A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	93:00
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:45)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Richard Lester
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Zero Mostel Phil Silvers Buster Keaton Michael Crawford Jack Gilford Annette Andre Michael Hordern Leon Greene Roy Kinnear Alfie Bass John Bluthal Pamela Brown Patricia Jessel
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Ken Thorne

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Greek	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, the end credits are animated

    Pseudolus (Zero Mostel) is a slave to the family of Senex (Michael Hordern). All Pseudolus wants to do is cheat at dice and win enough money to gain his freedom. When the master and his harridan wife leave to visit her mother, Pseudolus sees his chance. The master's son Hero (Michael Crawford) is in love with Philia, a girl from the house next door. Hero agrees that if Pseudolus can bring them together, he will get his freedom. Unfortunately, the house next door is a brothel run by Lycus (Phil Silvers) who has sold the virginal Philia to a Captain in the army, and who is coming to pick her up that afternoon. Pseudolus seems about to succeed when the master returns home, and the girl thinks he is the Captain come to fetch her.

    A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum was based on a successful stage musical of the same name which was itself inspired by the writings of Plautus, and features songs by Stephen Sondheim. The songs themselves are not particularly memorable apart from the opening tune Comedy Tonight ("something appealing, something appalling, something for everyone, a comedy tonight").

    This film used to be a staple of free-to-air television in the 1970s, and I can remember seeing it on innumerable occasions. Sadly, those fond childhood memories do not stand up so well nowadays. The film is fast paced, frenzied even in the the style of director Richard Lester's films with The Beatles. Unfortunately, the frenetic pace works against the humour, and the last part of the film is not that funny at all as it tends to outrun the audience. In the end the gags are rammed home without much subtlety, almost derailing the film after an excellent first half.

    There is still much to enjoy here, notably the performances by a remarkable cast. Zero Mostel created the role of Pseudolus on stage, and dominates every scene he is in. I wonder how much of an inspiration this was for the Frankie Howerd comedy series Up Pompeii (now that is crying out for a DVD release). Phil Silvers is pretty good as Lycus, as is Jack Gilford as Senex's other slave Hysterium. Also of note is the Erroneous of Buster Keaton in his last feature film (released months after his death), still performing physical sight gags as he did during his silent era heyday.

    The script has some nice one liners. A couple of examples: Lycus offers Pseudolus some wine. Pseudolus looks at the label and says "Was One a good year?". Philia says that the captain raped her native Thrace, and then again and again. Pseudolus asks "He raped Thrace thrice?".

    There are a few familiar performers from the British comedy scene like Peter Butterworth, Roy Kinnear and even our own John Bluthal and Leon Greene, and this film plays a bit like a Carry On with a bigger budget, shot on location in Italy. It is quite enjoyable even if it does not live up to my memories of it, and still has more laughs than most comedies these days.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The original aspect ratio was 1.85:1, but we still seem to be missing a small amount of the image. It appears as though the image has been cropped slightly on all sides, as the shots look very tightly composed, and points of chins and the tops of heads are lost in close-up. The closing credits are presented window-boxed so that the words are not cropped at the sides, which is a bit of a giveaway.

    The video is quite sharp and clear. Short of being a full restoration, this still looks stunningly good compared to what I recall from TV broadcasts. Shadow detail is reasonable, though it suffers from what appears to be a contrast boost. The colours look rich and vivid, though some of the flesh tones do not look quite realistic from time to time. Possibly this is due to the contrast being pushed up, or the lighting, or maybe the cast getting a tan in the Italian sun.

    There are relatively few artefacts on display, the major one being edge enhancement, which is most noticeable when the actors profiles are seen against lighter backgrounds. The effect is relatively mild and is not overly distracting. There are occasional film artefacts in the form of spots of dirt or flecks on the print material, but overall the source material has been cleaned up well. There is some telecine wobble during the opening credits.

    There are two instances where there seems to be a flickering in the image. The first is at 57:04 where Senex is trying to cross from Erroneous' house to his own, and the picture shakes violently. The second occurs at 80:48, where the upper left corner of the image shakes somewhat. This looks like a source problem rather than being inherent in the transfer.

    There are subtitles in several languages, the English ones being quite accurate based on the sample I made. They are also quite clear and easy to read.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted, with the layer change occurring at 54:45 at a cut between shots. It is quite noticeable but is not very disruptive to the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The default audio channel is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track. There are also German, French, Italian and Spanish language tracks. This is stereo but not much is made of the possibilities of the medium. The sound is a bit flat and lacking in body. There is not much in the way of bass sound, which as a consequence means that the voices sound a bit thin. This also affects the music to a lesser extent, especially the song Lovely.

    Switching to Pro Logic mode gets some surround encoding out of the audio, with dialogue sent to the centre channel and the music to the mains and rear channels. I did not notice any subwoofer activity.

    As stated earlier, most of the music score is by Stephen Sondheim, with some additional music by Ken Thorne. The songs are not memorable apart from Comedy Tonight, and all seem to be sung by the actors miming to them. For that reason, the audio sync is out slightly at times.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer (1:17)

    This trailer is presented in widescreen but is not 16x9 enhanced. It is in pretty good condition and is "suggested for mature audiences".

    From the various reviews I have consulted, it seems that the Region 1 and Region 2 discs have the same transfer and extras as the Region 4, so there is no reason to prefer one above the other.

    This is still a humorous film despite some problems with the direction. Worth a look for anyone who has enjoyed this film on TV or at the cinema.

    The video quality is very good apart from a few quibbles.

    The audio quality is reasonable though not spectacular.

    The extra does not amount to much.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall