Under the Rainbow (1981)

“Zee pearl ez en zee ree-var” – Akido

Number of Times Seen – Between 3-5 times (Cable in the 80’s and 6 Sep 2017)

Brief Synopsis – An eclectic group of people all register in a Hollywood hotel during the filming of The Wizard of Oz.

My Take on it – Sometimes, we see films in our youth that make a certain impression on us and it’s hard to leg go of that feeling until you are able to find a way to revisit the movie.

This film is one that I fondly remember from my childhood because it was featured on cable quite often.

I honestly don’t know how many times I saw it back then but this was always a premise that could get me to chuckle.

The fact that this film is set along the backdrop of the filming of The classic Wizard of Oz (1939) gives them a great excuse to use 150 “little people” to help make things seem more fun.

Upon rewatching it now, it’s clear to see how silly the whole idea truly is.

The comedy of errors presented here is completely absurd and it’s hard to imagine anyone actually thinking that it’s any good.

The storyline gets crazier and crazier as it moves along and the mix of too many ideas really destroys any chance this film had of being any good.

The antics of the midgets, along with a spy plotline in addition to an assassination attempt is just too much and they don’t even find an interesting way to merge all of the storylines together.

One would hope that the presence of Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher might have helped make this more presentable, but even both of them have discussed how much they hated making this film (see the two trivia notes below).

This is a film that people should stay as far away from as possible!

Bottom Line – Remembered this being much better than it truly is. The story is quite silly and when looking at it with fresh eyes, it’s clear why this film was a financial disaster. Chase and Fisher do nothing to help make this film more interesting because it just gets crazier and crazier as it moves along. Stay away from this!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – When Carrie Fisher was a guest on the The Tonight Show (1962), she admitted that this was one of the worst movies she ever starred in.

The picture was a financial disaster at the box-office and Chevy Chase described the film as “one of the worst movies ever made.”

(From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy

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