Word: comical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Dennis Feldman's script labors almost as hard to get Murphy to Tibet (where he must seek the abducted "Prince of Light") as it does to place him in conflict with Beelzebub's legions. But it makes little of the comic possibilities in the star's new screen situation. And Director Michael Ritchie, who can be a wonderfully cockeyed social commentator (Smile, The Survivors, Fletch), seems almost as lost as Murphy when he is back of the beyond. They are both men who need to plant their feet firmly in contemporary American reality if they are to deliver their punches...
...desk who runs the Stratford Inn, a mild-mannered writer and part-time TV talk-show host named Dick Loudon. All the more so since Loudon is played by Bob Newhart, who has made a career out of trying to shrink into the scenery. As a stand-up comic in the early 1960s, Newhart created a series of dryly satirical routines in which he portrayed a well- meaning, slightly befuddled organization man trying to cope with extraordinary events, from the discovery of tobacco to King Kong climbing up the Empire State Building. In his previous TV series, The Bob Newhart...
...Star Ilie Nastase and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Writer Frank Deford both published thrillers this year set on the international tennis circuit, and retired Quarterback Fran Tarkenton collaborated on a pro- football mystery. On occasion, the voyage into another world may be largely imaginary: H.R.F. Keating launched his delightful and convincing comic series about Inspector Ghote of the Bombay police -- the latest is the poignant Under a Monsoon Cloud (Viking; 221 pages; $15.95) -- without ever having set foot in India...
There are several good touches in Feldman's script--for instance, its ill-mannered version of the stereotypical Asian mentor and a particularly odd dream sequence--but all of these showcase Murphy's familiar comic talents. For his next outing, let's hope for a star vehicle that is a little bit more demanding to drive...
...shared those dreams has attained immeasurably more. As a result, says Danny, "I have been living so long with 'Neil Simon's brother' " -- sometimes, erroneously, with "Neil Simon's younger brother" -- "that I'm thinking of changing my name." He adds, with the grin of a borsch-belt comic trying a little too hard, "That always gets a laugh." In fact, there is often a tinge of sadness in Danny's jokes about the situation. He admits, "The more famous Neil became, the more difficult...