Marty Feldman Has Unique Talent

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 3

Marty Feldman Has Unique Talent

Marty Feldman has a talent that is unique {among today’s periformers. He would surely ibe a worthy playmate (for the Marx Brothers, {the touches of pathos he produces must rival Chaplin’s, and he is game enough to seem to rejoice in, and certainly to exploit, a rather eccentric personal appearance.

Wednesday evening’s halfhour with Marty was the most enjoyable Pandora has spent before the box for a long time. The piece was an amalgam of some of the best moments in a Marty Feldman {series, put together by. the 8.8. C. for entry in the "Golden Rose of Montreux” contest in 1969. Several of the sketches in the amalgam were gems that Marty fans will treasure for a very long time. The zany antics by which he coiiveyed in the veterinarian’s waiting room that the animal in the basket was a griffin or worse was memorable miming. “The Day In the Life of a Stuntman” was a combination of real and phony acrobatics in the deadpan manner of one accustomed to. and indeed expecting, the buffets of fate. And “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Golfer” must be one of the most ingeniously funny sketches ever filmed. When the wayward golf ball resting on the tender of a speeding railway engine was played by Marty from a passing train, this produced the golf-shot story to end all golf-shot stories. Barry Took, who wrote the

:shows with Marty Feldman,! ;and who is also his co | {writer in “The Walrus and; the Carpenter," said of the; collection made for the{ Montreux jury, that he! thought Marty would be a revelation to them. CHTV3 viewers will no doubt l that he was. Marty Feldman and Barry Took have also written “Bootsie and Snudge.” ¥ * * First impressions did not give Pandora a favourable impression of “Mum’s Boys,” which began a sevenprogramme run on Wednesday evening. None of the (three chief ■ characters is [engaging. The two men living under the same roof [appeal much, much, less than the “Hugh and I” pair in {similar circumstances—and

| that in Pandora’s book is ! saying something. And the 'episode saw a return to some iof the coarse “double entendre” jokes that have {been a weakness in British so-called comedy. Crude, lusty humour of the Alf Garnett type is one thing; sleazy innuendo (with squeals from the audience contrived to emphasise a point) is quite another. “Mum's Boys” might improve, but Pandora fears it will prove to be another of those things N.Z.B.C. buyers wasted money on. PANDORA.