Welcome to "Saturday Night at the Movies".

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

This week's film is the musical comedy, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", directed by Richard Lester and released by United Artists in 1966.

It's the motion picture version of the 1962 Broadway hit of the same name, and stars Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford reprising their stage roles.

They're joined by Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford Annette Andre, Michael Hordern, Patricia Jessel, Leon Green, and in his final screen role, Buster Keaton.

During the reign Nero, there are three houses next to each other in one of the less respectable neighborhoods of ancient Rome.

The house on the left is owned by Marcus Lycus, procurer of women, and it's filled with concubines.

The empty house on the right belongs to an old man named Erronius, who is out searching endlessly for his long lost son and daughter abducted by pirates in their infancy.

The house in the middle is the home of an older, married couple, Senex and Domina, and their grown son Hero.

One day, when his parents are away, Hero confesses to his slave, Pseudolus, that he has fallen in love with Philia, who lives in the house of Marcus Lycus.

She is a virgin destined to become a courtesan.

But Hero wants to marry her.

Pseudolus, a clever and resourceful slave, promises to help Hero win Philia, if in return, Hero will grant him his freedom.

When Hero and Pseudolus visit the house of Marcus Lycus to attempt to buy Philia, they learn she has already been sold to a renowned military commander, Miles Gloriosus, who will soon arrive in Rome to claim her.

Pseudolus must use a series of lies, schemes, and stratagems to find some way to unite Hero and Philia, despite the wrath of Miles Gloriosus, Senex, Domina, and Marcus Lycus.

And in so doing, to gain his precious freedom.

The plot and characters of "The Funny Thing Happen All The Way To The Forum" are taken from the comedies of the ancient Roman poet and playwright, Plautus, who lived from 254 to 184 BCE.

Plautus followed the approach of Greek new comedy and focused his plays on the lives and foibles of everyday Romans.

Larry Gelbart, who with Burt Shevelove, provided the book for "Forum" on Broadway, wrote, "With an astute appreciation of the demographics of his day, to say nothing of his audience's secret desires, the poet playwright wrote a string of comedies that mirrored their relationships and experiences, arming them with standup like opening monologues, plus puns, malapropisms, tongue twisters, the double entendre, insults, disguise, slapstick, mistaken identity, mime, wit and witlessness."

Gelbart, also catalogs Plautus' characters including the self-infatuated braggart warrior, the henpecked husband, ever ready to make amends for sins he has no real awareness of ever having committed.

The moonstruck young man, who longs for the heart of a virginal lass.

The lass, with a body and mind as unused as the day she was born.

The dirty old man, who chases after all manner of maidens with only the dimmest memory of what's to be done should he actually catch one.

And doddering old geezers, with an infinite capacity to make fools of themselves.

But most important among Plautus' characters, according to Gelbart, is his ageless creation, who was to serve as the leading character in "Forum", the ever resourceful crafty slave, a nimble liar, able to wiggle out of any tight spot with one tongue tied behind his back.

Plautus' comedic characters, plot lines and devices continue to exert a powerful influence, from Italian commedia dell'arte, to the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Moller, from the classic French farces of Georges Feydeau, during the Belle Epoque before the First World War, to American burlesque and vaudeville, from silent movies to today's television situation comedies.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Shevelove and Gelbart, both veteran comedy writers for radio, television and the stage, would decide to return to Western comedy's roots in the works of Plautus with "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum".

On the other hand, it may have only been a happy chance that the third member of their team was composer, Stephen Sondheim.

After supplying the lyrics for such hits as "West Side Story" and "Gypsy", Sondheim, for the first time, supplied both lyrics and music for "Forum".

Its success on stage led to tonight's movie, and further high jinx, shenanigans and tomfoolery on screen.

You may have noticed that for a musical comedy, and despite having Stephen Sondheim as its primary composer and lyricist, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" doesn't seem to have a lot of music.

In fact, there are seven songs in the picture, only half of the number in the original stage production.

Part of this was due to the different demands of film and stage.

But part of it was also due to the intention of the show's writers, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart.

Gelbart wrote in his memoir, "Laughing Matters", "Our theory was that over the years, the providers of what Broadway called musical comedy had managed to approve the quality of the first at the expense of the latter.

Fewer and fewer leading roles demanded comic skills.

This created a vulgarity vacuum on Broadway.

One that we were happy, indeed, eager to fill."

This is why the leading characters in the film are played by actors noted for their comic performances.

Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford reprised their roles as Pseudolus and Hysterium from the original Broadway production.

Phil Silvers, who had been offered the lead role on stage played Marcus Lycus to perfection.

And Buster Keaton, the brilliant silent film comic actor, appeared in his final commercial film role as Erronius.

Director Richard Lester was well versed in film comedy as well.

He had already directed five other comedies before helming "Forum", including the two Beatles films, "A Hard Day's Night" in 1964 and "Help" in 1965.

He later made a series of comic swashbucklers, including "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers" with Michael York and Raquel Welsh in 1973 in 1974, and "Royal Flash" starring Malcolm McDowell in 1975.

In those films, Richard Lester shows a particular concern with historical authenticity in costuming and set decorations that was first exhibited in tonight's film.

Despite its comic intentions, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" does an excellent job of authentically depicting the culture, as well as the sights, the sounds, and by implication, the smells of first century Rome.

The animated end credits feature swarms of house flies.

An in-joke reflecting the problems created when the fruits and vegetables decorating the sets were left out for days at a time and went bad.

"A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" received generally positive reviews with critics especially applauding its comic performances and convoluted plot.

A critic wrote in the trade paper, "Variety", "Flip, glib and sophisticated, yet rump-slappingly bawdy and fast paced, 'Forum' is a capricious look at the seamy underside of classical Rome through a 20th century hipster shades.

Generally a sade with satirical thrust and on target accuracy, almost all of the performances are top rung and thoroughly expert."

Philip K. Scheuer of the "Los Angeles Times", was dazzled by the sheer number of laughs.

"I simply couldn't ingest it all in one viewing", he wrote.

"I was able to register enough to realize I was enjoying myself hugely.

'Forum' is a bawdy, ribald romp, an out-and-out burlesque show that may even, underneath all the frenetic foolery, the flourishing of floozies and the pratfalls, have something satirical and cynical to tell us about nations and why they fall."

Buster Keaton, who played Erronius, began in vaudeville with his parents in a knockabout comedy act at the age of three, and made his movie debut in a two-reel silent comedy, "The Butcher Boy" with Fatty Arbuckle in 1917.

He went on to become one of the greatest of the silent film comedians, performing literally unbelievable stunts in both shorts and features.

"Forum" is remarkable as one of the few films at which Buster Keaton employed a stunt double.

Keaton was 70 years old and suffering from terminal lung cancer when he worked on "Forum" although he was unaware of his illness at the time.

His stunt double Mick Dillon, took Keaton's place for the sequences showing Erronius running around the seven hills of Rome.

But Keaton amazed both the crew and the other members of the cast by doing some of the comic pratfalls himself.

As any one of his myriads of his fans could tell you, no one could fall down like Buster Keaton.

Please join us again next time for another "Saturday Night At The Movies".

I'm Glenn Holland.

Good night.