Haunted Honeymoon (1986) - Video Rental Chicken Fat

Now you think this would frighten me. Well it doesn't. Because I know this is just a filthy figment of my diseased imagination. All I have to do is simply reach out my hand and touch it!

Director

Gene Wilder

Cast

Gene Wilder - Larry Abbot

Gilda Radner - Vickie Pearle

Dom DeLuise - Aunt Kate Abbot

Jonathan Pryce - Charlie Abbot

Bryan Pringle - Pfister, the Butler

Peter Vaughn - Uncle Francis Abbot 

In the current tide of 1980s pop culture popularity, when the decade's favored movies and such are still seen on t-shirts, in toy aisles, on other random merchandise, and broadcast as cast reunions in magazines or news programs encouraging adults my age to tell everyone "I remember that," some movies of the decade haven't made it to that pinnacle of nostalgia for new generations. They remain buried under under mounds of these other movies. It doesn't matter if a movie is good as long as it's remembered as entertaining. 

One such buried movie is the 1986 "chiller comedy" Haunted Honeymoon. 

Surely, Haunted Honeymoon ought to be a movie that sprouted some sentimental appreciation over the decades in the midst of this 1980s trend. True, it was poorly received upon its release, but when has that stopped nostalgia? If Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie and Howard the Duck garnered more remembering, why hasn't Haunted Honeymoon? This movie has a lot going for it as far as nostalgia goes. 

It's Saturday Night Live alum Gilda Radner's last film appearance before her death in 1989 due to ovarian cancer. It has Willy Wonka himself, the late Gene Wilder both in the picture and in the director's chair. And it's the third time Wilder and his wife, Gilda, appeared together in a movie. Previously they co-starred in The Woman in Red (1984) and Hanky Panky (1982). Anyone remember those movies?

The movie also stars the late and legendary comedian Dom DeLuise in drag as Great-Aunt Kate. It's a role that earned him a Razzie Award for worst supporting actress.   

This is a movie that I often stumbled across and wondered what my experience would be if I talked my mom into renting it for me when we visited our local video rental store - California Video - back in the video renting days of the late 1980s to 1990s.

And though I have never seen it until a few nights ago, I have kept it in my mind as a movie to watch all these years later. Even though I hadn't seen it, I mentally had it placed among other 80s comedies such as The Three Amigos, Spaceballs, Trading Places, History of the World Part 1, Fletch, etc.

The box cover image of Haunted Honeymoon has been taped (figuratively speaking) to the wall of my recollection like a poster in a bedroom.

So, I'm dubbing this movie "video rental chicken fat" and slapping my thoughts about it on this blog rather than on my horror blog, 1000daysofhorror.blogspot.com.

The movie centers on radio personalities, Larry Abbot (Gene Wilder) and his girlfriend Vickie Pearle, (Gilda Radner) who perform on a radio series, "Manhattan Mystery Theater." 

The two have announced during a show break that they're getting married. 

After this announcement, Larry is bothered by panic attacks while back on the air. 

Though Vickie thinks Larry is just nervous now that they're engaged, she's worried his anxiety could lead to their being fired from the studio.

Larry's sophisticated Uncle Paul (Paul L. Smith) thinks all Larry needs is some good ol' shock therapy to cure his anxiety. It'll be like curing someone's hiccups.

Meanwhile, Larry wants to have the wedding in his boyhood castle home. 

He and Vickie travel to the castle so Vickie can meet his family. 

At the house are his Great-Aunt Kate (Dom DeLuise), Uncle Francis (Peter Vaughan), and his cousins Charles (Jonathan Pryce), Susan (Jo Ross) and cross-dressing Francis, Jr. (Roger Ashton-Griffiths). 

The family butler, Pfister (Bryan Pringle) who's under the impression Vickie is hard of hearing so he shouts at her throughout the film, and his wife, Rachel the maid (Ann Way) are also present.

Larry's old fling, Sylvia (Eve Ferret) is now dating Charles. So, she's there. And Susan brought her husband Montego (Jim Carter), who's a magician. 

And honestly, pretty much all these characters (except, maybe, Charles) are forgettable. 

Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder in Haunted Honeymoon.

So, feel free to skip that paragraph. 

As Paul begins treating Larry, the only one who doesn't appear to be in on the treatment is Larry himself. Larry starts noticing strange events start taking place.

All the other family members are in on what's happening around the castle.   

The gags run mostly dry. 

I was left with barely any laughs after watching Haunted Honeymoon. The one time I laughed is thanks to a scene with Gilda Radner's character floating outside Larry's window chanting "Laaa-rrry." She suddenly breaks her chant with "this thing's pinching my butt!" 

Other than that, I was a bit confused as to what was happening and where it was going. 

While some jokes are just corny, others have a setup that makes the punchline obvious. I got to a few punchlines before the joke was over. 

In an early scene, Aunt Kate points out a priceless vase at the top of the staircase mid-landing in front of a large window. 

"That vase cost me $5,000. There are only three like it in the world," she says.

"Two," Pfister says.

"Yes...two."

Obviously, the audience knows something is going to happen to this priceless vase later in the movie. It wouldn't have been pointed out as rare and priceless if it wasn't going to be destroyed later. And the payoff isn't anything to look forward to.

As much as I love Wilder, and think of him as a great comedian, too many jokes in this movie just fall flat. 

In one particular scene Pfister asks Abbot about one of the other guests.

"Is he still married," Pfister asks.

"Widower," Abbot replies.

"Widower than what?"

"What do you mean, 'Widower than what'?"

"You said he was 'widower'!"

"He is."

"Widower than what?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. He isn't widower than anything."

"You mean he's just a 'wittle' man?" 

"That's right." 

"That's all I was asking." 

Another gag has Wilder frantically telling Pfister, "I'm telling you, I felt a cold, dead body lying beside me on the bed!" 

"I feel that every night. Warm brandy helps," Pfister replies. 

The punchline is obvious. They're like jokes written at the last minute for the sake of meeting a deadline rather than trying to make the audiences laugh.

Haunted Honeymoon reminds me a bit of the 1932 thriller The Old Dark House starring Boris Karloff and Melvin Douglas which is the classic story of strangers caught in a torrential rainstorm that forces them to be seek refuge in...well... an old dark house. It's a comparison I made while watching the movie.

I didn't realize Wilder took some inspiration from The Old Dark House until after I watched Haunted Honeymoon and did a some digging into the backstory of the movie's production.

Evidently, Wilder developed the idea for this movie while shooting 1976's Silver Streak. At that time, he had a vision for Haunted Honeymoon's opening scene, and built around it. 

And he not only pulled inspiration from The Old Dark House, he also wanted to make a horror comedy (or chiller comedy) similar to the classic horror comedies The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Black Cat (1941), as well as the popular radio mystery serial The Inner Sanctum which aired from 1941 to 1952.  

In 1986, Wilder told the Philadelphia Inquirer, in an article called "Their Comedy, Alas, is No Laughing Matter," that while he wanted his movie to be a "chiller comedy," it turned into an "autobiographical psycho sexual comedy with music." Maybe that's its problem?

It sounds like the direction became muddled and confused, leaving audiences with a movie that doesn't know what it is. 

There's a song and dance number with DeLuise as Aunt Kate and Gilda Radner that's slightly amusing, but completely random and out of place.

Gilda Radner and Dom DeLuise

There was so much potential for DeLuise to create a comedically unforgettable character with Aunt Kate if he played the role differently, say, as a guy playing a woman. It could have been an underlying joke. But, though DeLuise is a comedy legend appearing in some of the best comedy movies out there, his performance as a wealthy, grandmotherly aunt feels dull and like mere imitation. 

Haunted Honeymoon tries to be a unforgettable comedy - it picks up in the second act of the movie - but it ends up falling flat in the end. It fails to impress.

There's also a running joke about someone in the home being a werewolf, but I don't recall that ever going anywhere. A second viewing is in order.

As much as I love the late Gene Wilder, I loved him better in that earlier comedy horror film - the one from Mel Brooks - than I did in this film.

Buddy Buddy (1981) - Video Rental Chicken Fat

"You're making it very difficult for me to like you."

Director

Billy Wilder

Cast

Jack Lemmon - Victor Clooney

Walter Matthau - Trabucco

Paula Prentiss - Celia Clooney

Klaus Kinski - Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot

If the movie The Private Eyes (1980), which I reviewed last month, is an obscure Don Knotts and Tim Conway movie, then the 1981 Billy Wilder film Buddy Buddy is the lost Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau film.
Again, back in the mid-video rental days of my life, I took an interest in exploring films made before I was born. One of those movies I loved, and still love, is the 1968 Neil Simon classic The Odd Couple. 

It not only introduced me to the real-life comedy style of Neil Simon and the movies based on his plays such as Barefoot in the Park, The Out-of-Towners and The Prisoner of Second Avenue, it introduced me to the collective comedic genius of Lemmon and Matthau.
Sometime back in the 1990s, I found a video cassette copy of Buddy Buddy on the rental shelf of California Video, the movie rental store I've mentioned on this blog before.
The only selling point for me was Lemmon and Matthau. So, I rented it. Not only did it broadened my experience in their comedy, it was also the first time I heard Matthau say "fuck" in a movie. 

After all this time, that's the only thing I remember most from this flick.
The day I rented Buddy Buddy was the first and last time I watched it.
After that, I never saw the movie again. I never found any copies of it on any movie shelf. I never saw it in any store where DVDs are sold. My local public library couldn't even find a copy through Interlibrary Loan because no library in my state has one. 
I searched the not-too-dark crevasses of the internets* for a copy. I inquired among folks in a Facebook page dedicated to "dead formats" to see if anyone was selling it. I checked Amazon and could only find a copy in Spanish. On eBay, VHS copies sell for nearly $50.

Finally, I found a DVD for sale at classicmoviesetc.com - a fantastic site for those looking for hard to find, or perhaps, out-of-print movies. (They're not a sponsor). 

Now, $13 later, I have Buddy Buddy in my hands for the first time since I rented it over 30 years ago.
This movie is a remake of the 1973 French film L'emmerdeur (A Pain in the Ass) which is based on the 1971 play Le Contrat by Francis Veber. 
Matthau plays a hitman named Trabucco who is carrying out a job eliminating witnesses against the mafia.
He's taken them all out. The last on his hitlist is Rudy "Disco" Gambola who's about to testify before a grand jury against other members of the mob.
To complete this last hit, Trabucco drives to Riverside, Calif., and checks into the Ramona Hotel across the street from the courthouse. His plan is to shoot Gambola from a room on that side of the Hotel, and sneak out. 
Meanwhile, Victor Clooney (Jack Lemmon), a television network censor, is suicidal as his wife Celia (Paula Prentiss) wants to divorce him for another man. 
Clooney checks into the same hotel, and ends up with a room right next to Trabucco's. The two of them happened to meet earlier at a gas station. Trabucco stopped to use the men's room, and while waiting, Clooney was occupying it, puking his guts out thanks to nerves. 
Their hotel rooms are connected. As Trabucco sets up a sniper rifle to shoot Gambola, he hears a commotion from Clooney's room. 

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in Buddy Buddy.

He checks to see what happened and finds Clooney tried to hang himself on one of the shower pipes. This made the pipe break causing water to flood the bathroom. 
Trabucco tries to calm him down so as to avoid any unwanted attention from hotel staff. 

Clooney then climbs out of the window onto the ledge, threatening to jump. 
Scared that police might show up to the hotel, Trabucco talks him into coming back inside. 
He agrees to drive Clooney to see his wife who's a researcher at the "Institute of Sexual Fulfillment" clinic, gathering content for a 60 Minuies segment. The clinic is run by an expert of sexual behavior, Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot (Klaus Kinski). Zuckerbrot is also the guy Celia is leaving Clooney for. 
On the way there, Trabucco tries to shoot Clooney, who needed to stop to puke again. But the attempt is interrupted when a cop car pulls up escorting another vehicle with a female passenger who's in labor. They ask Trabucco for help, and he reluctantly agrees to take the woman and her husband to the nearest clinic. 

That nearest clinic is the Institute of Sexual Fulfillment. Why not kill two birds with one stone? 

Trabucco drops Clooney off, and heads back to the hotel. 

Clooney is unsuccessful at trying to win Celia back. He tells her how suicidal he is. When Celia tells Zuckerbrot what state her husband is in, he worries what this'll mean for the reputation of the Institute. 

Clooney manages to find a way back to the hotel. 

Celia and Zuckerbrot drop in unexpectedly to give Clooney a heavy sedative so he won't take his own life. However, Zuckerbrot goes in alone, mistakes Trabucco for Clooney, and gives him the shot.

All this time, Clooney is unaware Trabucco is a mafia hitman. But he finally catches on. And once he figures it out, Trabucco can't just let him go. 

This comedy has the Neil Simon "what else can go wrong" comedy style similar to films like The Out-of-Towners, The Odd Couple, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue. 

It's the last film for Wilder, who came out of retirement to make this one last movie. Sadly, it was a "poof" to end his directing career.

While Buddy Buddy is not their best film together, and despite film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times calling it "appalling," "very bad," and "a comedy without laughs," I think time and nostalgia has worked in its favor just a bit. 

Matthau can be an intimidating presence on screen, and he is in this movie. But his faux Italian Bronx mafia style accent doesn't work. His normal Matthau voice would work so much better, especially when considering he was born in the Lower East Side of New York. A fake accent is completely superfluous and distracting.

Lemmon plays his usual, energetic comedic self who's excitable and unaware of what the audience is in on. 
It's fun to see Lemmon and Matthau work off each other as it always is. The overall scenario is original for them.

However, the character of Clooney definitely falls a little too much into the shadow of Lemmon's character Felix Ungar in The Odd Couple. Minus Felix's obsessive cleanliness, everything else seems similar - his nervousness, his repugnance to the sexual deviations at the clinic (I'm sure Felix would feel the same about that), and especially Clooney facing a divorce and wanting to kill himself over it. 
Despite the somewhat seemingly lackadaisical comedy and not-so-interesting flow of events, I still found myself laughing at Matthau and Lemmon, and entertained by their performances.  

Buddy Buddy performed poorly at the time of its release, even being called the worst movie of 1981 by Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel. Though Ebert hated it, too, he picked Heaven's Gate as the worst film of that year.
Watching the late legends brings a little more appreciation to the movie that critics panned back in 1981. 

Otherwise, all the movie has going for it is Lemmon and Matthau. Everything else is completely forgettable and stale. Nothing else is funny except for them.

The camera work and lighting is certainly not impressive either, which is unfortunate considering this is a Billy Wilder film. His previous films are usually much more lively in their stories, camera work, and imaginative lighting. It's no surprise as Wilder and screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond  wrote the script in three months. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times back in 1981, Wilder called it a record for them.

"We just sat on it," Wilder said. "Just think. It could have been made and lost $7 million already."

They waited out an actors strike going on at the time. Once that was over, they waited for Lemmon and Matthau's respective schedules to allow both of  them time to appear in the picture. 

Despite its then poor performance, I find it odd how difficult the movie is to come by considering Billy Wilder was in the director's chair, and Lemmon and Matthau in the starring roles.  
Wilder launched these two as a team when he directed the 1966 romantic comedy Fortune Cookie. He also directed them in the 1974 comedy The Front Page, which is probably my second favorite Lemmon and Matthau comedy after The Odd Couple.

Jack Lemmon and Klaus Kinski.

Matthau does have a colorful vocabulary of profanity in The Front Page, but I saw that years after watching him in Buddy Buddy.
Wilder has worked with Lemmon without Matthau, too, quite a few times such as in Some Like it Hot (1959), The Apartment (1961), Irma la Douce (1963), and Avanti! (1972). 
After Buddy Buddy's box office failure, Lemmon and Matthau, the longest running comedy team spanning four decades, wouldn't team up again until 12-years later in the successful 1993 film Grumpy Old Men. After that they made a few more films together as a duo - Grumpier Old Men (1995), Out to Sea (1997), and The Odd Couple II (1998).

The latter was their last film appearance together. Also, those films much easier to find. 
So, why Buddy Buddy is so obscure is a question I have yet to find an answer to. 

I'd recommend the movie to any fan of Lemmon and Matthau, but good luck finding it. I won't be lending my copy out anytime soon.

I have to add that actor Michael Ensign plays a hotel manager in this movie. He played a hotel manager again three-years later in Ghostbusters. Being a Ghostbusters nerd, I couldn't let this review go without mentioning this fact somewhere in here.