| The Maltese Bippy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Norman Panama |
| Written by | Everett Freeman Ray Singer |
| Starring | Dan Rowan Dick Martin Carol Lynley Julie Newmar |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | Homer Powell Ronald Sinclair |
| Music by | Nelson Riddle |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Maltese Bippy is a 1969comedy horror film, directed byNorman Panama and released byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[1] The film is avehicle for comedy teamDan Rowan andDick Martin, who had recently found fame in their television showRowan & Martin's Laugh-In. "Bippy" is a catchphrase from their show.
In the film, twosexploitation producers are suspects in a murder investigation. One of them considers himself awerewolf, and suspects that his monstrousalter ego performed the murder.
Business has never been so bad for sexploitation filmmakers Sam Smith and Ernest Gray. After their premises are busted by the authorities for non-payment of rent, the hapless pair become prime suspects in a nearby cemetery murder. The mental pressure of near-destitution and criminal investigation becomes overwhelming for Ernest. So much so, he comes to believe he has mutated into America's firstwerewolf. He begins to question whether he—or rather, his lycanthropic self—might be the culprit responsible for homicide in the neighborhood graveyard.
InThe New York Times, film criticVincent Canby wrote:
[One] problem that I carried toThe Maltese Bippy was an inability to distinguish between Rowan and Martin, something that hasn't mattered much on television where their duties are more or less interchangeable... I've now seenThe Maltese Bippy, which opened yesterday at theDeMille and Beekman Theaters, and I'm still not sure of their identities, partly because, as actors, they still are television hosts, and partly because they really do look alike. Although one of them has a mustache, they have the same general contours. Television, the great leveler, has produced the ultimate comedy team, a pair of personalities of similar sex, height, weight and wit, which, I suppose, is the direction in which we've been heading ever sinceMartin and Lewis convinced us that comedy teams need not be physically grotesque—maybe one man should be slightly Italian and one man slightly Jewish, but not grotesque. On the other hand,The Maltese Bippy is a movie that cheapens everything it touches...[2]
Reviewing the film in the present-day forSFGATE, film criticMick LaSalle wrote:
...[here's] the surprise. Dick Martin could have had a movie career. If he were around today, he might have been a film star along the lines ofOwen Wilson. He could do the full range from goofy to serious, without either end of that spectrum making the other seem less real. He also was enormously appealing, just someone you automatically like and want to look at. He was subtle, too, in a way that his partner wasn’t.[3]
