THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS

 

One of the things John Hamilton's magnificent book WITCHES, BITCHES AND BANSHEES makes clear is that not all of American International Pictures' British co-productions were horror films. AIP was involved in a 1967 film which was titled THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS in the U.S. The movie was called JULES VERNE'S ROCKET TO THE MOON in the U.K., despite the fact it had really nothing to do with the famed author's work. I watched THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS on the EPIX streaming channel, and it was a sharp-looking, uncut widescreen print. 

THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS isn't a science fiction tale--it's more in the vein of such lighthearted family epics as THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, THOSE DARING YOUNG MEN IN THEIR JAUNTY JALOPIES, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, and THE GREAT RACE. Those movies were on TV constantly when I was a kid in the 1970s--and they would all invariably bore me. They were never as fun as they were made out to be, and they all went on too long. THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS follows the same pattern. It literally and figuratively never gets off the ground--it has almost no actual flying in it. 

The story, set in the late 19th Century, revolves around P. T. Barnum (Burl Ives) and a number of eccentrics attempting to build a rocket and send it to the moon. A caddish bounder (Terry-Thomas) and his unwilling accomplice (Lionel Jeffries) conspire to stop the project. 

John Hamilton's book details that Bing Crosby, of all people, was originally announced to play P. T. Barnum. I think this may have been wishful thinking on AIP's part--Crosby wasn't able to do it, and he would have been miscast as the brash Barnum anyway. Burl Ives is much more fitting in the role, and he's surrounded by such capable supporting players as Terry-Thomas, Gert Frobe, Lionel Jeffries, and Dennis Price. The main problem is that these performers are not given anything interesting to do--not matter how funny they try to act, they only wind up being mildly amusing. 

The uncut version of the film is about two hours long, and it moves like a slow-moving river. Troy Donahue, as the stalwart American involved in the rocket project, doesn't help things much, and even the sultry Daliah Lavi as Donahue's love interest isn't able to spice the plot up. 

This movie was produced by the infamous Harry Alan Towers, which is surprising, since it doesn't have any of the notorious aspects of the man's usual work. THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS was filmed in Ireland, and director Don Sharp and cinematographer Reg Wyer take great advantage of the outdoor locations. This is one of the best looking-films produced by Harry Alan Towers, and the production design and the costumes are fine as well. One wishes that AIP and Towers had used the cast & crew of this movie on a feature more worthy of their overall talents. 

THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS didn't make much of an impact critically or financially in either America or England. Sometime later AIP would cut the film down to 95 minutes and re-release it as BLAST-OFF in order to try and take advantage of the publicity over NASA's Apollo program. (For all I know, that version might play even better.) 

While watching THOSE FANTASTIC FLYING FOOLS, I couldn't help but wonder why so many filmmakers in the 1960s made silly, overlong stories set in the 19th Century filled with numerous British character actors and outlandish contraptions, and why they felt that these productions would be prime examples of "family entertainment". (DOCTOR DOOLITTLE is another title in this strange mini-genre.) I would assume that any family that chose to sit in a movie theater and spend over two hours watching one of these things would have been bored stiff.