Word: cameos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...comes on the screen, a voice shouts: "Hold it! Stop! That's the end of the picture-but it's not the end of the mystery." And for what seems like ten minutes of the most crashing anticlimax to ever climax an anticlimax, the incognito cameo players peel off their makeup. Shucks, with those ears for clues, anybody could have guessed which one was Sinatra all the time...
...chuckle anthology is not quite the "riotous collection of political pleasantry" Cameo claims, but some of the bands are pretty skillful. Former Little Rock Congressman and now Special Assistant to the President Brooks Hays is given the largest play, and in general he is worth it. Hay's humor is not the subtle jab of Adlai Stevenson; rather it is folksy, obvious, and almost slapstick. If Hays' remarks were printed they would come off dreadfully, but his quips gain life when told with the soft drawl of the southerner...
Newport's Cameo Café was awash with wassailing sailors. Broken beer glasses littered the floor, and a steady stream of fresh pitchers was passed precariously back over the heads of the yelling, singing crowd. Atop the bar, the most incongruous chorus line in Newport memory clumped groggily to the strains of Waltzing Matilda, with Sir Frank Packer, the doughty "Big Daddy" whose money built Australia's Gretel, in the lead. Weatherly crewmen, hugging their Aussie counterparts, poured drinks down their necks with fraternal abandon. Just as a huge mirror crashed from the wall, the police barged...
Something should also be said about the "cameo" performances of well known personalities. Aside from Anita Ekberg and Lex Barker, most of these people have only a certain local notoriety in Rome. Even the impersonator of Marianne Moore adds very little interest for the American viewer. Although, judging from Ekberg and Barker, they play themselves quite well, these guest celebrities take up a great deal of screen time and only contribute a further thread of decadence to a film already tangled with them...
...Tony Randall, who plays Montand's pressagent with an accurate blend of servility and fresh-faced eagerness. One reason why the film, although consistently pleasant, is only fitfully funny may be a plague now widespread in Hollywood movies. Milton Berle, Gene Kelly and Bing Crosby appear in brief "cameo" parts as themselves (they are supposed to be teaching Montand how to joke, dance and sing), and whatever disbelief has been suspended comes crashing to earth. Miltie, Gene and Bing are good fellows, but farceurs should know enough to come in out of the reality...