A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

A musical comedy set in ancient Rome. Pseudolus is a slave. He has one aim: to buy his freedom. Hero, his master's son, is in love with a girl in the house opposite. The house belongs to a dealer in women; the girl has already been sold to a captain and is waiting to be handed over. Pseudolus makes a bargain: if he brings the girl to Hero he will be free. From there the film is a chain of lies. He deceives everyone in turn, invents a new lie to cover the last, and at some point it goes entirely out of control. A false funeral, a false plague, exchanged identities and a chase at the end. The humour rests entirely on timing: doors open and close and the characters miss each other by a second. The songs are by Stephen Sondheim; the narrative comes from the stage musical. Zero Mostel plays Pseudolus, Jack Gilford plays Hysterium and Phil Silvers the dealer Lycus. Michael Crawford and Buster Keaton are in the cast; it was Keaton's last film and he died shortly after the shoot. Richard Lester directed. The cutting is fast and free by the comic standards of the period. Who it is for: anyone who likes classic stage comedy and fast musicals. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by how the film regards its female characters; the narrative treats them throughout as a matter of trade.