The Phynx

Well, I finally caught up with the true rarity entitled "The Phynx" (1970). In this rock and roll/secret agent spoof, many American celebrities have been disappearing after visiting the Communist country of Albania, and the U.S. government has decided to rescue them and put a stop to this. Their super computer, MUTHA, suggests forming a rock band that will be invited to play in Albania; the members of the band will be trained secret agents who will do their best to get the celebs released. Thus, four teenagers are selected and given the necessary musical and secret agent training. Dubbed The Phynx, the band does eventually prove a smash and gets invited to play in Albania. Anyway, this picture is truly a one-of-a-kind experience, with any number of goofy gags and fairly groovy rock numbers (by the famed songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller!). But its claim to fame today surely has to be the number of guest stars who pop up in cameo roles throughout the film; not since "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" has any film boasted so many celebs! Thus, look at who pops up here: Michael Ansara, George Tobias, Joan Blondell, Ultra Violet, Patty Andrews (of The Andrews Sisters), Edgar Bergen, James Brown, Xaviar Cugat, Andy Devine, Rona Barrett, Busby Berkeley, Dick Clark, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Louis Hayward, George Jessel, Ruby Keeler, Dorothy Lamour, Guy Lombardo, Joe Louis, Trini Lopez, Butterfly McQueen, Pat O'Brien, Maureen O'Sullivan, Richard Pryor, Martha Raye, Harold "Oddjob" Sakata, Colonel Sanders, Ed Sullivan, Jay Silverheels, Rudy Vallee AND Johnny Weissmuller. Whew! Pretty amazing, right? The film was directed by somebody named Lee H. Katzin and in all is as mind boggling a 90 minutes as you're ever likely to come across. A recommended time capsule, to be sure!

This horrible, unfunny spy yarn trots out a gigantic assortment of celebrities in a vain attempt to add something to fill its vacuum of story and film-making. Its supposed plot concerns Michael Ansara playing a mad military general of Albania who kidnaps celebrities to give the essentially imprisoned Albanian President (George Tobias) and wife (Joan Blondell) some famous company to keep them busy. The General continually foils the efforts of a U.S. secret agency's attempts to sneak into Albania, so the agency goes to its super-computer (named M.O.T.H.A.) for guidance and is told the best means of breaking in is by recruiting a 4 man rock band, call it The Phynx, and make it so famous that the General will allow the band in to add to the celebrity load. Then the band/spy team is supposed to break those celebrities out. That's the gist of it, but there is so much more nonsense going on within this flimsy plot, yet not worth repeating since it is mostly idiotic. This film has the feel of a late 60's TV variety show skit gone horribly wrong and long. It's a lead-footed attempt at frantic satire along the lines of The Monkees, but it has almost no laughs. The four actors playing the band members are unmemorable and, indeed, remain unknown to this day. And the celebrity cast, impressive in sheer volume, gets little to do. Richard Pryor has a small bit as a cook; Dick Clark plays himself in another short bit; Clint Walker has a tiny part as a Drill Sergeant; Harold "Oddjob" Sakata does his Goldfinger bit; Ed Sullivan does one intro; Fritz Feld does his mouth-popping waiter bit; Patsy Kelly serves a donut; Colonel Sanders serves chicken (yep, they even dragged him into this fiasco); and Huntz Hall delivers one line---but it IS the key line that helps get the celebrities out of Albania. Only Martha Raye, as a doomed double-agent, shows any spark in her very short scene. In the big finale we are given an awards-show-like display of old Hollywood with the famous fossils striding into the Albanian Presidential Palace in twos and threes, announced with fanfare. Then they are seated and forced to listen to the pathetic rock n' roll banalities of the The Phynx band. A lamentable thing to behold---all those fossils trying to act entertained by such juvenile electric guitar-laden ramblings when you know they want to hear Benny Goodman, or hell, even Liberace. And the songs by famed tunesmiths Leiber and Stoller are junk, although they at least didn't attempt any psychedelic rock. Well, all I can say is that having all those celebs in one room must have led to one hell of a fun lunch for them.... but the film is no fun for any viewer. And Warner Bros. barely released it back in 1969, for good reason, and it has since vanished without a trace, also for good reason.

Hollywood tried so hard to assimilate the new hippie movement in their TV shows and movies and usually got it way wrong. so many films failed to do the "mix", SKIDOO, I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS, etc.

The Phynx boasts a huge cast of Hollywood idols and can actually stand alone on that basis! Old stars, solo, or with their partners, are "relocated" to a huge estate, held hostage by the supposed "new" generation of entertainer...and indeed, when James Brown and 1969-70 entourage arrive, as ambassadors of the new music industry, we are impressed.

Songwriters Leiber and Stoller wrote the songs for this bizarre experiment and none are any good. That's why James Brown should have done a song or two from his own catalogue. OK, OK...................

Getting' back to those "old" stars: there are many here which justify the proverbial price of admission. I bought the DVD for the 1970 version of Gorcey and Hall. No laffs. But a gas to behold, so many years later!

If The Monkees are QVC-peddled diamonique to The Beatles flawless diamonds, then The Phynx are plastic, made in China, children's jewelry sold in large bins at the Dollar Tree store.

This bizarre 1970 musical comedy is very obviously designed to cash in on the success of the Pre-Fab Four but it's so bad it succeeds only in falling well short of that less than ambitious goal.

The Phynx are a manufactured pop group, comprising 4 minimally talented, totally charisma-free young men, who are put together by the SSA - Super Secret Agency - with the intention of infiltrating Albania and rescuing a bunch of American celebrities who have been kidnapped by the country's communist dictator.

Are you still following me?

The Phynx is badly written, poorly acted trash that doesn't even rise to the redeeming level of kitsch. This leaden satire is less funny than the least amusing 'Saturday Night Live' sketch, and Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber - the men who wrote 'Jailhouse Rock,''Love Me' and 'King Creole' for Elvis - should be ashamed at the musical tripe they served up for The Phynx to sing.

But still I stuck with it and the reason was the supporting cast list. The kidnapped celebrities are actual celebrities! Director Lee H.Katzin has rounded up a 1970 Who's Who of old time Hollywood stars still upright,breathing and willing to prostitute themselves for a final chance to grasp for even a tiny portion of their former fame.

Cinema's most famous Tarzan and Jane, Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan are reunited for one brief scene; tiresome Bowery Boys Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall rehash thirty seconds of their tiresome schtick; and there's blink and you'll miss 'em appearances by Joan Blondell, Dorothy Lamour, Busby Berkeley, Andy Devine, Butterfly McQueen, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Bergen, George Jessel, Ruby Keeler, Joe Louis and even KFC founder Colonel Sanders!

Their plight as fodder in this third rate production is best summed up by Warner Bros veteran Pat O'Brien, who wearily turns to Marilyn Maxwell during the final chase scene (in a turnip wagon) and says "If only I'd played the other part I'd be in Sacramento right now (as Governor of California) and Ronald Reagan would be here." It's meant as a joke but the expression on O'Brien's face and the tone of his voice suggests otherwise.

A monumental embarrassment to everyone involved, The Phynx is about as close to unwatchable as it gets without actually turning off the TV.

Check out more of my reviews at http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.com/

Somebody's stealing the celebrities of Hollywood's Golden Age, and that somebody is in Communist Albania. Our Super Secret Agency spies get the idea that the way to bring the celebrities back is to create some new celebrities, in the form of a pop band who will get invited to Albania themselves. Thus the band "The Phynx" is created. (The less said about the music of Lieber and Stoller, the better. Although, there was one song that kept reminding me of the Fifth Dimension's "Up, Up and Away".) The movie is normally considered a bomb, although I found it not quite as bad as that. The build-up is exceedingly slow, and most of the celebrities are underused. Thankfully, most of the celebrities - at least, the ones in Albania - are introduced red-carpet style so nobody will have trouble putting names to faces. The people playing the band members, of course, have no acting talent, although they could probably dance as well as Ruby Keeler.

There are a lot of celebrities in this one. Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Weismuller; Rudy Vallee; Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, the latter looking like death warmed over (he died before the movie was released); George Jessel; and even Col. Sanders are among those in captivity in Albania. Joan Blondell plays the First Lady of Albania. Martha Raye is one of the few who gets a chance to shine as the Agency's contact in London. James Brown comes next closest to shining. Richard Pryor is woefully underused.

One other good thing is the sequence in Rome. The band members are looking for a piece of a map tattooed on a woman's abdomen; they're given x-ray glasses to look through people's clothes. This sets up several opportunities for sight gags, some of which actually work. There's one of a man chatting up a woman in a club, where it turns out that both of them are actually men, and another of two young women talking to two nuns.

If you like "so bad it's good" movies, this one is actually worth watching since you'll find a whole bunch of "What were they thinking?" moments. I give it a 7/10 on that scale, not on the same scale I would rate Casablanca.