Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 121

Saturday, December 11, 1982 .38 Austin American-Statesman Marty Robbins never saw his movie The Toy' is broken bit of film nonsense By MARILYN BECK Chicago Tribune News Service HOLLYWOOD Country singer Marty Rob-bins, who died last week of cardiac arrest, had been asking buddy Clint Eastwood for over 10 years to cast him in one of his movies. Eastwood finally obliged with "Honky Tonk Man," but Marty never had a chance to see how well he scores on film. Clint had arranged to screen the picture for him in Nashville, but that turned out to be the day the 57-year-old singer was rushed to the hospital with a heart attack. At least Robbins did live to see a climb upon the charts of his title tune from the Warners film which tells the story of a honky tonk man who dies shortly after he cuts a recording that becomes a hit Review i- FRPP! 70 COUPON SAVINGS BOOK WITH THE PURCHASE Of ANY 36mm CAMERA i 1 By PATRICK TAGGART American-Statesman Staff You may well wonder where the idea came from. It's loony even for Hollywood, and many persons who have seen previews for "The Toy" have wondered what Richard Pryor had gotten himself into this time.

In fact, Richard Dormer's film is based on another one a French movie by "La Cage aux Folles" screenwriter Francis Veber. Both films deal with a pampered youngster who gets a grown man as a gift, a plaything to add to his already house-bulging collection of same. In Carol Sobieski's screenplay, Pryor plays Jack Brown, an out-of-work journalist who is so desperate for a job that he dresses up in a maid outfit to get a job as a housekeeper. When that doesn't work (and it doesn't work in the movie, either) he becomes a janitor in a toy store. That is where he is targeted by the 9-year-old son of multimillionaire U.S.

Bates (Jackie Gleason). Young Eric (Scott Schwartz) orders his daddy's men to "wrap him up" and take Brown home. First, of course, they have to cross Brown's palm with mortgage money. With such a situation we expect a great deal of the humor to arise from Brown's unfamiliarity with fancy new surroundings, or maybe from an attempt to cash in on the irony of the setting (Deep South) and of what amounts to contract slavery. No soap.

The laughs here and there aren't very many are of a much more physical and lamely slapstick nature. Oddly, slapstick is one thing the brilliant Pryor doesn't do very well, and Donner is unable to make him look good in it The Great One, Gleason, lends a presence, but be really isn't given Canon Canon A AL-1 with 50mm f1.8LENS Quick focus system to assure you of sharp pictures every time. Fully automatic exposure control with aperture priority and manual Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason in The Toy much to do. Teresa Ganzel appears as the balloon-breasted tycoon's wife, and her character is shamelessly stereotype. British butlers are doing well these days (John Gielgud in Michael Hordern in "The but Wilfrid Hyde-White is never allowed to cut loose as the film's martini-sipping servant.

The movie works best, strangely, as a kind of cornball lesson in how people achieve closeness. Pryor and the young Schwartz work well together to this end. Ultimately, "The Toy" will be remembered as a poor showcase for a couple of fine comedians. It was rumored the two did not get along on the set; unfortunately, the problems with "The Toy" go deeper than any star collision. Toy," rated PG for profanity, at the Northcross and Aquarius.) A.

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