Posted: Sat., Dec. 31, 1977, 11:00pm PT

Movie Movie

By Variety Staff

Warner. Director Stanley Donen; Producer Stanley Donen; Screenplay Larry Gelbart, Sheldon Keller; Camera Charles Rosher Jr, Bruce Surtees; Editor George Hively; Music Ralph Burns; Art Director Jack Fisk

George C. Scott Barbara Harris Eli Wallach Trish Van Devere Red Buttons Barry Bostwick

Stanley Donen's Movie Movie is a clumsy attempt to spoof the kind of film fare encountered in pic houses of the 1930s and 1940s. The idea was patronizing in its conception, is a flatout embarrassment in its execution, and weak vehicle for George C. Scott and other principal talents involved.

The overlong, 105-minute feature is split into three parts: a black-and-white sendup of those boxing sagas where the slum youth fueled by earnest ambition gets catapulted to fame and riches (Dynamite Hands); a satire of a coming attractions trailer featuring a saga of World War I pilots; and finally, a shot-in-color takeoff of the making of a Flo Ziegfeld-type Broadway musical (Baxter's Beauties of 1933).

But instead of gently twitting the conventions of old Hollywood pot-boilers, Movie Movie tries to milk the cliches by observing and scorning them simultaneously. The conception is a mess, and it shows.

Things are so muddied that Donen tacked on, after the pic was shot, a prolog by George Burns telling the audience that yes, Movie Movie is intended as fun. Too bad Burns didn't stick around for the rest of the film.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1978. Running time: 105 MIN.