Cult Flops Double Feature - Man of La Mancha and The Fantasticks

Tonight folks, I'm launching a new feature at the blog, where I review the occasional flop that deserves a second look. Case in point, these two major bombs. While their subject matter is vastly different, they have a lot more in common than you might think on the surface. Both feature casts with widely varying takes on the material, went through troubled productions, were distributed by United Artists, point out the harsh reality behind romantic facades, and had the misfortune to debut during time periods when musicals were largely out of fashion. La Mancha was a bomb during the 1972 Christmas season; Fantasticks was filmed in 1995, but didn't make it to a smattering of theaters until 2000. Do they deserve the notoriety, or are these darkly fanciful tales diamonds in the rough? Let's look and see...

Man of La Mancha
United Artists, 1972
Starring Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco, and Harry Andrews
Directed by Arthur Hiller
Music by Mitch Leigh, Lyrics by Joe Darion

The Story: Author and playwright Cervantes (O'Toole) and his faithful manservant (Coco) are brought into prison for writing a play that offended the Spanish Inquisition. The head of the prisoners (Andrews) grabs his manuscript and says they'll hold a trial to see if it's author is worthy of having it returned. Cervantes' testimony is the tale of Don Quixote (also O'Toole), an insane nobleman who believes he's a knight-errant who must right wrongs, and his servant Sancho Panza (Coco) is a squire. The head of the prisoners becomes the Innkeeper; the other prisoners are the old nobleman's family, who are determined to bring him home and show him what the world is really like.

Quixote admires a serving wench at the inn (and in the actual prison) who is really named Aldonza, but whom he declares to be his lady fair and true love Dulcinea. Aldonza doesn't know what to make of him at first, especially when the drunks at the inn (and prisoners) attack her later in the film. After a trick with mirrors makes Quixote realize just how harsh life is, it takes Aldonza and Sancho to remind him that everyone has an "impossible dream." Some of us are just better at making them come true than others.

The Song and Dance: Peter O'Toole was appropriately over-the-top as Cervantes/Don Quixote, in a performance somewhat reminiscent of his aging movie star in My Favorite Year. Coco was also good as his comic sidekick, and I liked Andrews as the disbelieving prisoner/innkeeper. The widescreen cinematography shows off a dusty, earthy Italy, who's flat yellow plains bring some surprisingly gritty realism to this semi-fantastical tale. The book even restores a sequence from the original novel (the part after Quixote's family arrives about the people who were supposedly turned into statues) that the show cut out. The shabbiness of the scenery and windmill and Quixote's armor is also directly from the book.

Favorite Number: This is the show that gave us the standard "The Impossible Dream," and it does come off pretty well here as Quixote uses it to explain why he's doing what he does. Some of the other songs are even better. Coco's "I Really Like Him," sung to Aldonza in the inn's courtyard, is really quite touching. "I'm Only Thinking of Him," with Quixote's sister Antonia (Julie Gregg) and their housekeeper (Rosalie Cruchley) complaining about his antics to a "padre" (Ian Richardson), is a simple number performed by actual singers in the dungeon, rather than the "imagined" world, and it's the funniest song in the film. The chorus reprise of "Dulcinea" and "Little Bird, Little Bird" are well-staged with exuberant choreography by Gillian Lynne (who would later go on to do Cats).

What I Don't Like: O'Toole was dubbed (by Simon Gilbert), and it does show, especially when his syncing is off during "Impossible Dream." Loren probably should have been dubbed as well. She does no justice to "Aldonza" and "It's All the Same" and sleepwalks through a role that should have been fiery and passionate.

This is not the musical for you if you want to look at pretty scenery. The colors are all muted browns and yellows and grays, even out on the plains of La Mancha, and the sets and costumes are all either dilapidated or dark and dreary (which, to be fair, is actually a reflection of the original novel). The original idea of a "show within a show" and the switching back and forth between the "real" inmates and the "fictional" Quixote and his world feels awkward and odd, and probably comes off better on the stage.

The Big Finale: Not a great musical, but not quite as horrible as many critics claim. I enjoyed some of the numbers and O'Toole and Coco enough that I didn't mind the rental, but it's ultimately too dreary to be a frequent favorite. Worth checking out at least once if you're a fan of O'Toole or prefer your musicals on the darker side.

Home Media: The solo DVD  is out of print at press time. Your best bet is the Blu-Ray or the 2-movie set with The Fantasticks (see that movie below).
DVD
Blu-Ray

The Fantasticks
United Artists, 1995 (Released in 2000)
Starring Joel Gray, Brad Sullivan, Jean Louisa Kelly, and Joey McIntyre
Directed by Michael Richie
Music by Harvey Schmidt, Lyrics by Tom Jones

The Story: Here's another tale of fantasy and illusion, this time set in the American Midwest of the mid-20th century. Romantic Louisa (Kelly) and dreamy Matt (McIntyre) think that a wall and their feuding fathers are keeping them apart. Actually, Louisa's dad Amos (Gray) and Matt's dad (Sullivan) are using the wall to try to trick them into marrying and getting out of their respective homes. They go to a performance troupe at a local carnival and implore their leader El Gallo (Johnathon Morris) to stage an "abduction" of Louisa and make her swain look like a hero. He and his bumbling players, including the mute Mortimer (Teller, of Penn and Teller fame), do kidnap Louisa and bring her to the carnival, and all goes perfectly as planned, bringing the lovers together.

It works too well. Now that the wall is down and the kids are allowed to love freely, they're just bored. Matt goes off in search of adventure. Louisa finds adventure with El Gallo, who uses a mask to show her an idealized world. Their ideals come crashing down in the end, when they're both left alone on the road...and realize that their idealized romance has deepened into a far more mature understanding of what love really is.

The Song and Dance: The colorful sets and endless vistas of the Midwest in the 20th century enliven this sweet and delicate tale. Kelly has a lovely singing voice and makes a plaintive and adorable Louisa, while Gray and Sullivan do just fine as their frustrated fathers. Everything is big and beautiful and magical, especially in the rainbow-shaded carnival and during the gorgeous "Soon It's Gonna Rain" duet.

Favorite Number: "Soon It's Gonna Rain" is as dreamy as title storm, with a lovely melody and a nice little dance for the lovers. "Never Say No," the number for the dads as they complain about their kids not listening to them, was written specifically for this movie, and it's kind of fun. The other standard from this one is the haunting ballad "Try to Remember." It's performed touchingly by Morris to a montage of Louisa and Matt's memories of their courtship as the carnival packs up and leaves for the winter in the finale.

What I Don't Like: As lovely as the cinematography is, it's really too big for this small story. The numbers work better when they're in the carnival, or performed in a small space, as with "Rain" and El Gallo and the fathers' "It Depends On What You Pay." The "Abduction Ballet" is less of a ballet and more of an over-the-top farce that comes off looking like a Scooby Doo episode, with Louisa shoved in a cannon, Matt chasing El Gallo's performers everywhere, and El Gallo himself conducting the whole thing on top of a pole. Even more than Man of La Mancha, this show truly belongs in a theater, where it's playing with illusion in the face of harsh reality comes off as endearing rather than too over-the-top.

The Big Finale: While it's no masterpiece, it didn't deserve anywhere near the drubbing it got in the few theaters it was released into in 2000. This one might be of more interest to theater aficionados, who will be able to understand more of the conventions and tropes that this show is spoofing.

Home Media: While the solo DVD is also out of print, it's a lot cheaper online than La Mancha. The Blu-Ray may be your best bet here. Twilight Time's 2015 release includes the full 109 minute director's cut along with the original 86-minute theatrical release that's on the DVD and Amazon Prime and that I watched tonight. There's also a 2-disc set that pairs the theatrical cut with Man of La Mancha.

DVD
Blu-Ray
2-Disc "Family Classics Double Feature" DVD set (with Man of La Mancha)
Amazon Prime