Soupy Sales was an American comic that was sucessful in America, but we hardly ever saw him in England. I think he had a cameo in Route 66 and something where he played a Jonas in a naval comedy, but that was about it. Looking at Soupy, you cant help but smile, he is a natural comedian, like Jerry Lewis without the muggging to the camera. Given his sucess on American TV he had a chance to make this film, but here is the point, its a bit of a one trick pony, to the point is that it gets boring. The bit about flying is stretched to breaking point that you wish the film had ended half an hour ago. Hmm, bah humbug, not recommended.
8 Reviews
THE worst film I've ever seen!!!
guanche27 June 2003
Without a doubt the worst movie and biggest waste of time ever. Not even remotely funny, even in the campiest, most anti-comedic sense of the word. The gags and jokes are so poorly crafted that the simplest acting routines and attempts at humorous dialogue are as forced as the laughter on the Pat Robertson Show.
One thing that birds definitely wouldn't do is sit still for this nauseatingly boring crap. In fact, I met Soupy Sales(in fairness, quite a masterful comic and talented showman in his day) a few years ago and shared these very thoughts. He laughed heartily and said that he understood that several states were thinking of using the movie as a particularly excruciating form of capital punishment. After repeated forced viewings, drawing and quartering would start to sound good.
One thing that birds definitely wouldn't do is sit still for this nauseatingly boring crap. In fact, I met Soupy Sales(in fairness, quite a masterful comic and talented showman in his day) a few years ago and shared these very thoughts. He laughed heartily and said that he understood that several states were thinking of using the movie as a particularly excruciating form of capital punishment. After repeated forced viewings, drawing and quartering would start to sound good.
Lame awful childish unfunny comedy
richard-g2892 March 2009
What a waste of a very good legendary comedian! The writing in this movie is so poor and weak that it is insipid instead of amusing. Soupy spends about a third of the movie flying around in the sky, actually more like floating up like a balloon and then having no control of how to go where he'd like to go. This gets very boring very quickly and he just alternately keeps trying to look either frightened when heading for danger or else he looks happy in spite of his inability to control where he's going. There are a group of bad guys who keep trying to kill him for some reason which is never really explained. Soupy is only supposed to be a mere janitor anyway, so why the fuss? Tab Hunter plays dual roles as both an army soldier and also one of the bad guys, who just happens to look exactly like somebody else on the NASA space ship base. What are the chances of that? Anyway, Tab does his best but nothing can save this turkey of a movie. I found a copy of this movie on eBay, but it isn't available otherwise. Probably the other copies of it were tossed into the garbage. I was really trying to enjoy this movie and hoping that it would get better, but it never did.
This is the goose that laid the rotten egg.
mark.waltz29 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In what has to be one of the worst comedies of the 1960's (and makes Jerry Lewis movies look like the Marx Brothers), this fiasco is one that has to be seen simply to demonstrate what a bad comedy looks like. Soupy Sales is a janitor in a military science lab, and somehow he gains the ability to levitate and fly. For some reason, there are two assassins out to get him, and there would be more if they weren't somehow killed off in the opening scenes. Then, there's a man hating congresswoman (veteran actress Doris Dowling) who spends a press conference belittling everything that this branch of the military is doing, blaming the incompetence of the male gender. Somehow, when she sees Sales, all her negative thoughts about men go out the window, and she spends the remainder of the film pursuing him, weather kicking a cab driver to the back seat of his own cab and driving, later getting on a scooter and even scuba diving to try to find him.
His girlfriend (Beverly Adams) and her father (Arthur O'Connell), who happens to be his supervisor, follow him along the beaches of what appears to be Florida as do the assassins and officer Edward Andrews. Meanwhile at headquarters, science lab mascot Judy the chimp (remembered lovingly as Debbie the goop on "Lost in Space") keeps raising and lowering the lever that controls Sales' flying abilities. While there are a few surprise cameos, the laughs are juvenile based, more for the "Gilligan's Island" and "Hogan's Heroes" crowd than sophisticated comedy. I might have laughed more if I happen to be 10 years old, and while I did laugh a few times (a star for each of them), mainly I was embarrassed to even attempt to get through this in its entirety.
His girlfriend (Beverly Adams) and her father (Arthur O'Connell), who happens to be his supervisor, follow him along the beaches of what appears to be Florida as do the assassins and officer Edward Andrews. Meanwhile at headquarters, science lab mascot Judy the chimp (remembered lovingly as Debbie the goop on "Lost in Space") keeps raising and lowering the lever that controls Sales' flying abilities. While there are a few surprise cameos, the laughs are juvenile based, more for the "Gilligan's Island" and "Hogan's Heroes" crowd than sophisticated comedy. I might have laughed more if I happen to be 10 years old, and while I did laugh a few times (a star for each of them), mainly I was embarrassed to even attempt to get through this in its entirety.
Unbelievably Bad (but firmly in the so-bad-it's-good category)
netphemera31 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is absolutely incredibly. I consider myself a connoisseur of bad films and this is up there with the best of them. It's got all the key elements, bad acting, confusing plot, poor direction, lame attempts at humor, etc. But without a doubt it is worth seeking out. I couldn't believe that they actually released this film. Who paid money to see it and why? Did they stay to the end? It's filled with so many wonderful clichés. It's got a great hippie dance party scene. (Best gag: The music on the radio ends and the weather report comes on, but those cats are soooo cool that they dance to the weather report too.) There's a lot of pointless chase sequences which are loads of fun. A monkey that's good for a bunch of gags. The bumbling criminals sadly didn't add that much to the film, primarily because the script was so confusing you had no idea what they were attempting to do and why.
The only problem is the ending. For me, a real good bad film has to keep you glued to your seat throughout the whole thing. They dragged out the ending so much that I kept grabbing the remote to see how much time was left. It's just this dumb, one-joke gag about Soupy Sales flying around. I don't know why they felt the need to pad the ending out so much. They kept on reusing shots, speeding things up, slowing them down, using the same pointless gags. The only thing that kept me going was trying to spot the wires holding the stuntman up in the air.
If you like 'em so bad that they hurt, seek this one out. It will keep you entertained until the final sequence. You can then just fast forward when it gets too painful.
The only problem is the ending. For me, a real good bad film has to keep you glued to your seat throughout the whole thing. They dragged out the ending so much that I kept grabbing the remote to see how much time was left. It's just this dumb, one-joke gag about Soupy Sales flying around. I don't know why they felt the need to pad the ending out so much. They kept on reusing shots, speeding things up, slowing them down, using the same pointless gags. The only thing that kept me going was trying to spot the wires holding the stuntman up in the air.
If you like 'em so bad that they hurt, seek this one out. It will keep you entertained until the final sequence. You can then just fast forward when it gets too painful.
Tame Soupy Sales vehicle
lor_15 January 2024
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Andrew Marton; Produced by Stanley Colbert for Ivan Tors Films, released by Columbia Pictures. Screenplay by Art Arthur and Arnie Kogen, from Leonard Kaufman's story; Photography by Howard Winner; Edited by Erwin Dumbrille; Music by Samuel Matlovsky. Starring Soupy Sales, Tab Hunter, Arthur O'Connell, Beverly Adams, Edward Andrews and guest star: Flipper!
Soup's only feature film is filled with fine slapstick comedy, but its overly silly mise-en-scene reduces it to a child's level. He is a janitor employed at a top-secret government installation, who is accidentally exposed to a secret radiation bombardment that renders him not only lighter than air but also irresistible to women. To Soupy's credit there are moments of inspired way-out gags, before the film finally deteriorates into a protracted running along the water reel.
Soup's only feature film is filled with fine slapstick comedy, but its overly silly mise-en-scene reduces it to a child's level. He is a janitor employed at a top-secret government installation, who is accidentally exposed to a secret radiation bombardment that renders him not only lighter than air but also irresistible to women. To Soupy's credit there are moments of inspired way-out gags, before the film finally deteriorates into a protracted running along the water reel.
If you paid to see it, you should have demanded your money back!
planktonrules27 January 2023
Soupy Sales plays a janitor at NASA who is, inexplicably, important to the space program. Much of what follows are little skits tossed together to make a story.
"Birds Do It" came out when I was only two years old, so there wasn't much chance of me going to see it in theaters...which is good, as the film would have no double made me stupider! And, if anyone had gone to see it, they really should have demanded their money back, as it was really THAT awful.
The film starts off with a HUGE problem...it has Soupy Sales in the lead and Mr. Sales simply didn't have the sorts of talents that would work in the lead. His comedy was extremely lowbrow, one-note and is the sort of thing that even Three Stooges or Pee Wee Herman fans might find beneath them! Add to that horrible writing, as the comedy in this film just never works. Painful, unfunny and a chore to finish!
By the way, I only watched the film to see Dean Martin and boy was I disappointed, as he is only VERY briefly in the film...playing a guy who is out golfing.
"Birds Do It" came out when I was only two years old, so there wasn't much chance of me going to see it in theaters...which is good, as the film would have no double made me stupider! And, if anyone had gone to see it, they really should have demanded their money back, as it was really THAT awful.
The film starts off with a HUGE problem...it has Soupy Sales in the lead and Mr. Sales simply didn't have the sorts of talents that would work in the lead. His comedy was extremely lowbrow, one-note and is the sort of thing that even Three Stooges or Pee Wee Herman fans might find beneath them! Add to that horrible writing, as the comedy in this film just never works. Painful, unfunny and a chore to finish!
By the way, I only watched the film to see Dean Martin and boy was I disappointed, as he is only VERY briefly in the film...playing a guy who is out golfing.
Shame it isn't on VHS/DVD!!Soupy Rules!!
willsauer-130 August 2002
This Hilarious 1966 film starring Soupy Sales and co-starring Tab Hunter has unfortunately never been released on vhs/dvd.Hopefully,someday it will!!Soupy sales plays a Janitor for a nuclear missle site and accidently as a result of an experiment gains anti-gravity powers that permits him to fly and makes him irresistable to women!!Soupy Sales reminds me of another great Comic Genius from West Virginia "Don Knotts".Hopefully someday,"Birds Do it",will be shown on TV and even better vhs/dvd!!
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