It was, um, just too much. It was like a Crumb pastiche at best.
shareIt really was unfortunate. The movie was ok, but if Crumb had been actively involved, I have no doubt it could've been much better.
The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery. -Fred Wolf
According to this movie's Wikipedia entry, Crumb's criticisms were:
(a) The voice actor chosen for Fritz was all wrong for the part. Check. Exactly how I felt.
(b) "There's something real repressed about it. In a way, it's more twisted than my stuff. It's really twisted in some kind of weird, unfunny way... I didn't like that sex attitude in it very much. It's like real repressed horniness; he's kind of letting it out compulsively." Check.
(c) "Crumb also took issue with the film's condemnation of the radical left, denouncing Fritz's dialogue in the final sequences of the film... as 'red-neck and fascistic' and stating that 'They put words into his mouth that I never would have had him say.'" Check and double-check.
I was a major R. Crumb fan in 1972, when I saw this film. I didn't even need to read the Wikipedia entry to know how I felt. I felt exactly the same way Crumb did.
The parts of the film-- maybe 25%-- that were taken directly from the comics, were pretty good. Some of the Harlem stuff was okay. Nothing wrong with playing Billie Holiday music.
Everything else just felt like a disaster to me. I finally noticed this movie's IMDb pages, and voted it a 4. There are very few movies I rate at less than 5, but this is one.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
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