The Maltese Bippy (1969)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

In 1969 the comedy team of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was the hottest property in show business. Their "Laugh-In" show was enormously popular and they were instantly recognizable for their "classy smart guy" (Rowan) and "irritating dumb guy" (Martin) approach to comedy. A Rowan/Martin movie from 1969 named "The Maltese Bippy" would seem like it couldn't miss—but it misses very badly. The movie fails because it apparently was never really fully thought through and it was obviously slapped together in great haste to take advantage of Rowan and Martin's then-current popularity and their "bippy" buzzword craze.Rowan and Martin begin the movie in their familiar tuxedos while performing their usual stand-up act. The film then progresses to a story about Sam Smith (Rowan) and Ernest Gray (Martin), two inept adult movie producers who are evicted from their offices and become mixed up with vampires and various villains. Robert Reed, Mildred Natwick, Dana Elcar, Leon Askin, Carol Lynley, Julie Newmar, and Fritz Weaver are among the familiar faces who pop up during the story, which shows very little coherence or continuity. The movie ends with an extended series of shootings, some of which are fairly bloody and which are perversely played for laughs. The baffling final sequence shows Rowan and Martin holding hands while walking into the sunset.While Rowan and Martin plus the supporting cast are very appealing, the story is so weak and fractured that it's not surprising that the movie flopped. The climactic shootings, which take place in one small room, are apparently meant to be really funny but made me quite uncomfortable instead. Gray's (Martin's) dream sequence about a werewolf is painfully unfunny, and his attempts to murder his wife (Lynley) while under hypnosis are quite unpleasant. The sequence with Sam Smith (Rowan) preparing to recover swallowed gems via amateur surgery using a butcher knife is just too sick to be funny. It was good to see departed actors Robert Reed, Leon Askin, and Dana Elcar, but their roles were reduced almost to the point of irrelevancy. Julie Newmar and Carol Lynley are very beautiful and add at least a little energy to the proceedings.Anyone who remembers 1969 is familiar with Rowan and Martin and their hugely popular television comedy show. It seemed as though in 1969 the team could do no wrong but they failed miserably here. "The Maltese Bippy" is a badly missed opportunity and is a reminder that just because one or two very popular people are in a movie's cast, that doesn't mean the movie will be good or successful. Rowan and Martin never made another film. That's too bad, since with the right story, script, and director a Rowan/Martin movie from 1969 could have been good. It's an interesting time capsule, but it's unfortunately not a high-quality one.

Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In" was one of the cultural icons of the late 1960s, the "don't-miss" show if you wanted to be considered cool at the water cooler (or the playground, in my case). I never saw this movie when it was released. My parents would have found it scandalous. These days, it's much tamer than the majority of prime-time comedy shows, even those for "family viewing." It opens with a funny stand-up routine by Dan and Dick, commenting on the credit roll. This is the closest the movie gets to capturing the spirit of the TV show, and R&M are the ONLY cast members from the series to appear. So it's not really a "Laugh-In" movie; as others have pointed out, it's more like an Abbott and Costello monster film, or a racy episode of "Scooby-Doo." The plot is paper-thin, but that's OK, because the screen is always brimming with 60s goodness, especially in the forms of Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar. How can you miss with character actors like Mildred Natwick, Fritz Weaver, David Hurst, Dana Elcar, and 60s TV staples Leon Askin (Hogan's Heroes) and Robert Reed (Brady Bunch)? The ending has a Pythonic twist to it (a few years before 'Holy Grail'), with a funny version of the "who shot the gun" film cliché.All in all, this is probably a film that only veterans of the 60s will enjoy. It's mindless, but an entertaining way to spend an evening.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, famous TV cut-ups from the then-current hit show "Laugh-In", go a curiously different route for their second theatrical film as a team (the first was "Once Upon a Horse" from 1958). In a weak spoof of monster movies, Martin plays the landlord of a suburban boarding house who believes he's a werewolf and eternally-tanned Rowan is a moocher who makes stag films. Carol Lynley is also around as a college student-turned-amateur detective, Mildred Natwick is the housemother, and Robert Reed sniffs about sourly as a police lieutenant. The worst, however, is saved for former-Catwoman Julie Newmar playing the bloodthirsty daughter of a scary Count (with an even-scarier accent). Newmar, looking tired, seems to have wandered over from the old "Munsters" set--or perhaps the latest Don Knotts picture. Odd that two TV swingers would choose to plod through this unfunny comedy like a couple of square schnooks, and the phony sets and cheap backlot look gives the entire enterprise a depressed spirit. 1969 was not a good year for Carol Lynley (she also starred in the clinker "Once You Kiss a Stranger..." around this time), but at least Reed had "The Brady Bunch" to fall back on! NO STARS from ****

If you're like me and like the crazy comedies of the 60's, then it would be worth checking out this one. The chemistry of Dan Rowan (1922-1987) and Dick Martin (1922-date) was fantastic and at times was sorely needed to carry this film which starts out slow, but picks up laughs as it goes. The story involves Ernest Gray (Dick Martin) buying a house in Flushing, Queens, New York. There's a murder in the neighborhood, wacky neighbors who act like vampires, and it turns out everybody's looking for $2 Million worth of diamonds left in the house by the previous owner. By the end of the movie, just about everyone is dead, and in wacky '60's style, Rowan and Martin actually argue on camera as to how the movie should finish. The hysterical ending, along with beauties Carol Lynley and Julie Newmar, make this otherwise lame comedy bearable.Good for a rainy Saturday Afternoon!Recommended from the '60's: Peter Sellers in: I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Party (1968), The Magic Christian (1969).