Buddy Hackett Movies
The son of a Brooklyn upholsterer, baby-faced comic actor Buddy Hackett always claimed he was "born to be funny." Hackett was the boy who invariably blew his lines in the Holiday pageants and the overweight teen who accidentally stuck his foot in a water bucket during his first game with the high school football team. It was while serving in the Army that Hackett met the double-talking Chinese waiter who inspired him to create the most famous of his early nightclub routines. Hackett's first stand-up gig in Brooklyn led to additional work on the New York supper club Catskill resort circuits; he also guested on a very early (1945) TV program, Laff Time. His film debut was as the voice of a talking camel in the otherwise straightforward Arabian nights programmer Slave Girl (1947). He was signed to a Universal Pictures contract in 1953, then starred for two years in Broadway comedy Lunatics and Lovers. He played the title role in 1956 TV sitcom Stanley, which served to introduce Carol Burnett to America's televiewers; two years later, he became a regular on Jackie Gleason's Saturday night variety series. Hackett was most active in films during the years 1958 through 1968, appearing primarily in nitwit comedy-relief roles, but also delivering a solid dramatic performance in God's Little Acre. At the same time, his reputation in nightclubs soared, first because of his quick wit and gift for sudden improvisation, then later for his ability to spout out the dirtiest of material with the cherubic ingenuousness of a naughty first-grader. Perhaps it was this veneer of innocence that made Hackett an ideal "family" entertainer in such G-rated pictures as Everything's Ducky (1961), The Music Man (1962), and The Love Bug (1968). As late as 1989, he was still delighting the kiddie trade as the voice of Scuttle in the Disney animated feature The Little Mermaid. Among Buddy Hackett's many television credits was the 1978 biopic Bud and Lou, in which he offered a curiously unsympathetic interpretation of his idol, Lou Costello; ironically, back in 1954 Hackett had replaced an ailing Costello in the Universal slapstick comedy flick Fireman Save My Child. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1953
Walking My Baby Back Home is a bubbly musical of no significance whatsoever, but this doesn't diminish its enjoyability factor. The film wastes no time in showing off the singing and dancing skills of star Donald O'Connor, who is seen cavorting about during the opening credits. O'Connor plays war veteran Jigger Millard, who forms a band with several other musically inclined ex-GIs. Unfortunately, Jigger's music isn't what the public craves, so he's forced to join a minstrel show headed by Colonel Wallace (George Cleveland), the uncle of pretty Chris Hall (Janet Leigh). As he performs the old "down in Dixie" numbers required of him, Jigger is inspired to reorganize his band into a Dixieland aggregation, with the considerable input of black musician Smiley (Scatman Crothers). Buddy Hackett is on hand as comedy relief Blimp Edwards. A tantalizing excerpt from Walking My Baby Back Home was seen in an ironic context during a 1970s Columbo TV episode, guest-starring Janet Leigh as the murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald O'Connor, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1954
Fireman Save My Child started out as an Abbott and Costello picture, but then Lou Costello became ill with rheumatic fever. Or Costello turned down the script. Or the team decided to film Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead. Whatever the reason, when the film was finally released, Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett were playing the roles originally intended for Bud and Lou (A and C can still be seen in some long-shots, however). Set in San Francisco in the early 1900s, the film casts Hugh and Buddy as a pair of bumbling firemen. Buddy invents a new fire-extingushing device, which the bad guys attempt to steal. Naturally, the film affords plenty of opportunity for slapstick chase sequences, and even allows Buddy Hackett time to do a potted version of his "inferiority complex" monologue. Top-billed over O'Brian and Hackett is the zany musical aggregation of Spike Jones and His City Slickers, who likewise are given several opportunities to shine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spike Jones and His City Slickers, Buddy Hackett, (more)
Erskine Caldwell's steamy novel God's Little Acre was given a film adaptation in 1958. A heavily grayed-up Robert Ryan plays Ty Ty Walden, the patriarch of a slovenly backwoods family. As Ty Ty digs around his farm in search of gold (which he has yet to find), his son in law Bill Thompson (Aldo Ray) carries on an adulterous affair with the sluttish Griselda (Tina Louise). Comedy relief is provided by the dimwitted Pluto (Buddy Hackett). Others in the cast include future TV stars Jack Lord as Buck Walden and Michael Landon as Ty Ty's albino farmhand. A flop when first released, God's Little Acre made back its cost on the TV rental circuit; today, it is in the public domain, available to everyone, even the "under 18s" who were prohibited from seeing it back in 1958. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, (more)
- 1959
Done up to look much older than his tender years, Buddy Hackett guest stars in this unusually violent segment of The Rifleman. Hackett plays uncouth Daniel Malakie, arriving in town to bail out his three hell-raising sons. When he learns that one of the sons, Ben (Christopher Dark), mistakenly shot and killed brother Stump (John Durren), Malakie goes after the man he believes responsible. This fine episode of the superior series was helmed by future ace director Arthur Hiller. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Hackett
- 1961
This is a somewhat serviceable, light comedy by prolific director Norman Taurog (a favored helmer of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis films). Squeaky-clean Pat Boone is a singing lieutenant who has to briefly ship out to the Aleutians and regrettably leave Sally (Barbara Eden), his new love behind. Taking off with the ship is a stowaway turkey, nurtured by Garfield (Buddy Hackett), a zany sailor with a soft heart for the avian critter. The problem is, the turkey has a special attachment to the captain (Dennis O'Keefe). By the time the ship docks in Long Beach again, the turkey and an amorous pelican have produced a strange-looking egg, and Sally has just smuggled herself onboard, anxious to see her lieutenant. Now comes the inspection of the ship by Commander Bintle (Gale Gordon). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat Boone, Buddy Hackett, (more)
- 1961
This fantasy-comedy is directed by Don Taylor whose specialty is horror and action flics, and clearly not talking ducks and children's tales. Beetle McKay (Mickey Rooney) and Admiral John Paul Jones (Buddy Hackett) are two wacky sailors who make friends with a talking duck, a verbose avian that possesses a secret formula. It seems the formula is needed by the Navy satellite program and so the talky mallard is worth quite a bit. But in the meantime, the duck is hooked on booze and is a failure at taking to the water or even sounding like a normal duck. So the sailors have their work cut out for them as the deadline for launching the satellite approaches. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, (more)
Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, (more)
- 1962
This long, 135-minute feature is divided into four different segments, three highlighting fairy tales and the first introducing the two Brothers Grimm. Wilhelm (Laurence Harvey) is the dreamer, and Jacob (Karl Boehm) is the practical one, and between them, some marvelous fairy tales develop. Seguing into the first tale about the "Dancing Princess," co-directors Henry Levin and George Pal -- also the producer -- allow their special-effects artists full rein. In-between dancing, the princess (Yvette Mimieux) falls in love with a charming woodsman (Russ Tamblyn). In the second story about the "Cobbler and the Elves," a Christmas miracle of dedicated labor helps the cobbler out when he most needs it. In the last story, a fire-breathing dragon threatens the kingdom until a lowly servant (Buddy Hackett) saves the day. One of the highlights of this production are the Puppetoons, and another is Cinerama -- three projectors working to create a three-paneled (sometimes visibly so), wide-screen panorama. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, (more)
- 1963
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With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, "under the Big W." The various motorists setting out on a mad scramble include a dentist (Sid Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams); a henpecked husband (Milton Berle) accompanied by his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman) and his beatnik brother-in-law (Dick Shawn); a pair of comedy writers (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney); and a variety of assorted nuts including a slow-wit (Jonathan Winters), a wheeler-dealer (Phil Silvers), and a pair of covetous cabdrivers (Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Monitoring every move that the fortune hunters make is a scrupulously honest police detective (Spencer Tracy). Virtually every lead, supporting, and bit part in the picture is filled by a well-known comic actor: the laughspinning lineup also includes Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Arnold Stang, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and The Three Stooges, who get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing stock still and uttering not a word. Two prominent comedians are conspicuous by their absence: Groucho Marx refused to appear when Kramer couldn't meet his price, while Stan Laurel declined because he felt he was too old-looking to be funny. Available for years in its 154-minute general release version, the film was restored to its roadshow length of 175 minutes on home video; the search goes on for a missing Buster Keaton routine, reportedly excised on the eve of the picture's premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, (more)
- 1964
The Beach Party Gang meets a coterie of muscle-men who try to take over their spot on the beach in Muscle Beach Party. Surfing sensations Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) have their security threatened when Flex Martian (Rock Stevens) and a collection of well-oiled weight-lifters invade their turf. While tensions heat up on the beach, wealthy contessa Julie (Luciana Paluzzi) arranges for her business manager S.Z. Matts (Buddy Hackett) to entice Flex into becoming the latest in her long line of boyfriends. Julie's feelings change when she meets Frankie, who, honored by Julie's amorous attentions, returns her affections, causing a rift not only between Dee Dee and himself, but a further collapse in relations between the surfers and the body-builders, which is assuaged only by the music of Dick Dale and the Del Tones and Little Stevie Wonder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, (more)
- 1965
In this adventure, two crooks plan to abscond with the rare, priceless Golden Head of Saint Laszlo. Their plans are thwarted by a British detective's children who have come to Budapest for a holiday. When the kids learn about the scheme, they immediately tell their dad. In the end, an exciting speedboat chase on the Danube ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Buddy Hackett, (more)
Those who worried that the Disney studio would collapse without the presence of the late Uncle Walt were put at ease when the profits starting rolling in for The Love Bug. The "star" is Herbie, a lovable little Volkswagen with a personality all its own. Abused by a bad guy race-car driver (David Tomlinson), Herbie is rescued by a good guy racer (Dean Jones). Out of gratitude, Herbie enables the luckless good guy to win one race after another. The real fun begins when the ruthless hot-rodder connives to get Herbie back through fair means or foul. Based on a story by Gordon Buford, The Love Bug inspired two equally lucrative sequels, Herbie Rides Again and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Jones, Michele Lee, (more)
- 1968
Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) head to a discount store to buy low cost fur for Mrs. Mooney. Before any legal transaction can get under way, Lucy is approached by a fence named Harry Barton (guest star Buddy Hackett) who talks her into buying a mink stole at a bargain price. Alas, the stole turns out to be "hot", and Lucy and Mooney are promptly arrested--and in their efforts to track down Barton and get back their money, the hapless duo are re-arrested, re-re-arrested, and re-re-re-arrested! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Hackett, John "Red" Fox, (more)
- 1969
- PG
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In this comic western, Flagg (Robert Mitchum) is a veteran marshal forced to retire by the pompous Mayor Wilker (Martin Balsam). McKay (George Kennedy) is a wily gunslinger. The two combine forces to stop a young band of outlaws from robbing the train when it pulls into the station. Flagg warns the mayor of the upcoming attempt but is not taken seriously by the town politician. McKay and Flagg ride out to warn the train of the impending crime, which finds McKay facing members of his own gang in a traditional western showdown. David and John Carradine appear in this feature along with Tina Louise and Lois Nettleton. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, George Kennedy, (more)
- 1977
After a four-episode tryout as a component of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie anthology, Quincy, M.E. launched its regular weekly run with this episode, originally telecast as a two-hour special but since re-edited for syndication as two one-hour installments. In Part One, we find LA County medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) attending a pathologists' convention at Lake Tahoe in the company of his girlfriend Lee (Lynette Mettey) and his pal Danny (Val Bisoglio). No sooner has Quincy arrived than a mysterious illness begins spreading through a Lake Tahoe casino, claiming several lives. Asked to investigate this apparent epidemic, Quincy runs up against resistance from the anxious casino manager (Van Johnson), who is worried that news of the medical disaster will destroy his business. (Incidentally, this episode appeared not long after a medical crisis caused panic at an American Legion convention, thereby earning the designation "Legionnaire's Disease".) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In the conclusion of Quincy, M.E.'s two-part Season Two opener (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues to look for the source of a mysterious epidemic that has caused several deaths at a pathologist's convention in a Lake Tahoe casino. The casino's customers and employees have now been quarantined, and panic has started to spread. This places Quincy in the unenviable position of preventing a riot--to say nothing of halting the epidemic before it expands into the rest of Nevada. Also, there's a strong possibility that the rampaging illness was far from "natural", and that there's a criminal conspiracy afoot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Based on the book by Bob Thomas, this made-for-television comedy/drama profiles the careers of the famous comic duo, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello starring Harvey Korman and Buddy Hackett. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
The 1979 Rankin/Bass production Jack Frost is a made-for-TV stop motion animation feature. Buddy Hacket narrates the story as the voice of groundhog Pardon-Me-Pete. The spirit of winter, Jack Frost (voice of Robert Morse) falls for a young woman named Elisa (voice of Debra Clinger). He asks Father Winter to make him into a human so he can win her love. However, she is already engaged to the brave knight, Sir Danny. When the villianous King Kubla Kraus (voice of Paul Frees) kidnaps her, Jack has to turn back into his spirit form in order to use his powers to save her. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Morse, Buddy Hackett, (more)
- 1980
- R
Preview trailers for movies not coming to a theater near you are collected in this satiric comedy. Loose Shoes is a sketch comedy which takes the form of a series of "coming attractions" for movies that don't happen to exist. The oddball trailers include the Billy Jack parody Billy Jerk Goes to Oz, the family comedy The Shaggy Studio Executive, a ribald Ma and Pa Kettle take-off, a biker film satire called Skateboarders From Hell, a vintage musical short entitled Darktown After Dark, a politically incorrect Charlie Chaplin two-reeler, a Play It Again, Sam goof in which "Duddy Allen" seeks romantic advice from a guy he thinks is the ghost of Clark Gable, and much more. Loose Shoes includes pre-fame performances from Bill Murray, Howard Hesseman, Ed Lauter, and Harry Shearer, while cult favorites Susan Tyrrell, Sid Haig, Jaye P. Morgan, Kinky Friedman, and Van Dyke Parks also appear in the cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis Arquette, Danny Dayton, (more)
- 1984
This musical centers upon the life of a precocious, orphan with show-business aspirations. To achieve her dream, the plucky 12-year old storms professional dance schools, breaks into TV studios and uses every possible underhanded means to become a star. She finally finds a mentor, an aging performer whose career was destroyed by his alcoholism. It is he, who shows her the ins-and- outs of the business, and with his help, she finally achieves her dream. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buddy Hackett, Yasmine Bleeth, (more)
- 1987
Buddy Hackett and Steve Lawrence guest star as Murray Gruen and Mack Howard, a famous comedy team that has been dissolved for years because of a bitter feud between the two men. In a true "Romeo and Juliet" situation, Murray's daughter Corrie (Beth Windsor) and Mack's son Kip (a decidedly pre-ER George Clooney) fall in love. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) hopes to use the wedding of Corrie and Kip as an opportunity to patch up the differences between Gruen and Howard--but this proves rather difficult when one of the two aging comics is stabbed to death! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings -- even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve. Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who will send Frank sliding into a crematory oven -- just before he gives the sleazoid one last chance to redeem himself. Along the way, the spirits carry Frank to scenes from his past, present, and future (per Scrooge) and impart a glimpse of how he became so thoroughly rotten. The radiant Karen Allen co-stars as Frank's girlfriend, Claire Phillips, and the film packs in cameos from countless celebrities -- among them, Mary Lou Retton, John Houseman, Jamie Farr, and, in a truly grisly and tasteless bit, John Forsythe. Richard Donner directs, from a script credited to the late Michael O'Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Karen Allen, (more)
