Trailer—The Day the Fish Came Out

source: The Day the Fish Came Out

The Day the Fish Came Out

I looked long and hard for this one. When I finally saw it I was very disappointed. One the positive side, Candice Bergen is smoking hot, even though she couldn't be flatter if they wrapped duct tape around her chest. There are a lot of garish, colorful and over-the-top costumes and a few goofy 1960s type dancing scenes. But the movie goes nowhere. It is 45 minutes padded to 1:43 minutes. There's just not enough there to keep you interested. Candice Bergen, hot as she is, has a nothing part and couldn't save this movie. Plus, the ending of the movie couldn't be more abrupt or unfulfilling. The movie tries to be a mix of 'The Secret of Santa Vittoria' and 'Dr. Strangelove'. Plus, there seems to be a lot more beefcake than a standard, hetero movie would call for.... I kept expecting Steve Reeves to show up. I really was looking forward to this, but it's too boring, even from a historical perspective. Sometimes, there is a reason certain movies are hard to find.

It was the dancing scene that did me in. Everybody was dancing in sandals, Leather Roman type with one strap around the big toe types. The dance, the beat to the music, it seemed so futuristic. Who can I contact to set the wheels in motion to get this motion picture? I'll even take 8 mm.

(from the back cover of "The Day The Fish Came Out" OST album) "Michael Cacoyannis was the writer, producer and director of "Zorba the Greek." He has combined these same artistic forces and added his own costume designs for his newest production, "The Day The Fish Came Out." Since many of the previous comments make mention of the costumes, I humbly submit that IMDb should add this credit to both the movie's and director's pages. When this film was recently aired, my roommate and I were discussing the costume design and wondering if the designer was someone like André Courrèges or another mod sixties designer, because many of the elements seemed familiar. (Ambra Danon used some similar elements in the costumes for the undercover policemen in "La Cage Aux Folles II", such as mesh, hot pants, patent leather, and cut outs.) My roommate happens to own the soundtrack, and much to our surprise we found the above quote on the album cover. Mystery solved!

I was probably one of the few people to see this film on its original release, in New York, in some smart cinema on the east side as I recall. I rather liked it (for a variety of reasons all of which I won't go into here), then it virtually disappeared for years. Once I did manage to catch it on a late night movie channel out of Baltimore, 45 if I remember correctly. The reception and (disappointingly) the color were atrocious. But I still liked it and for all of the same reasons. One of the main ones is the unique musical score by Mikis Theodorakis. It's a kind of eclectic, almost post-modern fusion of Greek ethnic and avant garde sounds, jaunty, lyrical melodies, and a dynamic end-of-the-world dance track called "The Jet". All very appealing. It's still one of my favorite vinyl STs. Play it once and the tunes are in your head for days. Would love to have a good restored and annotated copy of this film on DVD and BluRay.

Michael Cacoyannis' follow-up to his celebrated "Zorba The Greek" did not exactly meet with the same critical or commercial success, and it's easy to see why. Its one-joke promise grows tiresome quickly, and doesn't come to its point until literally the last 5 minutes. For the first hour, the chief interest of the movie is watching Colin Blakely run around on a Greek island in his underwear; I had no idea he was so buff and muscular. At the 1 hour 5 minute mark, a gorgeous Candice Bergen pops up and provides some spark - only to disappear unceremoniously soon afterwards. I don't know where Leonard Maltin got the "whips, chains and leather" he mentions in his review - he probably dreamt them, and I WISH they were true! *1/2 out of 4.

This isn't a great movie, and not even really a good movie, but it is...well, something. It seems to be the wacky, 1960s, Greek bastard/child of "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Russians Are Coming". It popped up recently on the Fox Movie Channel. Tom Courtenay was playing very serious in "Doctor Zhivago" a couple of years earlier. Here he is trying for laughs and mostly in his underwear. In fact there are lots of pretty people wearing very little, and when they are wearing something it's often designed by the director/writer/producer himself, and it's beyond the valley of mod. In fact, the movie could use more mod and more Grecian scenery. Recommended if you like movies from the late 60s.

I saw this film as a kid and was fascinated by it. I´ve always wanted to see it again but it seems hard to find. I hope to see it again someday. Young suntanned Candice Bergen on a Greek island, asked to play "arrogant" since Julie Christie was busy. There are also supposed to be a lot of men around... + some trippy 60´s fashions, music and dances.