Cinematic travesty is right! This film is rancid and putrid and boring and so God awful! Mickey Rooney plays some mental case that thinks he is making movies back in 1947 in an old props room where he instructs his "actress" Luana Anders in Cyrano De Bergerac. All 90 minutes basically takes place in this "loft" that really looks like nothing more than the backstage of a small theater. Watching this film was excrutiating torture as we get to see Mickey Rooney give the worst performance of his career, as well as Luana Anders! Rooney is barking out orders to stagehands that aren't there one moment, then he is dancing around and singing "Pardon Me Boys, Is That the Chattanooga Choochoo." He is painful to watch as in one scene he wears make-up and looks like a cheap hooker on the Vegas Strip(based on his looks...one real CHEAP hooker to boot!). Most of the time he looks like some maniacal gnome. Some of the scenes even have speeded scenes so we can see him dance about in fast motion no less. Anders is just as bad(at least looks good) as we never really can tell what her motivation is or what she really feels. This is just one real reel bad film. Director Yabo Yablinsky deserves most of the blame as he forfeits plot structure, characterization, pacing, motivation, and all those things that are a part of a good film for nonsense, halluciatory dream sequences that mean absolutely nothing, and odd, repetitive camera angles. Whew! What a stinker! Yabo is one yahoo!!!
Review of The Manipulator
