I can only assume that the filmmakers were trying to be ironic by naming this film "The Comedians". This is because the film is anything but funny, as it's set during the hellish reign of Haitian dictator 'Papa Doc' Duvalier...an amazingly evil man. His 'Tonton Macoute' was a private paramilitary group of thugs whose job it was to terrorize and murder...thus keeping the unpopular man in power. In the midst of this hellishness, the story is set.
The story begins with several people arriving in Haiti for God knows what reasons! There was practically no tourism in the country at the time and folks had to work hard to get into this awful place. The owner of a hotel arrives with them and hosts some of these bizarre tourists...as well as cleans up a body left there by the Tonto Macoute. What happens to each of them...well, you'll have to see for yourself.
This film has a pretty amazing cast, considering the film was a financial bomb. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Lillian Gish and Alec Guinness are among the white folks arriving on the island. The black cast, to me, is also pretty amazing. While several are not exactly household names, Roscoe Lee Browne, Georg Stanford Brown (Tyne Daly's ex-), Raymond St. Jacques and James Earl Jones are American actors playing some of the locals...three of which have perhaps the loveliest voices you can find in movies.
So is it any good? Well, it's not terrible...but the bleakness of the film and its setting surely helped to keep audiences away in droves. Also, some of the characters made little sense. The utter stupidity and naivete of some of the characters made them seem cartoonish...such as the couple played by Paul Ford and Lillian Gish. Imagine...coming to Haiti (possibly the worst place on Earth back in 1967) and wanting to build a vegetarian health food resort?! Surely, no one is THAT foolish. Also, Elizabeth Taylor plays a German woman...or at least she grew up there....and sounds LESS German than Danny Trejo or Keye Luke! Some might also be really put off by the voodoo ceremony where the guy bites the head off the chicken and blood goes everywhere. Also, in general, the film was at its best when there was action and it was less talky. But I did appreciate that at least a film was drawing attention to the evil regime and it rarely is boring. Not a bad film at all....but a seriously flawed one that really should have been a lot better.
The story begins with several people arriving in Haiti for God knows what reasons! There was practically no tourism in the country at the time and folks had to work hard to get into this awful place. The owner of a hotel arrives with them and hosts some of these bizarre tourists...as well as cleans up a body left there by the Tonto Macoute. What happens to each of them...well, you'll have to see for yourself.
This film has a pretty amazing cast, considering the film was a financial bomb. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Lillian Gish and Alec Guinness are among the white folks arriving on the island. The black cast, to me, is also pretty amazing. While several are not exactly household names, Roscoe Lee Browne, Georg Stanford Brown (Tyne Daly's ex-), Raymond St. Jacques and James Earl Jones are American actors playing some of the locals...three of which have perhaps the loveliest voices you can find in movies.
So is it any good? Well, it's not terrible...but the bleakness of the film and its setting surely helped to keep audiences away in droves. Also, some of the characters made little sense. The utter stupidity and naivete of some of the characters made them seem cartoonish...such as the couple played by Paul Ford and Lillian Gish. Imagine...coming to Haiti (possibly the worst place on Earth back in 1967) and wanting to build a vegetarian health food resort?! Surely, no one is THAT foolish. Also, Elizabeth Taylor plays a German woman...or at least she grew up there....and sounds LESS German than Danny Trejo or Keye Luke! Some might also be really put off by the voodoo ceremony where the guy bites the head off the chicken and blood goes everywhere. Also, in general, the film was at its best when there was action and it was less talky. But I did appreciate that at least a film was drawing attention to the evil regime and it rarely is boring. Not a bad film at all....but a seriously flawed one that really should have been a lot better.