Back in this post, I spent way too much time talking about Penelope, a not-that-good 1966 movie starring Natalie Wood as a glamorous kleptomaniac. When my father and I saw the Coming Attractions for this feature, it looked like something we'd want to see. It had a colorful supporting cast which included Jonathan Winters, and it also had Natalie Wood running around in her underwear. Those were, you have to admit, two strong selling points.
Unfortunately, when we saw the movie, we discovered it was pretty dreary…and we'd gone under false pretenses. Ms. Wood wasn't in her underwear very much and Jonathan Winters, though he had star billing, was only in the film for — and this is exact; I ran a stopwatch on it — one minute and thirty-one seconds.
That is not a joke on my part. Jonathan Winters is in this movie for 91 seconds total. And even part of that is played by a stuntman.
Our link today is to the trailer for this film…and I think, by the way, that's the voice of Wink Martindale doing the narration. Jonathan W. is in the trailer for thirty seconds so you get to see a third of his entire performance in the film, plus most of the footage of Natalie in her underwear. I'm linking to this because I told the story and also because if you see the trailer, you'll never have to see the film. (If you insist on seeing the film, Turner Classic Movies is running it in July. But trust me: There isn't much that's good that isn't in the trailer.) Here it is…
