22 reviews
Dated but fun
It's about life, love and KILLING...
- JasparLamarCrabb
- Dec 23, 2011
- Permalink
You just have to watch it right through
I've got to agree with this motley collection of comments. I saw this film only once, probably in the 1970's on BBC television, though I don't think it was that late at night. I must have seen loads of movies that way - just having the TV on anyway - but this is one of the few that simply stick in my mind, occasionally popping up from nowhere. Rod Steiger's lurching dinosaur, or the title girl's annoying song. It's not top-10 great, but I've always wanted to see it again, but haven't ever seen it listed.
One point about the 'heaven' cutaways. I'm pretty sure that the disparate characters there form an exclusive club of people who have been killed by Steiger's character, ranging from the drink-drive accident of little Wanda June to the nazi he deliberately executed in WW2, now meeting regularly for games of shuffleboard which 'simply everybody plays in heaven'.
Weird, and often blankly irritating, but compelling. You just have to watch it right through.
One point about the 'heaven' cutaways. I'm pretty sure that the disparate characters there form an exclusive club of people who have been killed by Steiger's character, ranging from the drink-drive accident of little Wanda June to the nazi he deliberately executed in WW2, now meeting regularly for games of shuffleboard which 'simply everybody plays in heaven'.
Weird, and often blankly irritating, but compelling. You just have to watch it right through.
- unclenogbad
- Jan 17, 2009
- Permalink
The Jungle Blunderbuss vs. The City Violinist
I can't believe only one other person has commented on this movie! I guess it must be virtually pulled from circulation. I haven't seen it for years, but i've always remembered it and have been looking for it ever since one chance viewing on late night TV.
I just thought it was brilliant but have subsequently learned that critics thought it was horrible. oh well.
it felt like a drama by a great playwright. primal man vs. refined culture. outdoorsman vs. city folk. men vs. women.
and it's played to the hilt by Steiger and William Hickey. Hickey gives one of those most wonderful, funny, quirky, memorable performances i've ever seen in a film. and Steiger very effectively makes you hate him, playing this full-of-himself a*shole to the hilt -- but who can also appeal to any burgeoning Thoreauvian, or maybe even xtreme sports enthusiast.
there are some very funny scenes involving a violin that obviously symbolizes refined culture. There's almost something of a Simpsons in this -- an adult comedic violent film version of Homer vs. Lisa.
there's gotta be some reason this has been pulled from circulation cuz it's just too good and weird to not make more frequent appearances on the second-string movie channels. if you ever get a chance to see it, i say, email me and lemmi know when it's on! and don't miss it.
William Hickey: Thanks for being here!
I just thought it was brilliant but have subsequently learned that critics thought it was horrible. oh well.
it felt like a drama by a great playwright. primal man vs. refined culture. outdoorsman vs. city folk. men vs. women.
and it's played to the hilt by Steiger and William Hickey. Hickey gives one of those most wonderful, funny, quirky, memorable performances i've ever seen in a film. and Steiger very effectively makes you hate him, playing this full-of-himself a*shole to the hilt -- but who can also appeal to any burgeoning Thoreauvian, or maybe even xtreme sports enthusiast.
there are some very funny scenes involving a violin that obviously symbolizes refined culture. There's almost something of a Simpsons in this -- an adult comedic violent film version of Homer vs. Lisa.
there's gotta be some reason this has been pulled from circulation cuz it's just too good and weird to not make more frequent appearances on the second-string movie channels. if you ever get a chance to see it, i say, email me and lemmi know when it's on! and don't miss it.
William Hickey: Thanks for being here!
- karmacoupe
- Sep 27, 2003
- Permalink
very interesting!
Caught this movie on the fly, had to wait until it ended to carry on. I happened to click on this movie in progress on the movie encore channel. It was where Harold Ryan returned home and confronts his wife and young son. Warning, the dialog does contain some politically incorrect nuggets that are insulting and would drive the far right prudes to drink and complain to the highest authorities. Given the fundamentalist mentality pervading the television media, it is only a matter of time before the dialog will be sanitized for our protection. Hope to see it again from start to finish before it is ruined to save our souls.
"Men can touch other men and it doesn't mean a thing. Haven't you ever seen football players after they've won the Super Bowl?"
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. adapted his Broadway play about a big game hunter, missing for eight years in the Amazon jungle, returning home to the States, where his wife has understandably moved on with her life, having become engaged to the peace-preaching doctor who lives in the apartment next door. Either producer Leonard Goldsmith or director Mark Robson made the decision to film the play pretty much as is, using mostly one set for its action, with the actors talking and walking from stage right to stage left (or in circles); as the screenwriter, Vonnegut really didn't give them much of an opportunity to do anything else, though he later badmouthed the film. Tolerance for the performances will have to determine the picture's ultimate success: Susannah York does wonders with the role of Penelope, the wife who has become educated since her days as a car-hop, but Rod Steiger is all wrong for the role of Harold, the explorer filled with macho bravado. Perhaps Steiger overthought the material and the conception of his character--he approaches it like Burton doing Becket, with a 'masculine' voice and eyes ablaze. Young Pamelyn Ferdin giddily upstages the grown-ups as Wanda June, a birthday girl killed by a drunk driver before she got her cake, however Robson is perhaps too pushy with the satire in these Heavenly sequences (we're supposed to feel they're audacious, but instead they have a queasy undermining). Some of the interplay between the characters is indeed very funny, but so much of the movie is overwrought, with lines shouted to the rafters, that one doesn't wait for the film to end as much as implode. *1/2 from ****
- moonspinner55
- Aug 5, 2016
- Permalink
Please, can anyone tape this from TV and post?
As far as I recall, I saw this movie on a Toronto TV station in the early 80's while visiting (then) relatives. I've been looking for it ever since. It's one of the all time funniest movies Steiger ever did, and I don't care what the critics (or Steiger himself) said, it is still in my memory as an all-time great. I recall my favorite line: He describes a loving woman (his wife, who faints as he calmly knocks on the front door after being lost and presumed dead for years) as someone who should 'feel like a hot water bottle full of warm Devonshire cream', but she feels like 'a paper bag full of coat hangers'. The film is apparently out there somewhere, as others have noted, but no VHS or DVD copies were ever made. If this ever comes to TV again, please, TAPE IT, POST, and be prepared for a tidy profit selling at least 1 copy.
Truly awful
This is one of those movies that you watch like a car accident, and you can't believe its so bad. I'm surprised it lasted on the stage as a play for 97 performances, or however many there were. Its filled with normally good actors who all overact to the point of absurdity. Susannah York and Rod Steiger are at their worst here. To make matters worse everyone tries to outshout each other, and once Rod Steiger returns from the dead, he shouts the loudest. Its like a particularly bad Here's Lucy episode, where everyone shouts, but without Lucy, and without the laughs...just with her kids overacting. Its truly excruciatingly sexist and racist, and I could add a lot more words where they came from. The problem is as well as the awful acting, I just don't find the jokes funny at all, or why someone would think they were funny in the first place. This film does't even fall into the category of being so bad its good, its just excruciating full stop. You feel like you're watching an amateur play. The son is especially awful, and Don Murray is so hammy I couldn't believe it. Why the director chose to have everyone overact in this way I have no idea. Even if I saw it on the stage I would've walked out. And why would anyone think a little girl in heaven saying she's glad she's dead, and was hit by a truck funny? Then she virtually tells the audience to go and kill a soldier...or anyone they can, because they'd be better off in heaven. Whatever you do, don't keep watching hoping it gets better.... because it will be something you'll never be able to wipe from your mind. It was made to shock, but it truly is just a hateful negative mess. Robert. Australia.
- junglered-691-682980
- Mar 16, 2013
- Permalink
Stagey but hits the spot
This is one of my favourites, so I admit to being terrible biased about its merit. As a movie it's a bit clunky in places, but the cast is wonderful. For me the best of these is William Hickey. He often has the best lines in the fashion of the fool in Shakepeare. A drunken broken man whose one defining moment (in his friend's eyes anyway) he regrets totally. The movie is worth a look just for him. If you don't understand or enjoy Kurt Vonnegut's cynicism you won't enjoy this film. All of the "living" characters leave something to be desired, and there is little to inspire here. But it is funny in an ironic kind of way, and so indicative of humanity. The deceased characters (who all play shuffleboard in heaven on Jesus' team) are a hoot as well.
Lost and wonderful Vonnegut film/play worth reviving
"Happy Birthday Wanda June" is out there...somewhere, because a print has just surfaced in San Francisco for a small festival showing in August of 2007. I first read about this film way back in Cinefantastique and of course it hasn't surfaced since, not on VHS or DVD.
Written probably as Vonnegut was really hitting his stride, around the time of "Slaughterhouse 5" it explores the meaning of humanity on this planet, the madness of men (the gender) and the blindness of following what we thing is valuable but isn't.
Smaller in scale than "S5" or "Sirens of Titans" this originally was a play and the film shows this provenance. It's practically one-set, and the acting is rather broad. Mark Robson seems to be making sure everyone pitches it out to the back rows. The child and the 2 male friends of Susannah York's character are particularly grating. But Rod Steiger, whose role is a bombastic man's man (somehow reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway or John Huston), manages to play his loud and obnoxious role with a graceful (if unhumble) bravado. He is perhaps more in on the joke - that he is a fool and a dinosaur embracing out-of-date ideas - than he initially proclaims.
The flashes to Heaven, mentioned in previous posts, makes this vintage absurdist Vonnegut, with the underlying message that everyone goes to Heaven, so murdering someone is actually not a bad thing - you're doing them a favor. It makes the complains down in the Manhattan apartment about whether they should kill animals, be "savage" or civilized, rather moot in retrospect.
An important work that deserves reviving. It's dated and a bit obvious in its symbolism (the violin hanging like a corpse above the fireplace) but beats "Visit to a Small Planet" anytime. And William Hickey is great as Steiger's sidekick who also returns after 8 years.
Interesting side note when Steiger reveals he was drugged on "blue soup" for 7 1/2 of the 8 years. Did he actually see what life without the "action, the killing" might be like...and recoil in horror? And the last shot - not what you would expect, also raises an ironic eyebrow that will keep this film in your mind for days.
Written probably as Vonnegut was really hitting his stride, around the time of "Slaughterhouse 5" it explores the meaning of humanity on this planet, the madness of men (the gender) and the blindness of following what we thing is valuable but isn't.
Smaller in scale than "S5" or "Sirens of Titans" this originally was a play and the film shows this provenance. It's practically one-set, and the acting is rather broad. Mark Robson seems to be making sure everyone pitches it out to the back rows. The child and the 2 male friends of Susannah York's character are particularly grating. But Rod Steiger, whose role is a bombastic man's man (somehow reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway or John Huston), manages to play his loud and obnoxious role with a graceful (if unhumble) bravado. He is perhaps more in on the joke - that he is a fool and a dinosaur embracing out-of-date ideas - than he initially proclaims.
The flashes to Heaven, mentioned in previous posts, makes this vintage absurdist Vonnegut, with the underlying message that everyone goes to Heaven, so murdering someone is actually not a bad thing - you're doing them a favor. It makes the complains down in the Manhattan apartment about whether they should kill animals, be "savage" or civilized, rather moot in retrospect.
An important work that deserves reviving. It's dated and a bit obvious in its symbolism (the violin hanging like a corpse above the fireplace) but beats "Visit to a Small Planet" anytime. And William Hickey is great as Steiger's sidekick who also returns after 8 years.
Interesting side note when Steiger reveals he was drugged on "blue soup" for 7 1/2 of the 8 years. Did he actually see what life without the "action, the killing" might be like...and recoil in horror? And the last shot - not what you would expect, also raises an ironic eyebrow that will keep this film in your mind for days.
One of 1971's Best!
What happened to this movie? I've recommended it for 3 decades as one of the finest of the surreal comedies and it seems to have vanished. Who owns the rights? Please reissue this farcical drama. Like "Where's Poppa?" Central Park represents the evils of the world. The heaven-related references are hilarious. Ms. York was never prettier. Rod Steiger delivers a (not unexpectedly) bravura performance. It's based on a Kurt Vonnegut story. What more need I say? If you enjoyed "A Boy and His Dog", you certainly will savor the sophisticated and sly humor to be found in "Happy Birthday, Wanda June."
Shuffleboard anyone?
Yes, I have to toss my two thumbs up into the heavens for this film as well. Seen a few times at a very young age. Bit of a slow start as Harold returns home and all. But soon as the cake is introduced with 'Happy Birthday Wanda June' on the counter, the surreal begins! A brilliantly funny, but I'm sure 'unpolitically correct' view of 'heaven' - even at my young virgin age, I was kinda shocked. Wanda June, cute as a bugs ear - but tragically hit by a truck before her birthday. Assistited by a fatherly Nazi to help explain the utopia of their afterlife. Like Nazis and Jesus playing shuffleboard all day in heaven? And you know Jesus is like really good, because he has the satin jacket and all that. Then back down to New York, where Harold and his buddy try desperately to reintegrate themselves into a world that now seems so foreign. I wouldn't say it was a 'feminist' movie, nor was it glorifying or lambasting the idea of brutality and war. I'd say it was simply about 'time' itself. As in 'time is fleeting', 'time heals all wounds', 'remember the good times and forget the bad'. As irrational and surreal as it was - long before Updike treatments. It's probably the one that comes off the most sane and human out of the lot. Kings, Heros, Madmen, and the wakes of their plunder and destruction. Queens, Innocent beauty, and youth. All but ripples on the shore that cannot stand up to natural currents and waves - only help contribute to them until the tides change. And that you can set your watch to. Brilliant film!
- dungeonstudio
- Mar 27, 2010
- Permalink
This is a great movie about what it means to be a man
I too saw this movie extremely late at night.
It is funny, insightful. When I saw it I was a man of about 20 years and really liked how it deflated the stereotypes of what a man is supposed to be. The macho, the nice guy and the nobody are all shown as confused people who have latched on to a role to play.
I have the book and wish I could buy the movie on DVD. However, I have heard that Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is embarrassed by it and does not want it reproduced.
My favourite line was "he speaks German like my ass chews bubblegum". These are the words of a Nazi officer that Rod Steiger's character sent to heaven. He feels okay about it and likes it in heaven. Every day is Christmas and everyone plays shuffleboard.
It is funny, insightful. When I saw it I was a man of about 20 years and really liked how it deflated the stereotypes of what a man is supposed to be. The macho, the nice guy and the nobody are all shown as confused people who have latched on to a role to play.
I have the book and wish I could buy the movie on DVD. However, I have heard that Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is embarrassed by it and does not want it reproduced.
My favourite line was "he speaks German like my ass chews bubblegum". These are the words of a Nazi officer that Rod Steiger's character sent to heaven. He feels okay about it and likes it in heaven. Every day is Christmas and everyone plays shuffleboard.
- fitzgerald-patrick
- Aug 28, 2006
- Permalink
The Man Who Dropped The Bomb on Nagasaki
I'll be the third person to comment on this movie; seems like like an exclusive club. Anyway, this is a very strange movie; Vonnegut does black comedy and touches on ideas he put in "Slaughterhouse Five". I saw this movie about 20 years ago, late at night on television, and it says a lot that although it's never going to be in my top 50 list, every so often I recall it and smile. Steiger is an egotistical, Iron John type adventurer and explorer who abandoned his wife to go off exploring with his friend, played by William Hickey (who was the man who dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki, not Hiroshima, as the previous person said) and was missing, presumed dead for 7 years. Steiger thinks he can just waltz back into everyone's lives again and they'll all come running to him, but the reality is very different. Interspersed with this are cut aways to a little girl in Heaven called Wanda June who never got her big birthday party while she was living. Memory has dulled why her character and story is significant. One of the funniest scenes is where Steiger and Hickey enter their favourite bar after years away and the bartender yells out "Hey! This is the guy that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki!": A Japanese businessman looks on with contempt and backs away but a bearded hippy says "wow, I always wanted to meet you, man!"
- ubercommando
- Apr 11, 2004
- Permalink
What Happened to this Movie?
I saw this movie at what I believe may have been it's premier in Westwood, California, near Hollywood, in 1971 when I was a junior in high school. I had read Cat's Cradle (which was always my favorite Vonnegut) and Slaughterhouse 5 in an English literature class, and when I saw it advertised at a movie theater, I had to see it, and I laughed my ass off. Since then, I have told many people about it who thought that I was crazy, because no one ever heard of it, except as a short run play. How could a movie written by Kurt Vonnegut, starring academy award winner Rod Steiger, and accompanied by Susannah York and William Hickey (who stole the show as a hapless schmuck), be so literally unknown? I've looked everywhere over the years to find a copy of it at video stores and no one could even find it in any archives. I always thought that it was strange, that someone as famous (or infamous) as Kurt Vonnegut, could have made a movie that no one ever heard about. Obviously, this thread shows how obscure this flick must have been. I never knew that it had been shown on TV before, in fact, I never knew ANYBODY that had ever even heard of it. Hopefully with Kurt's passing, it will be revived out of somebody's closet and the world will get a chance to see it again. I definitely would like to! If anyone out there knows where I can find a copy please email me at "[email protected]"
- polaris-23
- Apr 13, 2007
- Permalink
"Hi, I'm Wanda June, and I'm dead."
- mark.waltz
- Jun 2, 2021
- Permalink
Hilarious and Surreal
Based on Kurt Vonnegut's off-Broadway play, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE,
is essentially about Susannah York's character Penelope Ryan and the
men that dominate her life, including a phenomenal Rod Steiger as ultra-
macho big game hunter Harold. The story also occasionally jumps to
heaven (yes, really), where Wanda June, the victim of a drunk driving
incident, plays shuffleboard for all eternity. This excellent film has
sadly never been available on video or DVD. I've only seen it on a
bootleg DVD made from a TBS broadcast in the late 80's (with some of
the language censored).
is essentially about Susannah York's character Penelope Ryan and the
men that dominate her life, including a phenomenal Rod Steiger as ultra-
macho big game hunter Harold. The story also occasionally jumps to
heaven (yes, really), where Wanda June, the victim of a drunk driving
incident, plays shuffleboard for all eternity. This excellent film has
sadly never been available on video or DVD. I've only seen it on a
bootleg DVD made from a TBS broadcast in the late 80's (with some of
the language censored).
- vlvetmorning98
- Aug 15, 2004
- Permalink
Marginally produced, one of my all-time favourite films
I saw this in its theatrical release in Toronto in the 70s. It was a film taken from a stage play. Thus the production is very basic, even static at times. Because the material is so powerful, the absence of filmic technique seems only to focus interest more intensely on the drama --- of that, there is plenty. The story is about the randomness of life and death, fame and glory, etc. Rod Steiger plays a Hemingway-style, self-absorbed returning hero, and his unexpected appearance at home following a long disappearance is counterposed to the story of Wanda June, a little girl who was killed by a delivery van (as I recall) on the day of her birthday --- thus the birthday cake with her name on it. So shots in the family apartment cut away to scenes of heaven, where Jesus plays shuffleboard with Hitler. Vonnegut, of course, uses satire to make us think about very existential things --- a mark of his brilliance. Wanda June's happy life in heaven is counterposed to the chaos that Steiger visits upon his family on earth below (he is accompanied by a war buddy who plays the straight man to his massively-inflated ego). This is the best of anything written by Vonnegut that ever made it to the screen. The other films based on Vonnegut's stories tended to "try too hard." Happy Birthday, Wanda June is, thankfully, free of the distractions that result from over-reaching! This is easily one of my top ten movie picks of all time. I had a faulty (VHS) video of the movie at one time, but it disappeared in a move. I really wish someone would print this to disc... it wouldn't be fancy, but it would be a keeper. (In fact, I searched and found a disc of the film online, just after writing this review. It has been ordered.)
The movie that disappeared!
My wife and I saw this funny, funny film in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1971 on a Thursday night in a theater which changed films on Fridays. The theater, by the way was almost completely empty. We knew absolutely nothing about the plot of the movie before hand and were totally shocked by some of the unexpected and bizarre plot twists. That in my opinion was what made the film so exceptional and memorable. I am not a movie buff who can discuss the finer points of film production. I am just a regular guy who enjoys good entertainment. And this film, especially if you know nothing about what is coming next is fantastic.
In any event, we enjoyed this film so much that the next day, I told all my buddies at work how great it was without telling them anything about the plot. Unfortunately, the film disappeared from the theater the next day and I have never seen it again.
In recent years I have looked for it to no avail hoping to see it in some digital form.
If you have the opportunity to see this film without having read the play or without having advanced knowledge of the plot, you are in for a treat.
In any event, we enjoyed this film so much that the next day, I told all my buddies at work how great it was without telling them anything about the plot. Unfortunately, the film disappeared from the theater the next day and I have never seen it again.
In recent years I have looked for it to no avail hoping to see it in some digital form.
If you have the opportunity to see this film without having read the play or without having advanced knowledge of the plot, you are in for a treat.
- robertrappaport
- Apr 5, 2020
- Permalink
Great film if you can see it!
Bill Hickey is fabulous as Col. Harper, Rod Stieger chews the scenery as Harold Ryan. This movie is very confusing, I have only met one person who saw it in a theater, ABC used to show it late at night, the last time I saw it they showed the reels out of order, nice guys, no way you could possibly have a clue.
It is the Homecoming of Odesius from the Trojan Wars, Penelope (Susanah York) has two lovers, a doctor and a vacuum cleaner salesman. Ryan and Harper have been lost for seven years, and they return without warning having found diamonds the size of grapefruits.
I have not been able to locate this film other than on 1 inch video tape, I would love to get a good copy of it.
It is the Homecoming of Odesius from the Trojan Wars, Penelope (Susanah York) has two lovers, a doctor and a vacuum cleaner salesman. Ryan and Harper have been lost for seven years, and they return without warning having found diamonds the size of grapefruits.
I have not been able to locate this film other than on 1 inch video tape, I would love to get a good copy of it.
Irony,Madness and Desperation
The first time I've watched this remarkable movie, was on commercial TV..I was sincerely amazed with this exquisite blend of irony,madness and desperation that was a trademark of Mr.Vonegut's works.But, there was something really new coming on that flick...the urges of a mankind behind those solid characters, Steiger and Hickey, this last one the bomber that wasted Hiroshima, and his Master, a frontiersman Steiger,both back from a disastrous expedition to Africa, that lasted years...Their families, in the face of those presumed deceased...What about an effervescent and mutating world of the early 70's?They should portrait the Vietnam fighters, being cursed for the flower power generation...Blended with superb interpretations from all the cast, with poisonous 'sensa huma'and political uncorrectioness all over the place.Those were the days, dude. A really must see...
- Michael9137
- Dec 7, 2001
- Permalink
a truly weird film
I saw this film in, maybe 1975-6. I was working the graveyard shift in a hotel and they had an "in room movie" feature that consisted of a Video Tape Deck that used 2" on big reels. While I was settling all of the accounts, I had to change the reels for the next movie. Anyway, H.B.W.J. was one of the vast array of maybe 25 films they had. If I could get done early I could watch a movie. There were never more than two or three people in a day that watched any of the crappy films. Well I watched it and loved it! I brought friends and we watched it, maybe twentyfive times. I had a tape from the local ABC affiliate which was shown out of order. This was a very strange and complicated film made totally incomprehensible.
al:^)
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