Noises Off (1992)

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Starring Michael Caine, John Ritter, Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, Nicollette Sheridan, Marilu Henner, Julie Hagerty, Denholm Elliott, Mark-Linn Baker. [PG-13]

Michael Frayn’s Broadway comedy hit makes the transition to the big screen under the supervision of Peter Bogdanovich, but like his early-70s farce, What’s Up, Doc?, it’s a lot of wasted energy on noisy, exhausting results. It’s a farce on top of a farce, with Michael Caine as a theater director and a big name cast playing a theatrical troupe and backstage staff—they’re putting on a farce for the stage, while their efforts to do so are farcical—but it’s so much frenetic action, with lots of door-slamming bits and dizzying crack timing which never seem to work in a movie when the cameraman and editors spoil the high-wire balancing act of exhaustive preparation. Since it was such a smash on stage, I assume it worked there, but since the translation is reportedly sincere and faithful, I wonder if the original production also suffered from so much shuffling confusion among the characters amid the three acts (first a dress rehearsal, then a messy matinée, finally an outright disaster of a performance, followed by a brief epilogue): we’re introduced to everyone on the fly and it’s hard to keep track of where everyone is at, personal relationship-wise, from one section to the next. For whatever reason, this kind of comedy eludes Bogdanovich’s deep well of talents…but at least it’s not the outright debacle Illegally Yours was. Final film performance for Denholm Elliott, who passed away about six months after the movie’s release.

41/100