Coming across like a low-rent "Car Wash" set in a record store on a single frantic day, this dopey comedy may not be good in a traditional sense, but it's so bound and determined in its relentless aim to amuse and entertain in the most clunky and pandering way possible that it actually succeeds almost in spite of itself.
Director Dennis Steinmetz keeps the eventful and enjoyably inane narrative zipping along at a constant snappy pace, maintains an amiable breezy tone throughout, and gets lots of laughs from the cheerfully dippy sense of giddy lowbrow humor. Ron Friedman's blithely crass script features jokes about gays, bums, hookers, sexual harassment, and fat and disabled folks that would never, ever fly today, but were still perfectly acceptable in the free'n'easy 1970's.
Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast: Ruth Buzzi as hopeless frump cleaning lady Olga, Michael Callan as smarmy womanizing heel manager Eddie, Ted Lange as funky clerk The Wiz, Jack Carter as desperate manager Manny, Deborah White as irate (and irritating) feminist Vivian, Tim Thomerson as the laid-back Marty, Frank Gorshin as wily and evasive master criminal the Chameleon, Joe Higgins as inept gluttonous guard Doyle, Sorrell Booke as bumbling cop Coznowski, Harold Sakata as menacing thug Gucci, who turns out to be a homosexual (!); Alice Ghostley as a naggy old biddy, Rick Dees as madcap disc jockey Gordon Kong with Jeff Altman as his Nazi jerk engineer, Larry Storch as a deaf guy, Ed Begley Jr. and Elliott Street as a couple of antsy'n'incompetent wannabe thieves, Stuart Goetz as the nerdy Rupert, and the one and only Kinky Friedman and the equally singular Gallagher as their own zany selves. A silly hoot.
Director Dennis Steinmetz keeps the eventful and enjoyably inane narrative zipping along at a constant snappy pace, maintains an amiable breezy tone throughout, and gets lots of laughs from the cheerfully dippy sense of giddy lowbrow humor. Ron Friedman's blithely crass script features jokes about gays, bums, hookers, sexual harassment, and fat and disabled folks that would never, ever fly today, but were still perfectly acceptable in the free'n'easy 1970's.
Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast: Ruth Buzzi as hopeless frump cleaning lady Olga, Michael Callan as smarmy womanizing heel manager Eddie, Ted Lange as funky clerk The Wiz, Jack Carter as desperate manager Manny, Deborah White as irate (and irritating) feminist Vivian, Tim Thomerson as the laid-back Marty, Frank Gorshin as wily and evasive master criminal the Chameleon, Joe Higgins as inept gluttonous guard Doyle, Sorrell Booke as bumbling cop Coznowski, Harold Sakata as menacing thug Gucci, who turns out to be a homosexual (!); Alice Ghostley as a naggy old biddy, Rick Dees as madcap disc jockey Gordon Kong with Jeff Altman as his Nazi jerk engineer, Larry Storch as a deaf guy, Ed Begley Jr. and Elliott Street as a couple of antsy'n'incompetent wannabe thieves, Stuart Goetz as the nerdy Rupert, and the one and only Kinky Friedman and the equally singular Gallagher as their own zany selves. A silly hoot.