George segal is sam spade junior, in the black bird, a parody of the maltese falcon. Some fun faces in here. Ken swofford (police academy) and vic tayback (mel, for those old enough to remember) are police detectives. Lionel stander (max, for those old enough to remember). Effie and wilmer are played by the original actors from bogart's version! Although in this one, effie is a loud, ornery shrew, who hates her boss. It starts out strong, but loses steam about halfway through; the trivia section here tells us that the writers, producers, and directors were all fighting, which didn't help. I love the premise, but after a while, it just tries too hard. And the anna character just brings it to a halt every time she speaks. Where's madeline kahn when you need her? They really wasted vic tayback... he did this in between the film "alice doesn't live here" and the tv series alice. The first and last film directed by david giler. Segal did this one about ten years after "virginia woolf". Too bad. I really wanted to like this one.
Review of The Black Bird
