Rhinoceros (1974)

I saw this movie thinking it would be a wacky comedy because it had Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in it (they were both in The Producers so I figured it would be that level of comedy with slapstick and obvious jokes). Instead this movie is not like that at all, it was a complete surprise with a bizarre story line. Gene Wilder plays a guy who starts hallucinating and seeing the people around him in his life and in his town actually turning into rhinoceroses (or is it rhinoceri I have no idea?) It is definitely strange to watch and it is definitely more of a satire and drama and a comment about society at the time in the 1970s than it was a straight up comedy but it's definitely worth watching and good, it will stick with you.

Tom O'Horgan's "Rhinoceros" is based on Eugène Ionesco's play. An exercise in the theater of the absurd, the play was intended as an indictment of Nazism, showing how everyone simply acquiesces to events around them. I guess that the movie doesn't really focus on the political aspect as much, but it's still a funny movie. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder basically reprise their roles from "The Producers", only this time it's a world in which all the people are turning into odd-toed ungulates. Nothing can stop the transformations! Admittedly, it's a totally outlandish idea. But, that's a characteristic of the theater of the absurd. We don't actually see any members of the family Rhinocerotidae, we just hear their snorts. Nonetheless, I was laughing almost the whole time. Wilder is particularly funny as the uptight office clerk who falls apart as he watches all his acquaintances change. Zero Mostel's transformation is the best, while Karen Black's character is the most dynamic in the whole movie.Pretty neat.

I loved this film. I was trying to find it to buy it, just for the scene between Wilder and Mostel, priceless. I laughed so hard mostly because of how brilliant Mostel was at portraying his transformation. I told my children about this film and they wanted to see it. I recall reading once that Wilder himself, didn't like the film but I don't have his perspective. The tension between Mostel and Wilder in that particular transformation scene is palpable, Wilder's reactions, Mostel's intensity, I laugh at just recalling this scene. I don't recall much else about the film except this particular scene. I highly recommend this film to all Wilder and Mostel fans.

I have not seen this movie since the mid 70's but back then I watched it at least 20 times when it was shown on cable. Now it appears it is virtually lost, as they were unable to find a print of it for the Ionesco festival in New York this past year. If you are able to catch it on tv, do not miss it. A truly strange and unusual film, involves Gene Wilder as a man who seems all alone in the world as everyone else has started to catch a strange flu, which starts with bumps on there foreheads and then eventually turns them into raving lunatics, and finally into a Rhinocerous. Zero Mostel turns in a great performance as Wilder's friend, who goes beserk inside a building and literaly tears it apart in a rampage. The film goes on to explore whether or not Wilder is the sane one, or the odd man out, as he is the only one who has not conformed. He meets Daisy (Karen Black) who has not yet turned. They do everything they can to keep themselves from turning into what they fear, and the film really turns from comedy into psychological horror at this point. Some strange imagery, and perhaps Gene Wilders only nude scene on film, happen all before the climax. Truly a unique gem from the minds of people who defined the 60's! Tom O'Horgan directed Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, and was involved with experimental projects with Robert Downey Sr. So you can imagine this is something of a rare find! Good luck on tracking it down!