Cinema: Yawn-In

• Share

Rowan and Martin have made Laugh-In one of the phenomena of the McLuhan age. How could they miss in the movies? By making The Maltese Bippy, a yawn-in of the team's celebrated videocies and running gags. Though Rowan and Martin are shoehorned into a plot, the fit is loose enough to let the boys play themselves. Rowan is still the smart one, and Martin is correctly addressed as a dingaling, a dumdum and a dodo.

In a large house in Flushing, N.Y., Martin begins developing wolf mannerisms. But he is merely under temporary hypnosis, the victim of diamond thieves next door who have learned that jewels are secreted somewhere in the house. The dingaling and his partner carom like pinballs from stock comic character to cliche villain until the labyrinthine plot culminates in four different endings, from which the viewer can take his choice. The best choice is to watch reruns of Laugh-In instead.