The sixties at its most swinging - Peter O'Toole in the lead, Charles Feldman producing, Woody Allen writing but being rewritten, Clive Donner directing (there was a time when Donner was one of the leading British directors in the world), Tom Jones singing the title song, Peter Sellers in a wig, European leading ladies, Richard Williams animated credit sequence.
It's a mess but it's fun, bright and colourful. Not all the jokes work, in fact most of them don't, but there are so many of them you can count on some hitting their mark, and I've got a soft spot for movies which end in a slapstick chase on small cars (it has an almost Beach Party vibe about it).
There's a massive race as to who can ham it up the most - Sellers of course through sheer Sellers-ness but O'Toole tries to match him and Woody does his schtick; Romy Schneider plays things relatively straight, which is probably for the best (the plot has O'Toole try to give up womanising to settle down with her), but Paula Prentiss is brilliantly hilarious as a stripper who likes to commit suicide after bad dates (she's sexy too), Edra Gale goes OTT as Sellers' wife (wearing a viking outfit lot of the time), Ursula Andress lots of fun as a woman who parachutes from the sky (though she only appears in the last half hour) and Capucine again impresses with her comedy chops.
The women are very good looking and it's all full throttle.
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