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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
likeable, 4 June 2002
Author: Ajtlawyer from Richland, WA

I thought this version was better than the one made in 1994 by Woody Allen, the show's writer. Jackie Gleason is the entire movie and he has some hilarious bits as a caterer from New Jersey suspected for being a spy behind the Iron Curtain in "Vulgaria." Everyone around him is quirky, crazy or incompetent and Gleason fills up the screen (literally!) with slow burns, explosions and sarcasm. His Walter Hollander is a far more formidable character than Woody Allen's take on the role.

I also enjoyed Ted Bessel ("Donald" from "That Girl") as the bumbling embassy attache', Axel McGee--the only man in the Foreign Service to be hanged in effigy the staff of his own embassy.

I was surprised years later to find that this movie was directed by Howard Morris who was "Ernest T. Bass" on the "Andy Griffith Show."

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Fun And Laughs!!, 26 May 2002
8/10
Author: randalljoe

Gleason shines in this cold-war comedy.Gleason and his family are mistaken for spys in a communist style country and chased into an American embassy.The Laughs are often and the cast excels,especially Gleason,"Krojack" and "Father Drobney".The movie is hardly a masterpiece but if your in the right frame of mind its Hilarious!

It's much better than the later remake with Woody Allen which was harsh,cynical and forced.And produced much less laughs also.

Its just Good Clean Fun!

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Another visit to "Vulgaria" courtesy of Woody Allan, 17 March 2007
8/10
Author: theowinthrop from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Woody Allan wrote DON'T DRINK THE WATER in the late 1960s, and it had a nice run on Broadway. It became the first of his plays to make it to the big screen, though the second (PLAY IT AGAIN SAM) was a better work. A later tragic-comic piece, THE FLOATING LIGHT BULB, has not made it as yet.

The story is set in the mythical Eastern European country of "Vulgaria". This is not the only film set in this land. The musical CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG was also set in "Vulgaria", when it was a pre-World War I principality run by Gert Frobe. History swept little "Vulgaria" up with it's neighbors. In the late 1960s it is a communist state.

A plane is hijacked to Vulgaria by a lone gunman, fleeing impending arrest after a Vulgarian spy known as "the Grey Fox" was arrested in the U.S. On the plane is the Hollander family from Newark, New Jersey: Walter (Jackie Gleason), his wife Marion (Estelle Parsons) and their daughter Susan (Joan Delaney). Walter is a very successful caterer, who really wanted to take his annual vacation in Miami, but was talked (much against his will) by Marion into a European trip to London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, and Athens. It was to Athens that their plane was headed when hijacked.

Parsons is the enthusiast in the couple, and when she hears that the passengers can stretch their legs outside the plane for about twenty minutes, she pushes a dubious Walter to take photos of the guards surrounding the plane, and of the surrounding buildings of the airport. Unfortunately, Walter has noted that there is barbed wire in the areas that Marion suggests he photographed, and figures it must be restricted. But the local secret police man Krojack (Michael Constantine), sees Walter taking movies, jumps to the conclusion that Walter is a spy and orders his men to arrest the Hollanders. Fortunately for the Hollanders just before they had their adventure the American Ambassador McGee (Howard St. John) left for a conference in Washington. His son Axel (Ted Bessell) had driven him to the airport, and is on hand with the embassy's limousine to drive the Hollanders to the sanctuary of the embassy.

The play follows the topsy turvy situation the Hollanders find themselves in, worsened by the well-intentioned, but somewhat stupid, Axel. Axel, confronting Krojack, makes a common-sensical comment that both countries are always spying on each other. Yes, it's common-sensical, but it is something no diplomat every mouths, and Krojack tape records the message to use when later talking with Ambassador McGee.

Axel and Susan soon are falling in love, which does not meet with the approval of Walter. Nor is Walter (who has to get back for a special catering job in four days) happy to hear that the other political refugee in the embassy, Father Drobney (Richard Libertini) has been there for six years! Nor is Walter really thrilled that Drobney has picked up a new hobby - he's a magician now.

There are nice touches in the film, jabbing at both sides. Krojack is talking to Ambassador Magee on the phone, when one of his assistants asks to know how the Stock Market did (he has some mutual shares). Krojack puts down the phone and orders someone to break the idiot's legs (this is, after all, a communist "paradise"). Later it is the Americans who get the jab: the Ambassador is ferociously looking for a way of winning a governorship at home, and is willing to sell out anyone he can to get it.

A good cast is aided by the director, Howard Morris (WHO'S MINDING THE MINT?) and turns out a better than average comedy. Not as good as most of Woody's later films, but it was a promising start.

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Average, not thrilling or remarkable., 25 November 2003
Author: Captain_Couth (sirjosephu@aol.com) from Sacramento, CA

Don't Drink the Water (1969) was based upon a play by Woody Allen. I saw this film on the idiot box a few years back. I wasn't that impressed with the movie. Basically it's a Jackie Gleeson movie, you have the honor of watching him mug in front of the camera doing those unamusing eye tricks, blinks and boggles. On the other hand it wasn't dreadful or ghastly. Just your average comedy from that time period. Woody Allen remade the film several years ago for the tiny screen. I never had the chance to watch it. Oh well. It has to be better than the first film adaptation. I recalled an interview with Woody Allen, the interviewer asked him what was his impression of the film. He said something to the effect that at least they paid him. My thoughts exactly.

C

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
first film version - This is Jackie Gleason version, 6 June 2007
7/10
Author: ksf-2 from southwest US

Comedic story of Americans traveling in foreign countries, and the mis-adventures they run into along the way. Unlike another writer here, I like the 1969 Jackie Gleason version of Don't Drink the Water MUCH better than the later one starring Woody Allen, who WROTE the thing originally. In the original, the irony is that Jackie Gleason is a big and blustery loudmouth ( a real stretch for him) , but up until the end, not much gets accomplished, in spite of all his yelling and storming around. Also stars Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde) and Ted Bessell (probably best known as the hen-pecked boyfriend on That Girl). The debate to remake movies or Not to remake movies continues.

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No worse than a bad cold, 12 November 2009
Author: horrorfilmx from United States

I have to side with those who find this version of Woody Allen's play much inferior to the remake by Allen himself which, ironically, has a greater right to be called the original since it was Allen's attempt to show the story as he envisioned it. I think much of the problem lies in the fact that at the time this version was made Allen wasn't yet a respected director and no one worried much about preserving the "Woody Allen touch" --- except Woody Allen, of course.

Interesting note on the comparison between Jackie Gleason's take on the lead character with Allen's own portrayal years later. If you were to combine the physical bellicosity of Jackie Gleason with the sardonic Jewish humor of Woody Allen you might get someone like the recently deceased Lou Jacobi --- who originated the part on Broadway and who was, in Allen's opinion, largely responsible for the success of the play.

(By the way, I stole the line in my summary from Harpo Marx, who used it to describe the phenomenally successful Broadway production of ABIE'S IRISH ROSE.)

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11 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
UNBELIEVABLY BAD, 10 August 2001
2/10
Author: Bill Treadway (treads22@hotmail.com) from Queens, New York

"Don't Drink the Water" is an unbelievably bad film. It's based on a 1966 Broadway play by Woody Allen. It stars Jackie Gleason, the comic genius behind "The Honeymooners". The director, Howard Morris, has appeared in several Mel Brooks comedies (Life Stinks, High Anxiety, Silent Movie)and has made a mark in animation (characters he has voiced include Gopher from "Pooh", Jughead (Archie)and Beetle Bailey) What went wrong?

I think the problem is that the premise is played out too seriously to work effectively. Allen's original play was tongue-in-cheek, which is why it worked on Broadway and in Allen's 1994 remake. The screenplay by R.S. Allen and Harvey Bullock beats the premise to death and makes too many changes from the original play. Making Gleason's wife an airhead in this version when she was a headstrong woman in the original is just one example of why this doesn't work.

The acting isn't much better. Gleason does the best he can with the material, but he can't save this. Gleason was a comic genius , but also a fine actor as he demonstrated in "The Hustler" and "Soldier in the Rain". His abrasive personality could have worked here, but the lousy script doesn't even give him a chance. Too bad. Estelle Parsons' airhead wife will drive you nuts after 20 minutes. See how soon it'll take for YOU to want to strangle her. That is also a shame because she is also a fine actress, having turned in two exceptional performances in "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Rachel, Rachel" None of the other actors do particularly well either.

Woody Allen hated this film so much that he remade the film in 1994 with himself and Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson) in the leads. They manage to hit all the right notes and the film itself is a comic masterpiece. It's finally on video after a long battle over rights. Do go out and find that version. All the 1969 original is good for is clearing out unwanted guests who overstay their welcome.

1/2* out of 4 stars

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