Rhinoceros Movie Review

Zero Mostel won the 1961 Tony for Rhinoceros—so who better to re-create his original Broadway role on film? And who better to turn Eugene Ionesco's play into a fun, wacky movie than Tom O'Horgan, the original director of Hair? Reunite Mostel with Gene Wilder, his Oscar-nominated co-star for The Producers, add Oscar nominee Karen Black and Tony nominee Joe Silver to the ensemble, and voila! Who says theatre on film has to be dull? It was inept misfires like this one that contributed to the demise of the American Film Theatre. Why subscribe to lousily executed movies like Rhinoceros when real Gene Wilder movies were playing down the block—Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, not to mention other 1974 gems like Chinatown, The Conversation, and Day for Night? woof!

1974 101m/C GB CA Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Karen Black, Robert Weil, Joe Silver, Marilyn Chris; D: Tom O'Horgan; W: Eugene Ionesco; C: James A. Crabe. VHS