Posted 6:47 AM by Gene

We hate to harp on what we thought would be the sleeper of the Oscar® season, but we wonder if KERNGERSHWIN HAMMERSTEIN's problem isn't that his movie is so bad as maybe his musical wasn't that good, but that a series of events turned it into a "you-had-to-be-there." How can The Boys be so wonderful on stage and so terrible on screen? If this were truly an outstanding show it would have worked regardless. Granted, few stage musicals have made a totally successful transition to film, but it can be done. It can't be done when the property is full of knowing smirks, rancid ham acting, fourth-rate gags and fifth-rate tunes. And that, I'm afraid, is the problem with THE GREATEST MUSICAL OF ALL TIME, and once again the Noo Yawk ad-blurbists show themselves up as monumental asses.

This may also explain why The Boys plugged the "end" of their partnership as they plugged the movie the other day. This is the end, and given the delighted reviews that greeted their Branson East exercise in greed we would advise them to take the money and run at the end of the run.

P. S. The worst part about THE GREATEST MUSICAL OF ALL TIME is the crowd-pleasin' dishonesty of its premise, which must have been cute even in 1968. If instead of a HITLER MUSICAL The Boys had produced an ANTI-SEMITIC [C]RAP CONCERT the ad-blurbists would have zipped up their terminals. It might also have been (theoretically) a show worthy of Ben Jonson. But alas, we could never have greatness from a center of the universe like KERNGERSHWIN HAMMERSTEIN.