Alan Abel Movies
Cited by many a journalist as one of the world's most brilliant satirists, Alan Abel cultivated a reputation for mounting outrageous practical jokes that he sprung repeatedly on an unsuspecting public -- often with the help of adopted pseudonyms. These included teaming up in 1959 with a then-unknown Buck Henry to "clothe animals for the sake of decency," launching a topless string quartet (in 1967), and staging a fake press meeting with a phony stand-in for the "Deep Throat'" Watergate source (in 1975) among many, many other gags. Abel attained added recognition in 2005, when his daughter -- filmmaker Jenny Abel -- co-directed the documentary Abel Raises Cain about his zany exploits. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi- 2005
Jenny Abel grew up with an eccentric father, to put it mildly. A film producer and occasional journalist for the likes of National Lampoon magazine, Alan Abel spent his life pulling off a seemingly endless series of elaborate media pranks, whereby he would repeatedly drum up insane causes -- from banning human breast-feeding to slapping diapers on animals -- and appear on news broadcasts under phony aliases plugging the oddball perspectives. At other times, Abel played practical jokes on the public by convincing them, en masse, of some fallacious truth. But the phenomenon was scarcely local in nature: Abel's hoaxes appeared on programs as institutional as Good Morning America and in publications as omnipresent as The New York Times (as when he planted an obituary in the paper, on January 2, 1980, erroneously indicating his own death from a heart attack). Abel also enlisted the top drawer of talent as his accomplices -- he recruited no less than Buck Henry to plug the "diapers on animals" campaign. All of this activity led various media pundits to brand Abel as one of the world's most brilliant satirists, and instilled in Jenny a lifelong fascination with her father's motivations and modus operandi. With the documentary Abel Raises Cain, Jenny Abel takes a long, loving look at her father's life and most unusual career. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alan Abel, Jeanne Abel, (more)
- 1976
It was open season on disgraced former President Richard Nixon back in 1976. One of the most vicious broadsides levelled against Tricky Dick was the faux documentary The Faking of the President. Famed Nixon imitator Richard M. Dixon appears in newly-filmed scenes, which are then strategically placed in context with existing news footage. In this pastiche, the audience is treated to a full confession from a tearful Nixon, not to mention such vignettes as the ex-president stealing flowers from the grave of Fala -- Franklin D. Roosevelt's scotch terrier -- and placing them on the tombstone of Checkers! Also making cameo appearances are actors pretending to be Ron Ziegler (dressed as a Nazi) and Donald Segretti. Filmmakers Jeanne and Alan Abel reportedly assembled this "mockumentary" for less than $100,000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marshall Erwin Efron, Robert Staats, (more)
Alan Abel, best known as a purveyor of hoaxes, codirected this porno movie spoof with his wife Jeanne. Alan also stars as an itinerant sex specialist who travels around asking just-folks opinions about the possibility of post-mortem cohabitation. Among the guest stars are satirist Buck Henry and Marshall Efron (The Great American Dream Machine) as a dirty-movie director. Others in the cast are famed transvestite Holly Woodlawn and onetime Mad Magazine writer Earle Doud. Is There Sex After Death? originally earned an "X" rating, but has been pared down to a hard "R" for videotape release. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
After several years working along the margins of the underground film scene in New York, director Robert Downey broke through to wider recognition with the arthouse hit Putney Swope, a wildly irreverent satire of race and advertising in America. Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) is the token African-American executive at an otherwise all-white advertising agency when the chairman of the board unexpectedly drops dead. Through a fluke in the chain of command, Swope becomes the new head of the firm, and decides its time to do things his way. He fires nearly all the staff (except for his one token white employee), renames the agency Truth and Soul, Inc., and announces they'll no longer accept accounts advertising tobacco, alcohol, or war toys. The ads they do produce -- for acne remedies and breakfast cereal, among other things -- are wildly successful, and the iconoclastic ad agency (which only accepts payment in cash) is targeted by government operatives as a threat to the national security. Antonio Fargas and Allen Garfield lead the supporting cast; Mel Brooks makes a cameo appearance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stanley Gottlieb, Allen Garfield, (more)
