It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Positively awful film based on the Broadway stage play. It is so asinine that I don't know where to start.The ending scenes with the chariots racing were certainly no "Ben-Hur," especially when the spokes were weakened by one chariot.The characters are absolutely ridiculous and the songs are even more annoying. What nonsense that in order to attain his freedom, a slave, Zero Mostel, must get a young virgin to marry the master's son.Buster Keaton's role is even more ridiculous searching for his kidnapped children. You know that some of the characters will turn up as his children in the end.

Like Singin' in the Rain, this is one of the best musical comedies of all time. Zero Mostel(From Watership Down) plays Pseudolus, a slave who helps a young man name Hero(Michael Crawford) get the girl of his dreams, named Philia, in order to get his freedom. However, Pseudolus must outsmart the chief slave Hysterium, his master's parents, Sennex(Michael Hordern) and Dominia, and Marcus Lycus(Phil Silvers). Zero Mostel performs the role of Pseudolus very perfectly(I mean, who else can play Pseudolus) and features a few great musical numbers(Comedy Tonight was my personal favorite). It's a comedy of Roman Porportions!

It's ironic that just as Stephen Sondheim was establishing himself as both composer and lyricist on Broadway, musicals just stopped being made except on rare occasions. As a result most of Sondheim's work is sadly not filmed. In any event we don't have the musical stars on screen to do the roles justice.So in his first effort at writing both music and lyrics we're lucky indeed to have A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum on the big screen. A cut down version to be sure in terms of songs, but still a tribute to Sondheim in a fashion.The accent is more on comedy however and you cannot give enough praise to both Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford who were the only two from the Broadway cast to repeat their roles. In fact I can't conceive of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum being made without Mostel. He dominates the proceedings and that's not easy considering his main co-star is Phil Silvers. Phil Silvers was supposed to be on Broadway, but would not do the part on stage because he could not wear his glasses. Those were not just a comic prop, the man was terribly nearsighted. As a result his part was played by John Carradine. Who'd have ever thought those two would have been up for the same part?Another movie veteran the garrulous Raymond Walburn played the wandering Erronius and his part was played by the great stone face Buster Keaton in what turned out to be his farewell performance.Richard Lester the director comes in for a lot praise as well. The way he maximized the use of the screen you can hardly tell the stage origins of this show. Certainly that wild and crazy chariot race at the end could not have been done on stage. It's a great sequence even if the idea originated in the Eddie Cantor film, Roman Scandals.This movie was also the return of Zero Mostel to the screen after the blacklist. Mostel previously had done some really nice character parts, he stands out in those two Humphrey Bogart films, The Enforcer and Sirocco and was really good as Jack Palance's lapdog companion in Panic In The Streets. But when he could not get work in Hollywood, he returned to nightclubs and the theater where he obtained real stardom. One of the many Tony Awards A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum won was for Zero Mostel as Best Actor.On Broadway the show ran for 964 performances from 1962-1964 and also won a Tony for Best Musical. I haven't even described the plot because it's impossible. It revolves essentially around young Hiero, played by Michael Crawford to get the woman he loves who happens to work over at Phil Silvers's pleasure house and his family slave Zero Mostel to obtain his freedom. That's as far as I can go.As another movie icon expressed, fasten your seatbelts, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is a wild and bumpy ride.

In ancient Rome, a sloppy, lazy slave must unite his young master with a virginal courtesan just imported from Greece, but she has already been bought by a virile Captain. Richard Lester's New York/Jewish burlesque revue, a 'throw everything at the screen and see if it sticks' slapstick comedy based on the hit Broadway show. With Nicolas Roeg as his cinematographer, Lester (aided by the wizardry of his editors) stages one breathless, breakneck scene after another, not attempting to top himself with each one but rather trying for any laugh he can buy. The cast of old pros mug to the camera shamelessly, slinging those wisecracks home with gusto, but the film isn't a gut-buster. It works intermittently and has some nice musical sketches (and the Madrid locations were a fine visual choice), but the jokes don't connect with the audience in a human way. It's just a series of boffo vaudeville routines, some of which get hammered home and others that are handled gingerly, making a lilting comedic impression. **1/2 from ****