Comedy that tries a plot as well

Press, 21 April 1986, Page 13

Comedy that tries a plot as well

“BAD MEDICINE” Written and directed

by

Harvey Miller

Berner

hans petrovic

“TRANSYLVANIA 6-5000” Written and directed by Rudy DeLuca

At a time of year when we seem to be getting an endless stream of mindless comedies, it is a relief to find one which at least makes an attempt at a story: “Bad Medicine” (Midcity). Starring Steve Guttenberg, of the “Police Academy” series, as an American student at a chaotic, Latin American medical school, this film threatened to offer a mere change of garb, from the * boys in blue into white coats. “Bad Medicine,” however, has in its favour the screenplay and direction of Harvey Miller, who wrote Goldie Hawn's “Private Benjamin”: and the appearance of the fine comic actor, Alan Arkin, as Dr Ramon Madera, dicatorial director of the bizarre institution that bears his name. Apart from Guttenberg, who gave a likeable performance as the boat owner in “Cocoon,” the rest of the cast seems like a list of graduates from recent dumb, but relatively successful comedies: Julie Hagerty, of “Flying High”; Curtis Armstrong, of “Revenge of the Nerds”; Julie Kavner, of television’s “Rhoda”; and Taylor Negron, of “Young Doctors in Love.” It comes as a surprise, then, to find that “Bad Medicine” makes an actual attempt at a meaningful plot, instead of the usual string of banal, borrowed and blue jokes. The story is based on a

book, “Calling Dr Horowitz,” written by Steven Horowitz, in which he tells of his experiences at a foreign medical school.

The film has the obligatory medical-school jokes, and takes us through the difficulties of settling into a cockroach-infested foreign institution, which, boasts a questionable as-: sortment of faculty, one cadaver for the use of the' entire student body, a strict code of behaviour, and monitoring by an officious student who delights in handing out demerits. Then, in an effort to put the school on the map, Dr Madera organises a pub-lic-relations event at the tiny pueblo of St Augustine, the inhabitants of which have never seen a doctor before. Under those circumstances, the good doctor reasons, they will not object to being treated by inexperienced medical students. When the event turns into a fiasco, Madera cancels the project and abandons the peasants once more to a live without medical care, save that of their witchdoctor. The students decide to return to St Augustine and open a clandestine medical clinic. Stealing medicine for their patients, however, soon brings them into trouble with Dr Madera, and the law. “Bad Medicine” also

has a happy ending, with Guttenberg deciding that, after all, there is nothing he wants more than to be a doctor.

One cannot help but wonder, though, whether President Reagan would have sent in the marines to save these American students from a benighted country if it had been

threatened by the Communists.

“Translyvania 6-5000” (Savoy) proves again that, although they can be a popular and potent brew, horror and comedy do not mix easily. In this one, two American reporters (Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley jun.) are sent to Transylvania to beat up a story that “Frankenstein Lives." In the process, they bump into the Wolfman, the Mummy and a luscious vampire (Geena Davis). The film is never scary and falls completely flat at the end.

“An American Werewolf in London,” “The Return of the Living Dead” and “Fright Night” prove that it is possible to make a funny-frightening movie of this ilk, but it is not easy. Let us hope that “Howling 2 (Stlrba, the Werewolf Bitch),” starring Christopher Lee, which will be included in the Canterbury Film Festival starting at the Westend next week, will prove a more worth-while trip to Transylvania. Those searching for a good laugh should not despair entirely, however. Jacques Tati's “Mon Oncle” (Academy) is back, and could prove an eyeopener to what fine comedy is all about to a generation brought up on the recent diet of teenscream idiocies.