The Return of Weird Wednesdays

Back in the early part of the year, I started up a series of reviews called Weird Wednesdays, which were precisely what they sound like: reviews of the most weird, offbeat and frankly unbelievable movies that I could track down.

I had a lot of fun with those and have more lined up to review, so what better to end the drought at Apocalypse Later than a brand new Weird Wednesday review of a film that even has a title that most people won't believe is real.

It was released in 1969 to critical and popular disdain (but to mild box office success), it's rarely been seen since. In fact, I've heard about it in a number of places, not least from a fellow con-goer at CopperCon FANtasm last year, who had owned and enjoyed the soundtrack album for decades but who had never managed to track down the movie itself.

Well, I have good connections, so I got hold of Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, watched it through in utter amazement and wrote a review that talks about how it must surely have been an attempt by singer/actor Anthony Newley, the writer, director, composer and star, to commit professional suicide. Certainly it's one reason why he lost his third wife of seven years, Joan Collins in her prime, because she cited the movie in her divorce papers.



Here's my review of Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

And here are links to my earlier Weird Wednesday reviews for those eager to experience the truly bizarre:

The Sperm, a 2007 Thai comedy about an army of mutant nymphomaniac babies.

The Fireman of the Folies Bergère, a 1928 French film about a fireman who visits the Folies Bergère and consequently visualises every woman he sees naked (except Josephine Baker who merely comes close).

Eaten Alive! A Tasteful Revenge, a cannibalism fetish film from WAVE Productions with bad effects (especially for 1999).

Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer!, a faux education film from the fifties made in 2004 with as many double entendres as you can comfortably imagine.

The Sex Doll She-Bitch, a rape revenge movie from 2009 in which the victim is a sex doll.

Chocolate Heart, a short 2014 film that introduces the concept of genital handshakes.

The Dragon Lives Again, a 1977 Brucesploitation flick in which Bruce Lee travels to the underground to team up with Popeye, Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu and Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman to take down the Godfather and his henchmen, Clint Eastwood, Dracula, Emmannuelle and James Bond. Oh yeah!

My Grapefruit, My Father, a surreal 2004 film in which a dying man attempts to transfer his soul to his son, only to end up in a grapefruit instead.

Abducted by the Daleks, what can only be described as soft porn movie from 2005. With daleks.

Whew. Are you ready to be traumatised?