Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad * (1967, Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse, Barbara Harris, Hugh Griffith, Jonathan Winters) – Classic Movie Review 11,509

Director Richard Quine’s 1967 comedy Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad is based on the play by Arthur L Kopit, and stars Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse, Barbara Harris, Hugh Griffith, Lionel Jeffries and Jonathan Winters (as Dad, narrator).

Smart players work hard to try to make this black farce go, but it gets stuck quite early on.

Its tale about an overbearing mother called Madame Rosepettle (Russell) and her strange, awkward son Jonathan (Morse) taking dad’s coffin on holiday to a luxury Caribbean resort should have stayed in playwright Arthur L Kopit’s closet, along with its ridiculous title.

Neal Hefti’s score is a hefty asset and was reused for A New Leaf (1970).

It was shot in Jamaica.

Sole original main cast member Harris reprises her role of Rosalie from the original 1962 Off-Broadway version of the play.

The cast are Rosalind Russell as Madame Rosepettle, Robert Morse as Jonathan, Barbara Harris as Rosalie, Hugh Griffith as Commodore Roseabove, Jonathan Winters as Dad (Narrator), Lionel Jeffries as Airport Commander, Cyril Delevanti as Hawkins, Hiram Sherman as Breckenduff, George Kirby as Moses, and Janis Hansen as The Other Woman.

Filming was completed by July 1965, but it was decided to re-edit the movie and add new scenes after poor previews. New scenes were directed by Alexander Mackendrick, Jonathan Winters was hired to appear in comic inserts, and a new music score was added. Paramount didn’t release it until 1967.

The screenplay is written by Ian Bernard.

Kopit was on a postgraduate scholarship from Harvard University when he entered the play in a playwriting contest, winning the contest and an undergraduate production at Harvard, followed by a professional run at the Phoenix Theatre in New York.

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur Kopit. The play opened Off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre in New York on February 26, 1962, with Jo Van Fleet (Madame Rosepettle), Austin Pendleton (as her awkward son Jonathan) and Barbara Harris (Rosalie). The play transferred to Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on August 27, 1963, and closed on October 5, 1963, with Hermione Gingold as Madame Rosepettle and Sam Waterston as Jonathan.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,509

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/