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Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?
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Wikipedia article
'Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?' is a 1969 British musical film directed by and starring Anthony Newley."Can A. Newley Get over the Hump?" Sunday Times [London, England] 2 June 1968: 47. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.
Newley played the autobiographical title role of Merkin, an internationally successful singer approaching middle age who retells his life story in a series of production numbers on a seashore in front of his two toddlers (played by Newley's actual children Tara and Alexander) and aged mother. The film largely concerns Merkin's promiscuous relationships with women, particularly Polyester Poontang (played by Newley's wife Joan Collins) and the adolescent Mercy Humppe ('Playboy' centerfold Connie Kreski). Merkin compares the relationship with Mercy Humppe to that of Humbert Humbert and Lolita.
Merkin is constantly surrounded by a Satan-like procurer, Goodtime Eddie Filth (Milton Berle), and an angelic 'Presence' (George Jessel) who interrupts Merkin's biography with cryptic Borscht Belt-level jokes to denote births and deaths in Merkin's life. Newley periodically steps out of character to complain about his 'Merkin' role with an unseen director (voiced by Newley), two screenwriters, the film's producers and a trio of blas movie critics who are turned off by the story's eroticism and lack of plot.
Cast
*Anthony Newley Heironymus Merkin/Director
*Joan Collins Polyester Poontang
*Milton Berle Goodtime Eddie Filth
*George Jessel The Presence
*Bruce Forsyth Uncle Limelight
*Stubby Kaye Fat Writer
*Connie Kreski Mercy Humppe
*Patricia Hayes Grandma
*Victor Spinetti Critic Sharpnose
*Ronald Radd Critic Bentley
*Rosalind Knight Critic Penelope
*Louis Negin Producer Peter
*Julian Orchard Red Cardinal
*Judy Cornwell Filigree Fondle
*Margaret Nolan - Little Assistance
Production notes
The film was shot in Malta.IMDb. Retrieved 2011-07-11. The set designer for the dream sequences was Loudon Sainthill, who died shortly after finishing his work on the film.
Reception
In 1970, Newley and his co-writer Herman Raucher won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best British Original Screenplay. The film's original music was written by Newley with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer ('Les Misrables'). The film was controversial because it was X rated in its original release, meaning many newspapers in the U.S. would not take advertising for it.
The film was a commercial, and generally a critical, failure. Vincent Canby wrote in 'The New York Times' that Newley "so over extends and overexposes himself that the movie comes to look like an act of professional suicide...The movie is as self-indulgent as a burp. It's also as pretentious as its form...The movie is not so free and loose as it is simply out of control." In 'The Sunday Times Guide to Movies on Television', Angela and Elkan Allan asked "Can Anthony Newley ever remember that he is just a pleasant light comedian and settle down to earn an unpretentious living?"'The Sunday Times Guide to Movies on Television', Times Newspapers, London 1973. Michael Billington of 'The Illustrated London News' wrote: "The kindest thing for all concerned would be that every available copy should be quietly and decently buried." Rex Reed also savaged it: "If I'd been Anthony Newley I would have opened it in Siberia during Christmas week and called it a day."
Roger Ebert's review in the 'Chicago Sun-Times', on the other hand, praised the film's ambition: "It is strange, wonderful, original, and not quite successful. It is just about the first attempt in English to make the sort of personal film Fellini and Godard have been experimenting with in their very different ways. It is not as great as '8' but it has the same honesty and self-mocking quality."
Collins later cited the film as contributing to her divorce from Newley. In 2006, the movie won a readers' poll in the 'Chicago Tribune' as "The Worst Movie Title Ever."
Songs
The movie songs were released on a record album.
#Overture
#If All the World's a Stage
#Piccadilly Lily
#Oh, What a Son of a Bitch I Am
#Sweet Love Child
#Instrumental
#Chalk and Cheese
#I'm All I Need
#On the Boards
#Lullaby
#Piccadilly Lily (reprise)
#Once Upon a Time
#When You Gotta Go
#I'm All I Need (reprise)
#If All the World's a Stage (reprise)
All of the songs except the instrumental and "Piccadilly Lily" are included in the 2010 CD 'Newley Discovered'.
Awards and honours
References
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