The Kentucky Fried Movie - 1977
This movie is totally out of control!
Director(s)
John Landis
Writer(s)
Jim Abrahams
David Zucker
Jerry Zucker
Producer(s)
Kim Jorgensen executive producer
Larry Kostroff associate producer
Robert K. Weiss producer
Cast
Marilyn Joi - Cleopatra Schwartz
Saul Kahan - Schwartz
David Zucker - Man in Car/Technician #2/Grunwald
Marcy Goldman - Housewife
Dulcie Jordan - Guest #1
Gracia Lee - Guest #2
Sheila Rogers - Guest #3
Joseph G. Medalis - Paul Burmaster (as Joe Medalis)
Barry Dennen - Claude LaMont
Colin Male - Argon Spokesman
Ed Griffith - Host (Danger Seekers)
Robert Starr - Rex Kramer
Rick Gates - Boy
Tara Strohmeier - Girl
Neil Thompson - Newscaster
Jim Abrahams - Technician #1/Announcer (Courtroom)/Other Roles
Jerry Zucker - Technician #3/Sleeping Man/Beaver/Hands
Anna Crawford - Mother (as Anne Crawford)
John Landis - TV technician fighting with a gorilla (uncredited)
Leslie Nielsen - Voice In Feel-O-Rama Movie (uncredited)
Review by Gary F Taylor
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Extremely Uneven But Often Entertaining,
THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE is a series of sketches that lampoon various venues of its day: industrial training films, television commercials, news shows, martial arts flicks, and talk shows--in fact, it is very much like the original Saturday NIGHT LIVE. But while being on the big screen means the film can go a lot further than Saturday NIGHT LIVE ever could on television, KFM doesn't have the same level of talent behind it. When you add in the dated quality of the humor, the result is very hit or miss indeed.
The film originated when two brothers and their best friend--David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams--created a live show called "Kentucky Fried Theatre," and it proved such a hit that the three took the show to Los Angeles, where they managed to interest director John Landis and producer Robert Weiss in turning the whole thing into a low-budget film. Filmed with a no-name cast interspersed with cameos by Bill Bixby, Donald Sutherland, and Henry Gibson, KFM became the surprise hit of 1977.
Some of it holds up extremely well, most notably the "movie trailers" for such imaginary no-class exploitation films as CATHOLIC HIGHSCHOOL GIRLS IN TROUBLE and CLEOPATRA SCHWARTZ, both of which will probably have film buffs screaming with laughter. And then there is a sketch which has a couple making love according to directions issued by a phonograph record, an instructional film on the uses of zinc oxide, a wicked take-off on "Point/Counterpoint," and a still darker take-off on television public service announcements--all of them a hoot and half.
But when the film falters, it falls with a thud. Fans of Bruce Lee will probably appreciate the film's centerpiece more than I did, a twenty-minute take-off on martial arts films called "A Fistful of Yen;" I myself thought it would be more amusing if it were half as long. The "Feel-Around" selection was a clever idea that never actually took off, and really much the same can be said for most of the sketches.
Some of it is a matter of datedness: what was topical in 1977 doesn't necessarily have a great deal of relevance for a contemporary viewer. Some of it is shock-humor that doesn't shock any more because it has been done so often and so much better. But even so, and while the film as a whole is perhaps best approached as a cultural artifact, it's still worth a look--particularly if you like such films as AIRPLANE, THE NAKED GUN, ANIMAL HOUSE, and THE BLUES BROTHERS, all of which were created by various members of the crew that originally created KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE. On the whole, I do recommend the film as a curiosity--and it would be a great party film--but this isn't one that you're likely to replay a great deal.
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