Feel-Good Shut-In Movie Of The Day #15: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1966)

Feel-Good Shut-In Movie Of The Day #15: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1966) Straight from filming "Help!" with the Beatles, director Richard Lester tackled the screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's hit Broadway musical, based on an ancient Roman play by Titus Maccius Plautus (who I bet never dreamed he'd get a credit on IMDB). The cast includes the great Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton and future Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford — but really, this film is All Zero Mostel All The Time. Zero blusters, mugs, howls, whimpers, and squeals his way through the role of the fast-talking slave Pseudolus, somehow managing to fill every corner of the wide screen whenever he's in the frame. His performance is exhausting — and indelible. Like his artistic heir Nathan Lane, Zero proved too bombastic for the big screen, but along with "The Producers," "Forum" showed that given the right material, he could provide cinematic magic with the best of them.