This was the third movie in the 2011 New Year's Day Videofest...theme: B.C.

Let me say right here and now that I do not like Stephen Sondheim. At all.

I mean, I don't like what he creates. He might be a perfectly nice person, for all I know...but I just don't like his songs, they actually set my teeth on edge.

I have been somewhere (my sister-in-law's wedding) and heard a song, hated it even though I have never heard it before, and found out from Mr. Otter afterwards that yes, indeed, that was a Sondheim song.

I do not like West Side Story (although he only did the lyrics.) I do not like Gypsy. I do not like Sunday In The Park With George. I do not like Sweeny Todd. I do not like A Little Night Music. I do not like Into the Woods.

And, please forgive me Mr. Otter, I do not like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

I am perfectly willing to accept that this is a flaw in me; like my hatred of Woody Allen, I seem to be one voice shouting against the storm of popular opinion.

Nevertheless, and maybe the stage show is better, this movie really isn't that good.

The cast is stellar: Zero Mostel (if you like Zero Mostel), Phil Silvers (and who doesn't like Phil Silvers?), Buster Keaton (in his last movie role), Michael Crawford (the Phantom of the Opera, back when he was young and cute), Michael Hordern (in a decidedly non-Shakespearian role), and Roy Kinnear (an Otter Family Favorite Actor). A great cast.

But it's a lot of mistaken identity, running around, salacious jokes told with eyebrows raised, double entendres that aren't so funny, and finally it all comes out all right. A bit heavy, but perfectly okay.

But the overwhelming Sondheiminess of it all...it's just too much for me.

Everyone else enjoyed it, though. Especially since it followed the awfulness that was One Million Years B.C.