The Endangered List (Case File #37)

ANOTHER NICE MESS (1972)

Written and directed
by
Bob Einstein

Produced by
Tom Smothers and Jonathan Haze

Starring

Rich Little
as
"Richie"

Herb Voland
as
"Spiro"

also starring
Bruce Kirby
Diahn Williams
Stewart Bradley
Bob Einstein

Running time: 66 minutes
A Film Films (Billy Fine) release
MPAA rating: PG

Review [from Boxoffice - October 23rd, 1972, p. 10]

"In the tradition of such political satires as MILLHOUSE: A BLACK COMEDY and THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST, this Tom Smothers-produced film, written and directed by Bob Einstein, has been released just in time to add another log to the current political blaze. The title ANOTHER NICE MESS (YOU’VE GOT ME INTO) derives from the classic Oliver Hardy line. Unhappily, both Rich Little (who plays Richie the President, complete with V-finger signs and toothy grins) and Herb Voland (as the lumbering dim-witted Spiro, whose own idea of a peace sign is something altogether different) have ignored the fine art of slapstick developed by the Laurel and Hardy team. ANOTHER NICE MESS tells of the trials and tribulations of the President of the United States, beset by hostile demonstrators, secret service bodyguards disguised as plants, a vice-president who has a fixation for a certain portion of a secretary’s anatomy, and a rather silly sub-plot having to do with Hitler (who is alive and well in Washington). The result is that, as one theatre patron was heard to remark, if you see the first ten minutes of the picture you have seen it all. ANOTHER NICE MESS does boast a very good television ad campaign which, because of the quick flashes of two men who startlingly resemble their highly placed counterparts bonking each other, should attract the distaff."