IMDb RATING
4.9/10
422
YOUR RATING
Heironymus Merkin (Anthony Newley) screens an autobiographical movie of his life, growth, and moral decay.Heironymus Merkin (Anthony Newley) screens an autobiographical movie of his life, growth, and moral decay.Heironymus Merkin (Anthony Newley) screens an autobiographical movie of his life, growth, and moral decay.
- Awards
- 1 win
Tara Newley Arkle
- Thumbelina
- (as Tara Newley)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen this movie was originally released in 1969, some newspapers refused to advertise it, compelling cinephiles to call up their local theaters to learn the title. A few theaters even temporarily expanded their marquees to fit the entire title. Other theaters truncated the title to "Heironymous Merkin".
- GoofsThe color of Thumbelina's ice-cream cone changes between brown and white and pink.
- Quotes
Hieronymous Merkin: Then the Eskimo and the Indian and the cannibal all rush over to the knight and they say, "Your dragon was here and he's looking to terrify you a great deal." And the knight sits there, and he laughs, and he laughs, and he laughs. The moral of the story is, once you understand your own dragon, you don't have to be afraid anymore. See what I mean?
- Crazy creditsThere are no opening credits. All credits come at the end. The actors take a bow on a custom-made, pastel-painted, portable stage on a beach as their names are credited in jagged, psychedelic print.
- Alternate versionsThere is both an R-rated and an X-rated version. The R-rated version removes a few seconds of the sex scene with Mercy Humppe following the carousel sequence and tones down the suggestiveness of the "Princess and the Donkey" sequence. The X-rated version contains all the footage cut for the R version.
- ConnectionsFeatured in This Is Joan Collins (2022)
- SoundtracksPiccadilly Lilly
(uncredited)
Performed by Anthony Newley and Bruce Forsyth
Music by Anthony Newley
Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
Featured review
Impossible to ignore this traffic accident of a picture
The title alone was enough to kill it dead in the water but if you got past that and made it into the few cinemas that showed it then the first ten minutes might have finished you off but this hugely self-indulgent picture is actually worth sticking around for. Okay, the gags are terrible and Newley, who directed it, co-wrote it, composed the music and plays the lead is no Orson Welles but there is a surfeit of imagination at work here and presuming it is mostly autobiographical, (his wife, Joan Collins, and children play his wife and children), few artists, and Newley surely is that, have ever been so self-critical in public; it's as if he wants us to hate him.
Fellini, of course, is the most obvious object of his affections, (he even gets a name-check), which probably riled the critics the most. How dare he think he could remake "8 1/2" and as a musical comedy, they probably screamed, and needless to say the film was not just a gigantic flop, both critically and commercially, but often figures in lists of the worst films ever made. It's certainly not always an easy watch; like a traffic accident it's very hard to look at what's happened yet impossible to look away. It's also impossible to ignore.
Fellini, of course, is the most obvious object of his affections, (he even gets a name-check), which probably riled the critics the most. How dare he think he could remake "8 1/2" and as a musical comedy, they probably screamed, and needless to say the film was not just a gigantic flop, both critically and commercially, but often figures in lists of the worst films ever made. It's certainly not always an easy watch; like a traffic accident it's very hard to look at what's happened yet impossible to look away. It's also impossible to ignore.
- MOscarbradley
- May 21, 2017
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- .... Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?
- Filming locations
- Malta(beach scenes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
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Top Gap
By what name was Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) officially released in Canada in English?
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