where ' s poppa ?
with the headline: screen: ‘where' s poppa? ’ aims to remove bachelor' s momma .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing where' s poppa? near you .
it' s a shame, but you' d never be able to make a film like where' s poppa? in today' s stifling climate of uptight political correctness .
if you are that lady, don' t go to see carl reiner' s
where' s poppa ?
there is a certain kind of humor that rises below vulgarity. it isn' t merely in the worst possible taste; it aspires to be in the worst possible taste .
where' s poppa ?
is the best example of the genre since
the producers .
where' s poppa? , directed by carl reiner; screenplay by robert klane, based on his novel “where' s poppa? ; ” director of photography, jack priestly; music by jack elliott; produced by jerry tokofsky and marvin worth; relased by united artists. at the co ronet theater, third avenue at 59th street. running time: 87 minutes. (the. motion picture association of america' s production code and rating administration classifies this film: r—restricted, persons under 17 re quire accompanying parent or adult guardian.' )
but for most of its length “where' s poppa? ” deals with an exceptionably viable mix ture of local jokes and black comedy that works as well as it does because everybody in the film possesses either enough good humor or outra geous imagination to promote his own worldview .
sometimes you settle for half a loaf. in movie com edy, even a quarter of a loaf will pass for a feast. so if “where' s poppa? ” which opened yesterday at the coronet theater, doesn' t succeed all the time, or even most of the time, it succeeds often enough, if only by en ergy and will, to satisfy a taste for comedy that has not had much nourishment this season. and ocassional ly when invention, which is in ‘long supply, and execu lion, which isn' t always, get properly together, “where' s poppa? ” becomes a desper ately funny
theatrical trailer for the 1970 comedy
where' s poppa ?
starring george segal, ruth gordon and trish van devere. when new york attorney gordon hocheiser meets louise callan, the girl of his dreams, he schemes to eliminate his aging, senile mother, even though he promised his late father that he' d always take care of her. he fears that his batty mom' s eccentricities will shortly lead to louise' s departure. written by alfiehitchie .
where' s poppa? isn' t for everyone. its humor is extremely vulgar and the antithesis of political correctness. it is filled with stereotypes such as jive talking black muggers, a blood thirsty military officer, and it includes such scenes as an old woman kissing her son on his bare ass, a woman relating an anecdote about her husband taking a shit in bed, a father stifling his nagging wife by strangling their son, and a man unknowingly raping a male police officer in drag (the punchline of this last joke being that the officer later sends the man flowers). if this sounds funny to you then where' s poppa? is a must see movie .
like most new york com edy, “where' s poppa? ” means to score points in its inci dental treatment of how we live. but unlike most such comedy, it actually scores a few — as when on central park west a negro lady hails a cab, which almost stops but then drives on to pick up instead a wildly gesticu lating giant gorilla .
segal is good as playing the harassed son of the archetypal jewish mother. in
no way to treat a lady ,
he was the vice cop whose mother kept wanting him to finish his soup before rushing to rescue lee remick. in
where' s poppa ?
that premise is pushed to its final, maddening conclusion. go if you want to laugh and like being offended .
where’s poppa? deals with such subjects as matricide. throw momma from a train (1987) dealt with that issue as well but it set up the killing by showing the mother in question as such a horrible beast that we understand the desire to knock her off. the mother here is by no means annoying enough to deserve death, thus seeing her son trying to kill her is not funny by any means .
george segal stars as gordon, a lawyer living with his senile mother played by the priceless ruth gordon. he and his brother promised their dying father that they would never put their mother in a home. the movie opens with gordon donning the aforementioned gorilla suit and attempting to scare his mother to death. she, however, remains as calm as can be and simply repeats her incessant refrain, “where' s poppa? ”
all the performances, ex cept that of miss gordon, who continues to play old age without conviction, are pretty good. but trish van devere, whom i had never heard of, proves a comme dienne of a complexity, pre cision and gentleness exactly to balance the broad cruel ties of “where' s poppa? ” carl reiner' s direction also balances those cruelties, and he is absolutely at his best with such magical absurdi ties as the first meeting be tween george segal and miss van devere .
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a deranged comedy, with some deranged characters, that will have you laughing at it' s deranged stupidity .
gordon, as the widowed mother, is in senile dementia constantly asking
where' s poppa ?
and scaring off nurses and segal' s girlfriends with her bawdy eccentricities. in her mental lapses she can' t remember her son is a grown man, and when he brings home trish van devere the mother suddenly describes the size of her son' s sex organs as if he were a child. van devere as a prospective nurse looks like the angel of mercy with her sweet pure face framed in a white cap, but she is also a little insane .
this movie is hilarious. not laugh out loud humor, and not raunchy like today' s comedies, but still fu * * ing funny as hell. where' s poppa? is an intelligent, smart, dark and twisted little comedy. there' s some pretty messed up shit in this movie and some hysterical, over the top, classic one liners, such as ...
he' s got a pecker this big .
and i want you to know that if you mess this one up for me, i' m gonna punch your fuckin' heart out .
he made a caca on the bed .
you' ll know exactly what i' m talking about when you see this movie. funny shit! well acted, smart, funny, and highly recommended !
is off the charts in that department. here' s a partial tally: making fun of senile dementia; a monologue about a pervert' s wedding night; a dad who stops his wife' s nagging by starting to strangle their little boy; a jive - talking gang of african - american muggers; an attempted rape of a policeman in drag; a slum - like nursing home where... you get the idea. what' s wrong with this picture? nothing at all if really, really awful taste is your idea of entertainment heaven .
from start to finish, where’s poppa throws wtf scenes at the audience. some are a bit shocking while others are just gross. only occasionally does it hit the right note, such as when the gorilla gets the taxi before the african american woman. that was funny. a story about a man who shit his bed after sex is not. it could have been, if the girl telling the story had prefaced it with how her husband promised to fuck the shit out of her .
with its barrage of surrealistic plot developments and tasteless jokes, where’s poppa? would be a weird movie under any circumstances—yet it’s doubly strange when viewed as part of its director’s overall career. carl reiner, one of the most likable comedians america has ever produced, is best known for gentle humor of the family - friendly variety, since his professional highlights include creating the beloved ’60s sitcom the dick van dyke show and helming such inoffensive comedy features as oh, god! (1977) and all of me (1984). excepting this bizarre movie, the most offensive thing reiner ever made was probably the steve martin vehicle the jerk (1979), which is incredibly tame by comparison with
segal does what he can, providing a few almost - amusing moments of exasperation, but his character is so ugly it’s hard to find anything segal does funny. similarly, gordon drops the crazy - like - a - fox bit that distinguished most of her late - career roles and hits the same note of annoying senility again and again; her characterization is alternately boring and pathetic, neither of which is much fun to watch. leibman’s performance is grotesque, and van devere seems lost amid the repulsive situations. where’s poppa? has a minor cult following, so clearly some people find the picture amusing, and it’s worth noting that a handful of familiar actors—vincent gardenia, barnard hughes, garrett morris, rob reiner, paul sorvino—make appearances. yet it’s telling that after making this picture, carl reiner mostly left the realm of bad - taste humor behind, gravitating toward stories that reflect the sweetness one associates with his persona .
being a fan of dark humor, i was intrigued to see this movie after patrick' s rather glowing description of it. however, although i agree there are some funny moments in it, it' s really not a very good movie. it' s rather bizarre and dated elements make it more of a curiosity than entertainment .
the tone of where’s poppa? is all over the place, so it’s hard to know when the movie is going for absurdist humor, black comedy, nasty satire, or surrealistic farce. one scene might involve a gentle joke like momma using cola in her cereal instead of milk, and the next scene might involve sidney committing rape in central park while wearing a gorilla suit. yes, you read that right—the “comedy” centerpiece of the movie is a rape scene, which is as gruesomely unfunny as it sounds. so, too, is the icky sequence in which momma yanks down gordon’s pants and chews on his ass while a shocked louise watches. underlying all of this is the distasteful central premise: the “hero” of the story wants to break a blood oath and dump his mentally ill mother so he can get laid .
tcm celebrates the 100th anniversary of a musical legend with three nights of programming devoted to some of leonard bernstein' s... more
fights them off by laughing in their face. of course it' s offensive to have african - american actors play every hoodlum in the story, but exaggerating a stereotype can sometimes unmask its absurdity and drain away its power. it' s also offensive to use dementia for laughs, but in her own weird way mrs. hocheiser is the most charming character in the story, much more appealing than her self - centered sons and the ditzy nurse who' s clueless when it comes to actually nursing. and there' s real political punch in a courtroom scene where gordon defends a war protester who assaulted a military officer; just when you think the dignified officer will win in a walk, he turns out to be as belligerent and bloodthirsty as the protester claimed. this is pungent even now, and in 1970, with the vietnam war still raging, it was dynamite .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
spoiler alert: there are two different endings to the film. the original version emphasizes the oedipus angle. gordon, with the help of his fiancee, finally gets the nerve to put his mother in a home. he drops her off and introduces her to an old man at the home as poppa. she calls him from the home and gordon returns to her. the movie ends with him getting into bed with his mother and saying, “here' s poppa. ” this version proved too shocking and in 1975 the movie was re - released under the title going ape and the final scene was deleted. for my money the original version is the only one worth seeing, unless of course you want a happy ending, which, to my way of thinking, dilutes the dark humor that preceded it .
( 1974) during the same phase of his career. also present are ron leibman as gordon' s brother, rob reiner and vincent gardenia as two of gordon' s clients, paul sorvino as the proprietor of an old folks' home, and trish van devere as nurse louise, her first major role .
there' s a funny supporting performance by ron leibman, as segal' s brother. he keeps dashing across central park to save his mother, after segal makes threats over the phone. and he keeps getting mugged. never mind how he got into that gorilla suit. never mind about anything in the movie, really. reiner goes for laughs with such a fanatic dedication that there' s no time for logic, plot, character. and why should there be ?
when new york attorney gordon hocheiser meets louise callan, the girl of his dreams, he schemes to eliminate his aging, senile mother, even though he promised his late father that he' d always take care of her. he fears that his batty mom' s eccentricities will shortly lead to louise' s departure .
roger ebert' s speech on empathy for the
11th hour
series on april 9th, 1994, being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .
i will admit to laughing several times during the film. most of the humor is generated by shock and political incorrectness (long before that term was coined), such as the cab stopping for the gorilla while skipping the black woman, or the what i found to be hilarious punch line to the nurse' s honeymoon story, or the relationship between segal' s brother and his wife .
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it' s about a desperate young lawyer (george segal) who is being driven insane by his cuckoo mother (ruth gordon). she' s confused, senile, rude, obscene and vulgar. also, she nags. he can' t send her to a home; at his father' s deathbed, he promised not to. and yet she scares away every girl he has ever dated. he can maybe not take it much longer. maybe he' ll kill her? throw her out the window? maybe a big black dog will come in and eat her? he dreams and dreams, wistfully .
was promoted as an over - the - top explosion of in - your - face humor  the kind of picture where the big kissing scene showed 74 - year - old ruth gordon smooching the backside of 36 - year - old george segal, and the posters proclaimed ,
the tush scene alone is worth the price of admission .
the film became something of a cult classic  you may have seen it as
short of most john waters films, today' s cinema offers little by way of absurd comedy. generally speaking, cinema has sold out to nike, madison avenue and all the rest of the greedy faces behind hollywood who make sure their
clients
products are wagged in yor face and written into the script. (think of
what women want
or
e. t .
for instance) well, here' s a film that takes comedic chances and pays off big! this film is a equal opportunity offender and is in nobody' s pocket! segal and gordon are in perfect pacing and timing thanks to carl riner' s direction and no holds barred attack on everything. i cannot recommend this film enough to the intelligent viewer who hungers for more than the banal
comedies
of today which are for the most part nothing more than padded 90 minute commercials .
bill, a wealthy businessman, confronts his junkie daughter' s drug - dealing boyfriend; in the ensuing argument, bill kills him. panic - stricken, he wanders the streets and eventually stops at... see full summary »
an insane black comedy that pushed the envelope even in 1970. it' s really hilarious, but a bit shocking at the same time. gordon and segal are great actors and both give fantastic performances. i really liked this crazy movie .
not all of the jokes work. i didn' t find ruth gordon to be funny at all, just annoying. the scene in the courtroom with director carl reiner' s son rob playing the defendant against the colonel that he assaulted doesn' t really work either. it' s not paced, staged or written very funnily. in the hands of monty python, such a joke could have worked, but here it simply feels mean spirited, anti - military and very much of the vietnam era .
if this movie proves anything, it' s that you need more than just a few funny moments to make a movie. or at least, if that' s all you' re going to rely on, then you need to be consistently funny throughout. without more than that, you need a plot or a character to hang the movie upon and this movie doesn' t have that. at least it doesn' t have characters that i liked or cared about. it feels like a failed experiment in bad taste .
the rape scene is one of the most audacious attempts at a joke ever put into a film. it' s also an interesting look at an aspect of humor. as the scene begins, it appears that a woman' s gang rape is about to be played for laughs, but isn' t it interesting how after it turns out to be a man in drag, the joke somehow feels safer? and then of course the final punch line, with the raped man turning out to have enjoyed it, takes a bit more of the edge off of it. it' s interesting because, while a man getting raped by a group of other men would in reality be no less traumatic than if it were a woman, but somehow it feels more like comedy than if it were a woman. is that because men in drag have long been used as a staple of comedy ?
the producers ,
as everybody knows, is about two con artists who deliberately try to produce a broadway flop. then they can pocket the money they raised from their backers, and split. their musical is named
springtime for hitler .
it' s a success, and they go to prison .
is based on an eponymous novel by robert klane, who earned a wga award nomination for his adapted screenplay. but many good touches, such as the movie' s constantly varying pace, come from director carl reiner, a long - life comedy specialist. reiner has made a number of interestingly off - kilter pictures, including
you can count me as one who really likes this movie. yes, the humor is weird and tasteless, but also quite original. there are comic bits here that i have never seen done anywhere else. if anyone wants to read my take on this and it' s okay with peter then they can go here: urltoken
witchcraft ‘70, directed by luigi scattini; additional sequences photo graphed and directed by r. l. frost; commentary written by mr. frost; released by trans american. running time: 82 minutes. (the motion pic ture association of america' s produc tion code and rating administration classifies this film:' x—no one under 16 admitted. ” )
finally, we get to the film’s last punch line. again, reiner delivers it straight, without a single wink to the audience that this is intended to be a joke. dark humor satires a serious subject. simply showing a shocking subject or scene does not in and of itself create a laugh. it has to be exaggerated or placed out of context to be funny .
the situation will seem familiar enough to post oedipal america. george segal plays a small‐time new york lawyer, a dutiful son: who lives at home with his an cient mother (ruth gordon), whom he would dearly love to dump forever into an old people' s home. if he can' t do that (and his father' s dying request says he can' t), he would like to scare her to death. and if he can' t do that, and he can' t because she is unscarable, he is almost will ing to drop her fragile body from an apartment window —so that the mess she would make on the sidewalk below might at least signal an end to the mess she is making of his life .
once again, george segal is saddled with a difficult jewish mother, as he was in no way to treat a lady and lost and found. this time, though, she' s little short of a senile psychopath. robert klane wrote the screenplay from his hysterical novel, and reiner directed it, but missed many of the jokes that worked so well in the book. a new york attorney, ... read more
the curious female, directed by paul rapp; screenplay by winston r. paul; director of. photography, don birnkrant; music by stu philips; produced by mr. rapp; , released by fanfare film productions, inc. at neighborhood theaters. running time: 87 minutes. (the motion picture association of america' s production code and rating administration clas sifies, this film: “r—restricted, per sons under 17 require accompanying parent. of adult guardian. ” )
thirty - something lawyer gordon hocheiser lives with his slightly demented and eccentric widowed mother. although the dutiful son, he, who promised his deceased father on his deathbed that he would always take care of her and never put her in a home, doesn' t particularly like having to take care of her and deal with her eccentricities. he has hired a series of full time care givers for her, all who have quit because they could not deal with her. having to take care of her on his own - although he does get support of an emotional kind from his married brother sidney hocheiser - affects his life in all aspects. on his latest attempt to hire a care giver, gordon meets private nurse louise callan, an inexperienced woman in every respect of the word. it' s love at first sight for both. because of louise, gordon, who has had fantasies of his mother' s early demise, contemplates killing his mother, or worse, putting her in a home .
new york lawyer gordon (george segal) has no personal life. instead, his time outside work is spent looking after his senile, demanding mother (ruth gordon), who sabotages his potential relationships. finally, he meets a woman unafraid of her, nurse louise callan (trish van devere). for them to get married, gordon' s mother must go. but when his brother refuses to help, gordon must find a way to dispose of the old woman, whether that means finding a nursing home or taking more extreme measures .
the movie' s depiction of new york city practically screams early 1970s while also managing some sharp satire. the best examples of these are the military officer who, while in court, begins proudly telling how he loves killing in great detail. this was at the height of vietnam but today still packs a punch. another scene parodies the difficulty african / americans have getting a cab. a black woman is shown trying in vain to hail one when a man in a gorilla suit (you have to see the movie to understand) runs out into the street and the cab goes right past the woman and stops immediately in front of the gorilla .
directed by carl reiner from the novel by robert klane (he also wrote the adapted screenplay) this 1970 movie broke new ground in terms of american cinema vulgarity. it was the first mainstream american movie to feature the term, “cocksucker” for example. and it includes the following bit of dialogue between a son and his mother. gordon hocheiser: “she' s not just another nurse, ma. it means a whole lot to me, ma. and i want you to know that if you mess this one up for me, i' m gonna punch your fuckin' heart out. got it? ” mrs. hocheiser: “such a nice boy. ”
with: george segal (gordon hocheiser), ruth gordon (mrs. hocheiser), ron leibman (sidney hocheiser), barnard hughes (colonel hendriks), vincent gardenia (coach williams), trish van devere (louise callan), rae allen (gladys hocheiser), rob reiner (roger), paul sorvino (owner of
gus & grace' s home
), william le massena (judge), michael mcguire (army lawyer), martha greenhouse (owner of
happytime farms
), israel lang (muthafucka), garrett morris (garrett), arnold williams (arnold), buddy butler (buddy), joe keyes, jr. (gang leader), jane hoffman (first job applicant), alice drummond (woman in elevator), jack manning (lawyer for memphis maulers), john gilliar (policeman in courthouse), bill adams (unidentified), edward brooks (sheldon hocheiser), helen martin (second job applicant), tom atkins (policeman in apartment), florence tarlow (miss morgiani), rehn scofield (bailiff), april geleta (taxi lady), w. benson terry (cab driver), vic ramos (unidentified), john mccurry (policeman in jail cell), fuddles (shoeshine man )
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to speed her on her way, or to get her out of the way, he hires for her a wish‐fulfill ment nurse (trish van de vere), with whom he immedi ately falls in love—i mean, within the first 10 seconds— and whose lovely presence moves segal, and the film, to the resolution toward, which he, and it, had been tending. the resolution itself is noth ing much, and i gather that at this stage the story has been monkeyed with—or at least cut short of a few final indignities .
a kind of benign individual ism applies to everybody (except miss gordon) —even down to a cheery troop of black youths lounging in central park, so they can mug all passers‐by, except young women, whom they rape .
“witchcraft ‘70” and “the curious female, ” an odd cou pling of contemporary satan ism and comic sex, that were deposited in local houses yes terday, are certainly a trick but not much of a treat. “witchcraft, ” a documentary compilation of occult prac tices here and abroad, and “the curious female, ” a gimmicky but cheerful skin flick, do have a connection in that both films lean large ly toward frequent exposures of their females and some of their males. unfortunately, their educational, shock and fun quotients never rise above the tepid level .
although the offscreen narrator is realistic, serious and dispassionate in “witch craft” he intones ominously that today “cults and covens still practice the black arts. ” the following sequences make it obvious in color that the undraped witch celebrating a black mass in an abandoned church in england, and her naked company, are at least as important as the weird rites, as are a witch wedding in london, a ritual in brigh ton, voodoo in louisiana, an exorcism in bali, or several witch soirees in california .
there are also inspections of present demonic doings in italy and south america but an unbewitched viewer soon gets the idea that these aimless jumps around the globe are, despite a few photogenic sorceresses, a. trip that isn' t absolutely ne cessary .
the trip a comely group takes back in time in “the curious female” from 2177 a. d. to 1969 through the screening of an illicit 1969 movie called “the three vir gins, ” isn' t a necessity ei ther. but the curious “virgins” —angelique pettyjohn, char lene jones and bunny allis ter—and the other principals do not take themselves or the amiable mishmash of a plot seriously. it helps .
unlike the amoral guys and dolls of 2177, the 1969 types in this movie‐within‐a movie are curious about problems that run from amo rous desperation to latent frigidity and lesbianism. they' re usually fairly juve nile in speech, that is funny occasionally, and they' re de cidedly easy to look at as they solve those problems, most often by undressing. a sudden hiatus in the screening prompts the cute observation: “the producer must have run out of money while he was making the picture. ”
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new york lawyer deals with an unhinged mother, a peculiar love life and other big city troubles .
this film is certainly wacky and i am certain it must have been racy and controversial in its day. good performance from ruth gordon, but trish van devere ...
leonard maltin classic movie guide, copyright 2005, 2010. used by arrangement with penguin group (usa) inc .
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, released two years earlier. viewed today, its extremely dark comedy looks darker than ever, painting a funny - peculiar portrait of new york at a time when the city was teetering on the brink of disaster in real life .
is fascinating as a movie time machine. new york was entering a long and steep decline as the 1970s began  infrastructure was crumbling, city services were deteriorating, financial crisis was looming, crime was soaring. instead of ignoring these enormous problems ,
, one of the all - time - great tv sitcoms. in the cast, gordon is great and so is segal, who starred in
,
a movie that
is but a single joke, and the punch line is the commonplace twelve - letter obscenity .
roger greenspun was more upbeat in the
, saying the film profits from
an exceptionally viable mixture of local jokes and black comedy
and becomes
desperately funny
at times .
said that while the screenplay is
very close to tragedy ,
the movie gets laughs because reiner and the others
work from the firm conviction that everyone, at least everyone living in new york city, is insane .
but closest to the mark was roger ebert, who compared the picture with
( 1968) and credited it with
a certain kind of humor that rises below vulgarity .
mrs. hocheiser herself couldn' t have put it better .
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when new york attorney gordon hocheiser meets louise callan, the girl of his dreams, he schemes to eliminate his aging, senile mother, even though he promised his late father that he' d... see full summary »
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
in the pennsylvanian coal mines of 1876, a group of irish immigrant workers begin to retaliate against the cruelty of their work environment .
two disillusioned new york city policemen plan a ten million dollar robbery to fuel their low pensions, only to run into one debacle after another in the process .
in 1909, when young paiute indian willie boy returns to his california reservation to be with lola, whose father disapproves of him, a killing in self defense takes place, triggering a massive man hunt for willie .
anton ludvik, aka gerard, is vice - minister of foreign affairs of czechoslovakia. he realizes he is watched and followed. one day, he is arrested and put into jail, in solitary confinement... . see full summary »
: get away from that door, or i' m gonna choke your child .
are listed in the opening credits, which had no character names, but are not in the end credits, which listed the character names. on the other hand, fuddles was not in the opening credits but listed last in the end credits .
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one of the first comedies to truly revel in bad taste. prepare to laugh at rape, incest, hippies, defecation and attempted murder. segal plays the ultimate broken man and gordon is amazing as his whacked out momma. if this film were released today i' m certain it would destroy careers rather than create them. sad .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942, and died a little over five years ago. i owe a good part of my success…
a look back at robert zemeckis' half - animated classic, who framed roger rabbit, on its 30 - year anniversary .
a tribute to the late tab hunter, a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
about a month after
the producers
( 1968) opened, i got an indignant call from a lady who said she, for one, didn' t see anything funny about a musical about hitler .
if you ask me ,
she said ,
a musical like that should flop .
an interview with terry gilliam, director of
the man who killed don quixote .
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i do agree that seeing new york city back in the bad old days when crime was rampant and white flight was in full effect is interesting. knife welding muggers in central park would make big news these days, while in this movie and at that time, it was all too common .
dark humor makes light of serious or morbid subject matter. the best films that depict dark humor are the ones that satire outrageous situations that usually involve crimes or immorality. there have been many great ones, such as the war of the roses (1989) and horrible bosses (2011). a dark comedy can create huge laughs dealing with crimes such as abduction in ruthless people (1986) or a foul mouthed mall santa in bad santa (2003) .
i agree with scott that the courtroom scene is misplayed, much as the entire film is. i get that reiner is trying to make the general into a buffoon and the hippy into a hypocrite but neither one generates a single laugh. the general comes off as stupid and the hippy is nothing more than an asshole .
the rape scene is horribly executed. my brothers mentioned that the joke is that the victim turns out to be a guy who enjoyed the rape. in better hands that could have been funny. however, reiner does not play up the satire enough. as the man explains, he got excited and was forced to rape what he thought was a girl. the fact that he got aroused to rape is more disturbing than hilarious .
think of this, kevin kline eating the fish in a fish called wanda (1988) is not in and of itself funny. having him gorge himself on an aquarium full of fish to get a crying michael palin to talk is. the humor is not just in the shock but in how the shock is delivered .
writer - director of
tales from the script ,
author of three cinema books, filmmaker .
gas! or it became necessary to destroy the world in order to save it .
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where 's poppa ? is a 1970 black comedy film ; it is based on the novel by robert klane and stars george segal , ron leibman and ruth gordon . the movie has sometimes been referred to as going ape . the plot revolves around the troubled relationship between a lawyer ( segal ) and his senile mother ( gordon ) . the film was directed by carl reiner , whose son rob reiner had a role in an early performance . others in the cast are paul sorvino , ron leibman , trish van devere , vincent gardenia and future saturday night live star garrett morris . the film was released on july 9 , 1970 , by united artists . 
where's poppa? is a 1970 black comedy film; it is based on the novel by robert klane and stars george segal, ron leibman and ruth gordon. the movie has sometimes been referred to as going ape. the plot revolves around the troubled relationship between a lawyer (segal) and his senile mother (gordon). the film was directed by carl reiner, whose son rob reiner had a role in an early performance. others in the cast are paul sorvino, ron leibman, trish van devere, vincent gardenia and future saturday night live star garrett morris. the film was released on july 9, 1970, by united artists.
where's poppa? is a 1970 black comedy film; it is based on the novel by robert klane and stars george segal, ron leibman and ruth gordon. the movie has sometimes been referred to as going ape. the plot revolves around the troubled relationship between a lawyer (segal) and his senile mother (gordon). the film was directed by carl reiner, whose son rob reiner had a role in an early performance. others in the cast are paul sorvino, ron leibman, trish van devere, vincent gardenia and future saturday night live star garrett morris. the film was released on july 9, 1970, by united artists.