The Happening (1967) Poster

(1967)

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6/10
Nostalgia may impart "The Happening" with more worth than it really had
lemon_magic5 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I remember seeing this movie when I was quite young (10-11) and my taste in movies mostly consisted of Disney movies and "Planet Of The Apes". I went to my local movie theater to see a Disney comedy (along the lines of "The Monkey's Uncle" or some such) and stuck around for a second feature, which turned out to be 'The Happening'. Normally a young kid wouldn't be allowed to see a film with such adult themes, but no one cleared the theater between shows, so no one saw me in there. (I now think this may have been just before the MPAA rating schemes were enforced).

It was quite the eye opener. "The Happening" started out like a typical comedy caper film, with lots of surprises and plot twists, but then, to my surprise, things seemed to go sour for the protagonist and the movie became much darker. I kept waiting for some further plot twist to make everything right again so that Anthony Quinn could Live Happily Ever After. But nothing did. The ending wasn't funny or happy at all, with Quinn's character basically walking away from everything and into an uncertain future.

When the movie ended on that note, I was astounded and somewhat upset. I spent a lot of time that night thinking about what I had seen, and trying to process it. It had cast one of the very first shadows of doubt in the myth that Everything Would Be Okay Because The Hero Always Wins In The End. But it also helped me process the disconnect between the Happy Stories I always saw on the screen and the way things seemed to go in 'Real Life'.

So "The Happening" was a radical landmark film to me, and something of a turning point in my emotional maturity. That gives the movie perhaps some value that it might not possess to a more mature viewer. I've been trying to locate a copy to see how the older version of Me has changed from the naive kid, but I don't know if it will be worth it.
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5/10
An action/comedy with a lot of big names but not much of a storyline
rcpfau-16 March 2009
I worked for Marian/Polan talent agency. And I was an extra in this movie down in Miami. I had some car scenes during a chase. I met Milton Berle when I did the show girl scenes at the Fountain Blue hotel. I only met Anthony Quinn's double. I was chosen by Anthony Quinn to play the double for Faye Dunaway but my mother would not let me dye my hair blonde for the part. I am still upset over that. Working as an extra I learned that many scenes use doubles. http://www.flickr.com/photos/66013135@N00/3298029225/ Me at age 18.

I have the movie on tape. I thought it was quite a good action film. But it was not my favorite Anthony Quinn movie. It seemed too disjointed. I believe this was Faye Dunaway's second movie. In the same year she made Bonnie and Clyde which was a much better movie. I loved the scenery of Miami as I am a born native of Miami. The movie is a good look at Miami, the way it was before it was ruined.
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4/10
Deranged...
moonspinner5518 February 2009
Elliot Silverstein goes crazy with the mod visuals while directing this bizarre '60s concoction, fashioning it as both a modern-day war satire and a juvenile delinquency drama. Retired Mafioso Anthony Quinn is kidnapped by a ragtag group of punks (Faye Dunaway among them!); unfortunately, Quinn can't get any of his acquaintances or loved ones to pay his ransom, thereby putting him in-cahoots with the misguided young people. Ronald Austin co-wrote the screenplay with help from James D. Buchanan and future director Frank Pierson, yet the cast looks mostly perplexed on-camera (and audiences will most likely join them). The Supremes got a #1 hit song out of the title track, yet their version was not present in the print that I saw. *1/2 from ****
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Very hard not to get caught up in.
Skragg16 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
If you see this movie, you'll feel the urge to end every sentence for the next few hours with "etcetera". Anyone who's seen it knows what I mean; it's even worked into the theme song very quickly. This is one more of those stories that people probably have extreme opinions about. I can never help imagining people starting to watch it and very quickly thinking it's drivel, but still watching it 90 minutes later- not because they've necessarily changed their minds, but because there's something about it that gets you HOOKED. This is easy for me to say, since I've been very attached to it since it was just a few years old. Of course it has things going against it, some of them pretty small. The kidnappers are a mixture of comical hippies and comical, kind of late, beatniks- but that seems true of countless comedies made in around, say, 1966-67. And maybe some of the "jazzy" language didn't really fit; I don't know. It's really full of quotable lines, like the business partner (played by Milton Berle) calling a kidnapping ransom a "forced-sell situation". And one of the kidnappers glaring at the victim and saying "If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be in this mess." One thing that's easy to notice is that, quite some time before The Godfather, this film showed Mafia figures in a very down-to-earth light. In one of the great lines, Anthony Quinn is asking (though the story doesn't use this expression) his "godfather" to pay his ransom, and reminds him of the oath of loyalty they both took, an incredibly binding one, of course. The man says very pleasantly, "Life ain't like that." This would be a pretty amazing line to hear in The Godfather itself, or in a lot of later films that are thought of as "de-mystifying" that subject. It's a toss-up as to who had the best part in it, apart from Quinn himself (though Robert Walker Jr. had the closest thing to a thankless part, but he had a very good moment at the end). There was Faye Dunaway (this is evidently her first film), treating the accidental kidnapping as a way to fill up the dull day. As someone here said, she overacts and gets away with it - just look at her face in that scene where they're tearing up the living room - maybe there's no reason for such an exaggerated look, but it doesn't bother me a bit! And Michael Parks as about the most reasonable one in the group. But to me it would have to be George Maharis as "Taurus". He played the closest thing to a genuine villain in the story, but he played him as a character almost impossible not to like. Another thing is that it had a fairly downbeat ending (though more like a "back-to-the-beginning" one), without it being a dark one, let alone for the pure sake of it (which is what I don't like about, say, The Suicide Kings, a movie with a similar idea). My opinion of The Happening in general is a popular expression that says, "you have to hate it a lot not to like it a little." (But again, I'm prejudiced.)
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3/10
Ungroovy, man
JohnSeal18 December 1999
The Happening is one of those unfunny counterculture comedies that sprang up like so many magic mushrooms in the late sixties. In this one some hepcats and a hippie chick (Faye Dunaway in one of her first roles) kidnap super square Anthony Quinn in order to rake in the ransom from Quinn's mafia buddies (led by the always fun Oscar Homolka). Somewhere along the line Quinn takes charge of his own kidnapping and complications, if not hilarity, ensue. A perfect example of Hollywood totally misreading the teen zeitgeist of the period, The Happening also features one of the Supremes worst songs as it's title tune.
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7/10
" If you have a life, make sure it's real, it could be an illusion "
thinker169114 March 2011
Of all the films one sees, there are a select few which you start out expecting one thing and end up with something completely different. Here is one unusual movie called " The Happening " which features the magnificent talent of the late great Anthony Quinn. The story written and directed by Ronald Austin begins with a group of young lay-abouts (Michael Parks, George Maharis, Robert Walker Jr. and Faye Dunaway) who take life as it unfolds or 'happens' and thus accept their motto ' Go with the flow baby. ' As with everyday, they do nothing, plan nothing and exact the same, allowing events to just take shape. On one particular day, they stumble upon a well-to-do suburban family, enjoying their upscale social life. However, that family is governed by a powerful, but retired Mob Boss, Roc Delmonico, (Anthony Quinn) who's wife Martha Hyer) believes he is to be kidnapped and held for Ransom. What Roc discovers is that all the people in his life who he believed cared for his safety and well being, create excuses for not being able to rescue him. Thus he is left to his fate at the hands of Kidnappers. Dismayed and deeply disappointed, Roc begins to suspect he has been deluded into thinking he was an important figure, Concluding the opposite, he joins his kidnappers and plots his revenge. A kooky, but surprisingly underrated film, Quinn gives a superb performance and thus elevates a comedic movie into a Classic. Oscar Homolka and Milton Berle make brief appearances. Well recommended for anyone seeking something different. ****
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3/10
Allegedly hip movie of the swingin' 60's
rcraig6211 May 2003
I caught this movie on late-night TV one night when I had nothing better to do and I'm not sure I might have been better off just doing nothing. I have a weakness for these kind of swingin' sixties movies, but even I couldn't take this junk. The story is about four alleged hipsters who kidnap a Mafia kingpin just for kicks, but then it goes from hijinks to pathos rather suddenly when the don realizes he can't extract the ransom money from his so-called "friends". I guess this is Hollywood's interpretation of what constituted coolness and hip in the late 60s, but in a post-Manson world, I don't know that there's anything funny about any of this. The music, surprisingly for the time, is just dreadful. The Supremes theme song is all right, but the rest of the soundtrack is a lot of Herb Alpert-ish tripe.

As for the acting, Michael Parks and George Maharis turn in the usual rotten performances. The big stars in the movie have a few good moments- Milton Berle as a restaurant owner has a fairly hilarious scene where he tends to various guest complaints. And Anthony Quinn as the Mafia don has a beautiful scene outside, I guess, Dodger Stadium, when it finally hits him that everyone has turned their back on him for the ransom money, and he becomes disturbingly violent and on the edge of tears, and Faye Dunaway says to the others, "I don't want to play this game anymore", which is a genuinely moving episode. But that's part of the problem with the movie: it can't quite reconcile the comedy with the sadness and back to comedy again. It's generally a lousy movie, only significant that it was Faye Dunaway's first big-time movie role, and not significant in any other way. 1 1/2 * out of 4
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7/10
Quinn's comedy turn saves the film.
theowinthrop15 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is a mediocre film, but Anthony Quinn's performance raises it. Quinn usually did not play comic parts. His physical appearance was cruelly handsome, and it encouraged dramatic roles either as villains (as in his early roles) or as anti-heroes (Zampano in LAS STRADA) or as heroes (Zorba). He rarely played comedy. A typical early comedy part was in THE ROAD TO MOROCCO, where his evil sheik is a foil for Hope & Crosby, and his biggest joke is when his butt gets burned with a torch in a fire. Films like THE HAPPENING were rarities, where he was actually being funny himself.

Quinn is a former mobster in Oskar Homolka's gang, but he is now married to Martha Hyer, and partner to Milton Berle in a legitimate business. He is also wealthy. A gang of hippies led by George Maharis (including Faye Dunaway and Robert Walker Jr.), decide to kidnap Quinn for a ransom to be used for philanthropic reasons. They succeed in snatching Quinn, and he tries to get the various people in his life to pay the large ransom. But they all refuse.

What follows is like TOO MANY CROOKS and RUTHLESS PEOPLE, where the kidnapping victim goes after the person (here persons) who should pay the ransom. Using timed threats, Quinn convinces Homolka that Berle and Hyer are behind the kidnap plot, and are going to reveal mob secrets to the police if they aren't paid. He also convinces the police (Jack Kruschen) that they have done away with him and are about to flee the country. He also threatens a nervous Berle that he will tell the authorities about every crooked act that Berle was responsible for in building up their business.

But there is more to the story. Quinn discovers that the hippie Maharis is actually quite corruptible - the money is far too tempting to be wasted on philanthropy. Quinn's revenge includes a lesson for this young hypocrite too.

There are some great moments of comic energy in the film. When Hyer reveals the lack of feeling she has for Quinn, she brings up the subject of the multi-million dollar showplace mansion. She and Quinn paid an interior decorator (whom Quinn could barely stand) to do the house - and he did it in modern art. It turns out neither Hyer nor Quinn like modern art. In the last act of mutual agreement they have, they smash every bit of the decor to bits, apparently enjoying the entire explosion as though it was a great sex act! Not a brilliant comedy, or a memorable one, but it had some good points due to Quinn.
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2/10
This one Happens to be Bad
keiljd13 June 2008
I saw this when it was first released in 1967. I was 27 and neither a hippie nor a flower child, but I'd loved movies for 20 years, and saw 150 or so movies in theatres every year. THE HAP- PENING is on my Worst List for '67 (not #1, though; that'd be SHOOT LOUD LOUDER...I DON'T UNDERSTAND), and to this day I can't think of anything positive to say about it.

Okay, okay, the theme song was pretty good, and Faye Dunaway wore one of those bare midriff pantsuits so popular at the time. Other than that, Nada. Quinn, Maharis and Parks are among the worst actors in talking pictures, and Robert Walker Jr. would have been, if he'd had a career. No problem, his dad was bad enough for both of 'em.

The only question now is will the new Happening be as bad as the original? From what I hear and read, it'll be pretty close.
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7/10
What a Fun Flick
Greatornot9 September 2009
This was not a great movie. Probably barely a good movie if that. I give it a 7 because it was so much fun. It was a very summertime type of movie. Break out the suntan, break out the shorts and head to the nearest beach. Kidnapped by beatniks but not worth it to his fellow mobsters or loved ones, Mr. Quinn gives a great performance , when on the scale of things this movie is not cinematic art. I do not mean that in a bad way. Its the type of film you watch while drinking a couple or a few beers or more. Supremes song The Happening, the title cut fits in with this oddball movie. In many ways this movie sort of brought the hippie movement to main stream and not in a bad way. I liked this movie and took it for what it was . A fun movie and a very young , sexy Faye Dunaway . Do not expect much , have a party with old friends and reminisce about childhood times and if you are a bit younger like I am , mid 40s , just watch this film and enjoy it anyway. It will make you laugh and really thats what its all about folks.
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2/10
Funny...but not in the way filmmakers intended.
planktonrules21 April 2024
In the late 1960s, a lot of previously respected classic actors apparently felt left out due to the rise of the hippies and so they tried desperately to fit in with this new culture. The results of these films are uniformly awful...and embarrassing. Lana Turner embarrassed herself in "The Big Cube" (all about LSD), Jennifer Jones did the same in "Angel, Angel Down We Go" (all about the evils of rock 'n roll and cults) and MANY actors and actresses embarrassed themselves in "Skidoo" (all about free love and the sexual revolution)...just to name a few. And, in "The Happening", Anthony Quinn hangs out with the hippiest and most annoying kidnappers in the history of Hollywood!

"The Happening" is not a wholly original film. Some story elements were in the previous movie, "Too Many Crooks" and some were reused in the 1980s film "Ruthless People". But there was one difference...these two other films are hilarious and well worth seeing.

The story begins in the woods where a bunch of hippies are sleeping as well as trying to sleep off the effects of various drugs. Suddenly, evil cops arrive and drive them all off. Three of these hippies soon meet up with another and they all go joyriding in a yacht. Soon, they quartet stop to play army soldier with some kids (why???) and in the process, the kids' father thinks they are kidnappers coming to get him. In fact, they had no such intentions...until he planted the idea in their minds...and soon they take the guy away and plan on charging a ransom for his return. In so many ways, the film IS "Ruthless People" in this regard...but with the most annoying committing the crime. So, instead of being funny, it is thoroughly annoying...to the point where I could imagine most viewers just turning it off and watching something, ANYTHING, else.

The bottom line is that much of the story is pretty good. But with hellishly annoying hippie-types trying to be funny...well, it's just trying! And, while SOME back in 1967 must have liked it, you'd be very hard pressed to find ANYONE who likes it and would recommend it today.
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10/10
Sometimes, your worst enemies can be your best friends.
Razzbar20 February 2000
A rude awakening awaits a Miami gangster played by Anthony Quinn, as he is kidnapped, and then betrayed one by one by all the people he thought he could count on in life.

Quinn does a beautiful job of playing someone who suddenly realizes just where he stands in the world, and who he real friends are.

I guess this movie could be called a "dark comedy" in some regards, it nevertheless leaves you feeling good at the end as you see how masterfully Quinn's reassembles the pieces of his shattered world.
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4/10
"I'm hungry."
mark.waltz4 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
That's the opening line for the special billed "and introducing Faye Dunaway" who wakes up next to daddy o dearest Michael Parks, surrounded by a network of down-fallen children. She's pondering what she's going to do when all of a sudden it's very apparent as the cops storm their camp and they're all out of there. "Rob a house. Any house", she suggests as they make their getaway by boat with the help of extraordinary seaman George Maharis. Faye and her gang who's everything but wire hangers in their battle with a bunch of kids when they find the destination of the house they're going to rob, the home of Anthony Quinn, a retired mobster whom they end up holding for ransom that no one seems to care about paying.

It's a mod, mod, mod, mod world here, with the presence of Milton Berle, and along with Martha Hyer as Quinn's wife and a truly groovy background score, this is truly a wild ride as far as 60's hip comedies go. Dunaway looks quite different than she would later the same year in both "Hurry Sundown" and "Bonnie and Clyde", and the controversial future star actually seems to be having a lot of fun in making this. The Miami locations are gorgeous and the pacing is fast and frenetic.

Then there's the presence of a snappy Supremes song which, a real shocker, did not get an Oscar nomination. Quinn looks very buff wearing just pajama bottoms, and his last name ("Delmonico") is another humorous aspect. Another newcomer is Robert Walker Jr., the son of the famous late actor and Jennifer Jones, highly resembling his dad. Veteran actors Oscar Homolka and Jack Krushen are also featured in this film that while far from good or a camp classic is easy to enjoy as a guilty pleasure.
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Sure, it's not perfect but there's some groovy stuff here
Neff-222 December 1999
Hey, the premise is pretty good: some fairly appealing but terminally bored young people kidnap a restaurateur (Anthony Quinn), and then they find that neither Quinn's wife nor his business partner partner want him back. After spending some time with the old coot Quinn, they end up feeling sorry for him, and they help him wreak vengeance on the people who have been making his life miserable all these years. The performances are a bit idiosyncratic: Michael Parks working on his James Dean thing, but with blonde hair; George Maharis trying to look like a hippie in a ducktail; Robert Walker Jr being typically odd and, of course, a very young Faye Dunaway overacting broadly and getting away with it. Some of the hijinks might seem slow and lame, but some of it is funny, and I can't vouch for others' musical taste, but I like the theme song.
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4/10
Nothing happening here
bkoganbing24 December 2019
Noting in the credits Faye Dunaway was introduced. Fortunately for her, Dunaway's next film was Bonnie And Clyde.

I guess that Anthony Quinn wanted to try his hand at comedy and the best his agent could come up with is The Happening. It was a bad choice. If Quinn has a gift for comedy this was not the vehicle to demonstrate it.

4 nearly brain dead hippie types accidentally home invade Quinn's and Martha Hyer's home in Florida and accidentally kidnap Quinn and hold him for ransom. At that point Quinn finds out he's really not worth all that much to old associates like Milton Berle and Oscar Homolka. Even Hyer is put out by the whole affair.

At that point Quinn shows the amateurs how it is done.

The hippies are Dunaway, Michael Parks, George Maharis, and Robert Walker,Jr. all at varying stages of their careers. Michael Parks in The Happening at least stopped trying to imitate James Dean.

Best in here are Homolka and Berle.

Sorry laugh wise, this film just ain't happening.
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10/10
This is one of my great "Treasure Trove" films
btnaylor28 August 2011
OK, it's got Tony Quinn, who, depending on your view, either chews the scenery, or put in a GREAT performance, in every film he's in. I first saw him in "la Strada", and my theory is that, if he's good enough for Fellini, he's good enough for me. The last five minutes of Zorba the Greek" will live in my heart forever...this man had the heart of TEN men! Howver, in this movie, he had to play a relatively subdued, nuanced, role...which he handled like a Gig Young, or a Tony Randall---(i.e. perfectly)! The real treat was seeing three of the greatest young actors of the time: Faye, Michael Parks, and George Maharis, having a lot of fun playing things out. I cannot fathom why Parks and Maharis did not become major stars---Parks, in particular, was AMAZING--perhaps he was (wrongly) deemed to be a Jimmy Dean wannabe. Dunaway--who has NEVER given even a merely above-average performance (she is our "GREAT American ACTRESS!)---gave clear signs of her future greatness to be seen later in "Bonnie & Clyde", the amazing and prophetic "Network", "Chinatown" and all the fabulous work she has done. BTW, I am NOT writing as someone who has only recently first seen this film years after it was made: I saw it then, when I was 12, and was astonished by its greatness. It's very hard to find now, but I saw it again a few weeks ago in an art-house---and it STILL holds up. It's a TERRIFIC film! FIND IT. WATCH IT. A GREAT FILM. The director was a genius---he's like an Eisenstein---look at the techniques he invented--they are in EVERY film now!
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9/10
The Pure Product of America Gone Crazy
wes-connors11 July 2008
During a break, ensconced Miami gangster Anthony Quinn (as Roc Delmonico) is accidentally kidnapped by gigolo George Maharis (as Taurus) and three thrill-seeking college students: Michael Parks (as Sureshot), Robert Walker Jr. (as Herby), and Faye Dunaway (as Sandy). And, Frank DeVol plays Herb Alpert.

"The Happening" is an excellent roller-coaster trip, which just misses being a perfect ten. It really loses its "cool" after Mr. Quinn and the "gang of four" return to destroy Quinn's living room. Filmmakers should have considered moving The Supremes' excellent "vocal version" of the title song up from the end credits, to replace the instrumental version of the song played during the living room mess-up, and ended the film there. The "darker" points made during the last act put a damper on the proceedings; they had already been made, more effectively and subtly, earlier.

The mix of writers (Ron Austin, James Buchanan and Frank Pierson), actors, and director (Elliott Silverstein) result in some inspired, (improvised ?) lunacy. Direction and editing (Philip Anderson) are outstanding. Even nature is cooperative - witness the gulls and waves in the background when Quinn calls his wife to request the ransom money. The actors are blocked beautifully; and, the darkly comic scene ends with the blackbird flying off to the left of the screen. This sequence, in particular, raises the film well above ordinary.

"The Happening" has both laugh-out-loud and smug chuckling moments. The cast references several Hollywood classics: Mr. Parks' James Dean is the most obvious; but look out for smaller nods from Quinn ("Gone with the Wind"), Mr. Maharis ("West Side Story"), Mr. Walker Jr. ("Gypsy"), and Ms. Dunaway ("A Streetcar Named Desire"). Milton Berle (as Fred) and Martha Hyer (as Monica) are perfect in their supporting roles; and, Oskar Homolka (as Sam) is simply hilarious. Try to fend off some restlessness during the last act; "The Happening" is a great trip.

********* The Happening (3/22/67) Elliott Silverstein ~ Anthony Quinn, George Maharis, Robert Walker Jr., Michael Parks
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It Ain't Happenin'
ttbrowne14 March 2002
Funny thing is I'm a child of the 60's & 70's. I remember seeing this when it was first released and I loved it! I saw it recently as an adult and it sucked the big one. Oh well. Pass on this film, It has nothing to say and just isn't funny. Unless you're 13. Put it in the same category as X Men. Good now, sucks later.
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10/10
CRAZY FUN AND INTELLIGENT
asalerno1026 May 2022
It all begins showing the vestiges of a crazy party of carefree young people on a Miami island, the police arrive and everything turns into chaos, four boys and a girl escape aboard a stolen speedboat. Seeing that they entertain their time they end up in the house of a former mob boss. The man is convinced that it is a kidnapping and he offers to be taken alone to protect his family. The group of crazy young people find it fun to humor him and take him captive to an abandoned house. The man is convinced that his loved ones will raise the ransom money but to his great surprise he discovers that no one cares about his life and no one is willing to pay a penny for the ransom, not even his mother. Dislocated and checking the farce that surrounded him, he hatches an ingenious plan to take revenge on everyone. The rhythm of this movie does not drop for a single moment, it is a mixture of comedy, drama and police. The cast is top notch, Anthony Quinn, Faye Dunaway, Michael Parks, Robert Walker jr., George Maharis and Milton Berle among others. The highlight of the film is the change between the first part and the second, where you never know where all this madness will end. A brilliant movie that has been unfairly forgotten and that is highly recommended.
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The Happening is hilarious
jcasapiedra8 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Maybe it's my age but I remember when The Happening first came out and thinking how hilarious the whole thing was. The improbable kidnapping of a Mafia don by the looney "hippies" portrayed by George Maharis and Michael Parks takes the viewer on a "what if" journey where everything turns out unexpectedly.

Anthony Quinn, the Don, tries without fail to get name recognition and respect from the kidnap gang but they fail the name recognition contest and treat him as someone being taken on their ride, which is mostly just for laughs.

In one scene Maharis does a mockingly cloying pantomime of deceased actor James Dean which appalls the Don only because he has no idea who James Dean is. Those who remember some of James Dean's more hammy scenes couldn't stop laughing or talking about Maharis' pantomime.

The denouement deliciously plays out when Anthony Quinn discovers that even his mother is reluctant to surrender her lavish lifestyle to ransom him. What follows is comedic revenge on the style one would expect in a Mel Brooks movie.

The ending is as gentle as that found in A midsummers night dream. There are no clashing of symbols, only players wandering away from the scene of a happening which was unscripted and with unexpected results.

It ends well.
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Funniest Movie I Seen
parnelli28 March 2002
My friend and I, laughed so hard, had a hard time walking out of the theater. Lucille Ball also had a cameo appearance in the movie. Lucy was the wife of Anthony Quinn, and showed her in bed with Uncle Milty.

As for the slam on the Supreme's song "The Happening", I still like it, and it always brings back the good times, my friend and I had that day at the movies.
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