Reading the title, one might think that Bullwhip Griffin is a rugged adventurer, living it large in the old west. When one meets him, one expects this English Butler to be solving a murder mystery somewhere. Instead of solving crimes around England, this polished slick butler, played ever so cleverly and delightfully by Roddy McDowell is indeed out in the old west with his trusted young charge Jack Flagg trying to find Gold in California while constantly matching wits against the ever greedy and deceitful Judge Higgins, played also very cleverly by Karl Malden. Even the theme song is playing in my head as I write this review.
Little musical animated segments introduce each section of Bullwhip’s adventures in the old west in this lighthearted comedy from the classic era of Disney filmmaking. The first part of the film is pure fun. It trans-morphs into triple, ueber fun in the last act as Bullwhip gets himself into a bare-knuckled boxing match with a man who could crush him with his pinky. But he is doing it all for the love of Jack’s big sister Arabella Flagg played by Suzanne Pleshette, who boosts his fighting spirit with a smile and a kiss.
The final fight is a pure choreographed fight scene that might very well have come from a Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, or Charlie Chaplin film. Bullwhip just doesn’t fight, he jumps around and does tricks as the big ox tries to pulverize him.
‘The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin”, is a classic example of how fun movies can be, without resorting to cheap thrills and laughs for the sake of pushing the comedic gross-out envelope that so many comedies today think they need to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment