| Mr. Mike's Mondo Video | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Michael O'Donoghue |
| Written by | Michael O'Donoghue Mitch Glazer Dirk Wittenborn Emily Prager |
| Starring | Michael O'Donoghue Dan Aykroyd Bill Murray Gilda Radner Sid Vicious |
| Cinematography | Barry Rebo |
| Edited by | Alan Miller |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release date |
|
Running time | 75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video is a 1979 AmericanMondo-Mockumentary film conceived and directed bySaturday Night Live writer/featured playerMichael O'Donoghue. It is a spoof of the controversial 1962 documentaryMondo Cane, showing people doing weird stunts (the logo forMr. Mike's Mondo Video copies the originalMondo Cane logo).[1]
Many cast members ofSaturday Night Live, includingDan Aykroyd,Jane Curtin,Laraine Newman,Bill Murray,Don Novello andGilda Radner, appear inMr. Mike's Mondo Video. People who had previously hostedSNL, or would go on to host (such asCarrie Fisher,Margot Kidder andTeri Garr) make cameo appearances in the film.
Others who appear in the film include musiciansSid Vicious,Paul Shaffer,Debbie Harry,Root Boy Slim, andKlaus Nomi; artistRobert Delford Brown; and modelPatty Oja.[2]
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video was originally produced on videotape as an NBC television special that would have aired in place ofSaturday Night Live during one of its live breaks. Because of the special's vulgar and tasteless content, NBC declared that it did not meet the network's programming standards and shelved it.[3] Shortly thereafter, O'Donoghue met former NBC programming head Paul Klein at a party where the project was discussed; Klein was inspired to make a deal with NBC to pay the network the $300,000 it cost to produce the show in exchange for the rights to release it to movie theaters.[3] The show was transferred from videotape to35mm film for the release.[3]
To pad the program to feature length, filmmakerWalter Williams created a specialMr. Bill Show episode, combining footage from his past Mr. Bill shorts fromSNL with new wraparound scenes, to present at the head of the film as ashort subject.[4] Co-writerMitchell Glazer states in the DVD's audio commentary that many other scenes were added to pad the film's runtime to the required 90 minutes for theatrical releases. However, some theaters showed a straight transfer of the master tape of the special, which included slots calling for the insertion ofcommercials.[5][6]
The film would eventually be seen on television, albeit on pay cable and syndication, with several cuts, such as the non–sequitur "Dream Sequences".
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video was released on home video in the early 1980s throughMike Nesmith'sPacific Arts label. In January 2009, The film was released on DVD byShout! Factory. The DVD and video tape releases mute the infamous "My Way" segment (see below), and removes Mr. Mike's lead-in to the "Church of the Jack Lord" segment due to the inability of Shout! Factory to get the rights to use theHawaii Five-O theme song.[4]
The film is largely plotless; a series of vignettes linked together by interstitial pieces featuring Mr. Mike discussing how upsetting and odd the sequences are. He introduces some of the pieces via voiceover, and some open with no introduction.
Sequences include:
Mondo Cane features the hit song "More" (which was initially an instrumental song with words added later), sung by croonerJulius La Rosa. InMr. Mike's Mondo Video, O'Donoghue and writerEmily Prager (who also act in the film) take the instrumental song "Telstar" byJoe Meek and add lyrics to it, creating "The Haunting Theme Song", also sung by La Rosa. The song is sung in English during the opening credits, and in nonsense Italian over the closing credits.
Mondo Video featuresSid Vicious performing the classic song "My Way" fromThe Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, which had not yet been released in America at the time. On the initial Pacific Arts home video release, the audio is muted before Vicious begins singing. Acrawl appears onscreen explaining that the owners of the song's copyright would not permit audio of the performance to be included on the tape: "It wasn't a case of money", the crawl explains, "they wouldn't even discuss it." The sound returns when the performance switches to a heavy punk rock guitar riff, and Sid pulling out a gun, firing (presumably blanks) into the audience, flipping themthe bird, and walking off.
The muted audio and explanatory crawl are carried over on the 2009 Shout! Factory release, despite the fact that the Sid Vicious version of the song can be seen and heard, in its entirety, in the DVD release ofThe Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle, also released by Shout! Factory.[citation needed]
The film received reviews ranging from nearly-mixed to scathing.
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times wrote that the "most depressing thing" about the film "is that there are beginnings of funny sketches all over the place but they've been abandoned before anything was done with them."[7]Variety wrote that the film "pretty much confines itself to the sicker, more offensive end of the 'Saturday Night Live' spectrum, though with far less humorous payoff than the latter regularly delivers."[8]Gene Siskel of theChicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and called the humor "sick and stupid," declaring that it was "one case in which the television network is right, and the embattled performer is wrong. Truly wrong."[5] Linda Gross wrote that the film "feeds off television and mocks all that is middle-aged and middle-American. Its own methods are sophomoric and tacky. Rated R, it's full of bad taste, but it doesn't deliver its promised raunchiness."[9] Gary Arnold ofThe Washington Post wrote, "If you think that censors are always wrong, this show could change your mind. O'Donoghue doesn't give offense by being obscenely funny. He gives offense by being obscenely pointless, tasteless and mean."[10]
Bruce Blackadar of theToronto Star said that "the truth is that not only isMondo Video a prime candidate for worst movie of the year, it’s also bad television and it deserved to be censored because it’s stupid beyond redemption, joylessly repugnant, a rip-off of the first magnitude. It’s also the most boring unstructured and unintelligently produced effort ever by the Saturday Night group. But the worst crime of all is thatMondo Video has only enough truly funny moments to fill up the time it takes to sell a second-rate detergent in a television commercial."[11] Michael Clark of theDetroit Free Press wrote that the film "hit town just one day after the merciful departure ofSammy Stops the World, another theatrically exhibited non-movie whose box-office performance will no doubt have theater owners all over the country pillaging their children's college funds to come up with this month's mortgage payment.Mike may do marginally better thanSammy, but most viewers will probably agree with the NBC censors who took one look at this slapdash collection of jokes aboutGig Young's groceries,Cheryl Tiegs' crotch, and aCedar Rapids religious cult that worshipsJack Lord as a living god and said, 'NO.'"[12] Mitch Darden ofThe Indianapolis News said "it's billed as disgusting, disturbing, horrible, raunchy, gross, tasteless and if your children are falling asleep, wake them up to catch this show. That's how the movie is billed, but don't wake up the children to see this movie, it's rated 'R' for restricted—restricted to the few adults who like absurd comedy in its strangest form."[13]
Bill Cosford ofThe Miami Herald wrote that "yes, it’s good stuff, this Mondo. And it’s sick. And it’s a good thing it isn’t on TV, where some unwary soul could stumble on it in the wee hours only to be traumatized. At least moviegoers will know what to expect when they walk in. You are warned."[14] Robert Alan Rose of theSt. Petersburg Times wrote that "two disappointments quickly emerge in Mr. Mike'i Mondo Video, now in local theaters: Mr. Mike—alias Michael O'Donoghue—had nothing to do with writing or filming the animated antics of the clay sculpture, Mr. Bill. And—sadder to say—the rest of Mr. Mike's 90-minute offering doesn't come close to its opening segment."[15] Greg Tozian ofThe Tampa Tribune said that "inMondo Video, a 90-minute grab bag of barf-styled humor that NBC first requested be filmed and finally refused to air (deciding it was "offensive") O'Donohue seems to miss the mark much of the time."[16] Bob Curtright ofThe Wichita Beacon said simply that "the censor was right about this tasteless, offensive, sleazily-made hodge-podge."[17] Walter V. Addiego of theSan Francisco Examiner called it "a collection of outrageous skits and jokes that are long on attempted offensiveness and sadly short on humor."[18] Ernest Leogrande of theNew York Daily News said that the film "evinces a kind of smugness, a suggestion that there are clods on the earth who need to have their conventional minds jolted by ideas that the 'Mondo Video' crowd are able to take in stride."[19]
Roger Catlin of theOmaha World-Herald said it was "not unlike a very good episode ofSaturday Night Live, which may make you feel funny about dishing out money to see it. Without shampoo commercials and other interruptions, it’s almost worth it."[20] Robert C. Trussell ofThe Kansas City Star wrote that it "gets two stars, not for its humor—of which there is little—but because its bizarre quality makes it an Interesting novelty piece."[21] Jacqi Tully ofThe Arizona Daily Star wrote:
The TV boys proved right for once. "Mr. Mike's Mondo Video," shuffled out for national film distribution, is supposed to resemble a sophisticated, wittily satirical "Saturday Night Live." But "Mondo Video" looms upon us, on the big movie screen, as an often satirical, but generally off-the-mark, comedy show.
The ads pump it up, all with the help of friends Chevy Chase ("Simply too funny for television") and Marvin Kitman ("The best comedy show of the century"), but once the show starts, it's all downhill.
Even cameo appearances by Dan [Aykroyd], Gilda [Radner] and [Laraine] Newman can't get this slapdash, schizophrenic laugher off the ground.
Why isn't it funny? I'm not sure, although seeingBuster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr." the night before "Mondo Video" made me realize comedy requires a lucidity and crystalline vision. Keaton had it. O'Donoghue does not have it here.
"Steamboat Bill, Jr." is one of the funniest movies ever made because it so beautifully communicates basic human emotions greed, loneliness, unrequited love and selflessness.
"Mondo Video," as satire, should make fun of our failings or of the failings of society. Keaton creates humor by letting us in on those private feelings and less-than-ideal attitudes we can all share at times.
O'Donoghue creates humor by whacking us over the head with an idea. The laughs don't come because we're not sharing anything or learning anything.[22]