The films produced by Arch Hall Sr. and starring Arch Hall Jr. are overall an entertaining lot, considering the low budgets. They made a juvenile delinquent film (the Choppers), a horror comedy (Eegah), a rock and roll film in the Jailhouse Rock vein (Wild Guitar), a gritty crime film (the Sadist), and eventually a western (Deadwood '76), so it's not a surprise that they would make a slapstick comedy, and since this was made right after IT'S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD, I'm assuming the filmmakers saw this as in that vein, with a little rock and roll thrown in. Arch Jr. plays Britt Hunter, a rock and roll singing spy who is assigned to defeat a Russian agent who is carrying a rabbit that is carrying a vial of lethal bacteria...or something like that. A bunch of Keystone Cops-style international spies--played as broad ethnic stereotypes reminiscent of Jerry Lewis's "japanese" characters--are also after the rabbit and the Russian. If I saw this at a rural drive-in with a few kids in the car and maybe a beer or two in my system, I think it would work quite well as a film. I remember seeing this on TV as a kid and thinking it was as funny as, say, a typical Beverly Hillbillies episode. Arch Hall, a bit nervous on-screen in The Choppers, his first film, was relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera by this time, and he does a good job, looking good and acting cool. I don't know why this film is bashed so much-- I'd put it on the same shelf with the 1966 rock and roll spy parody OUT OF SIGHT, except that that film had a much bigger budget and was made by a big studio, Universal. The Nasty Rabbit is MEANT to be a ridiculous, exaggerated slapstick comedy played on such a broad level that children would enjoy it. The color photography is nice (and the Rhino VHS video is letter-boxed!), and considering the small budget that the Halls surely had to work with, they made an entertaining product. Where else can you see Arch Hall Sr. in a dual role--in fact, near the end of the film, he is playing in the same scene with himself!
