Word: morgans
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Morgan, you see, is a man who "acts out his fantasies," and his main fantasy is that he, Morgan, is an ape. This is a wonderful idea for a gag, and someday, perhaps, a very funny, light picture will be made out of it. David Warner, who plays Morgan in Morgan, should definitely star in that picture too, since his big-boned--affine, dammit--face and nimble movements are a perfect abstraction of apeness...
...Morgan--and this is what makes it intellectually much more than a one and one half hour gag--explores all sides to the illusion, holds it up to the lens and shows how flinty it is and how eaily cracked when someone doesn't believe...
...first half of the movie, when the focus is on Morgan trying to manipulate society, the exploration is riotous. There is something of Jerry Lewis's congenital incompetence in Morgan's attempts to threaten and bully. Something childlike, but not quite. A kid picking wings off a fly can ease into adulthood, but Morgan doesn't have the potential to be even a human baby. He's apart and that's that...
...second half of the picture the mood changes from tangy to sour. The fun's over, even though the director won't admit it. Society begins to marinate Morgan. People stop oogling the cute little animal and get worried he'll make on the living room...
...Morgan has visions of fleeing animals, the movie gallops toward terror and despair--and still the slapstick, only mildly successful in the begining, drags on. The last scenes are unabashed surrealism, as the whole second half of the show should have been. There are teasing ideas, of beauty and the beast and rebirth, among other things, that are the most delicate and satisfying form of symbolism. But there is too much of an attempt at humor, at slapstick tragedy...