Popeye **** (1980, Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall) – Classic Movie Review 1595

Robin Williams makes his star movie début in director Robert Altman’s ludicrously underrated, under-patronised and undervalued 1980 live-action version of the E C Segar cartoon.

Williams and Shelley Duvall are just perfect as the spinach-eating bruiser Popeye the sailor man (‘I Yam What I Yam’) and Olive Oyl, quirky the love of his life. In their own way just as good are Paul Dooley as hamburger-loving Wimpy, Ray Walston as Popeye’s long-lost Poopdeck Pappy and Paul L Smith as Bluto, a huge, mean pirate who’s out to make the awkward seaside town of Sweethaven pay. Popeye heads off to stop Bluto with the power of spinach as well as his bunch new friends on his side, finds abandoned baby Swee’pea along the way. Swee’pea is played by Altman’s grandson, Wesley Ivan Hurt.

Popeye is a gorgeous-looking movie graced with an extremely handsome, incredible lavish big-budget production paid for by two studios, Paramount and Disney, both hungry for a comic book hit after the success of Annie. Though an unusual choice of director, Altman hits all the right notes with the comedy direction and hits the right tone and mood too. And the songs by Harry Nilsson, whom Altman chose against advice about his hard drinking, hit exactly the right notes as well. Nilsson took his musicians to the filming location of Malta, where a studio was purpose-built for them.

So a curse on all the critics who didn’t like this stupendously entertaining and charming movie and helped spoil its chances at the box office where the results were disappointing. Nevertheless, on a $20million cost, it took just under $50million at the US  box office, with a worldwide take of $60million. When it wasn’t the blockbuster they’d expected, the two studios involved, Paramount and Disney, wrote it off as a flop.

Roger Ebert was one of the few critics who supported it, whereas Leonard Maltin who described it as a bomb: ‘E.C. Segar’s beloved sailorman boards a sinking ship with this astonishingly boring musical. A game cast does its best with an unfunny script, cluttered staging and some alleged songs. Tune in a few hours’ worth of Max Fleischer cartoons instead; you’ll be much better off.’

Ironically, whereas the film got mostly poor reviews, Nilsson’s soundtrack was generally well received (apart from Maltin apparently).

The amazing-looking set for Sweethaven, which was built at Anchor Bay on Malta, later became a popular tourist attraction. An international construction crew of 165 worked seven months to construct the set with 19 buildings, including a hotel, a schoolhouse, a store, a post office, a church and a tavern.

Williams had to dub most of the dialogue as his muttered Popeye voice was judged inaudible. It is also Linda Hunt’s film debut. The sing ‘I’m Popeye the Sailor Man’ was composed by Sammy Lerner for the original Max Fleischer cartoons.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1595

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