Donahue; Hammer star Edward De Souza (KISS OF THE VAMPIRE) is much better but barely seen.

If you watch the dreadful FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON with Joseph Cotten, George Sanders and some dreadful special effects, this little film looks so much better. On it's own, it has it's own set of virtues and faults. Too silly and trite for some of the jokes (the climactic chase the with always delightful Deliah Levi and the villains) is clumsy, some of the jokes stupid. And like so many American International films, it wants to be better than it actually is. MASTER OF THE WORLD comes to mind. The virtues is that the British films of this period emulating Victorian England were very beautifully done. THE WRONG BOX and THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU come to mind. The music is a highlight and it is almost impossible to find, at times, a happier little film than this one is in spots. The ending is a perfect ending to a tale long known by Jules Verne fans. Compared to THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN and THE GREAT RACE, it comes of a poor second but still worth a viewing on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Pleasant.