This musical started off immediately with “Comedy Tonight,” a song that I have heard many times, but had no idea was from this movie. It has been quite an education during the Genre-ary this year with songs in musicals. 

According to IMDB, “Pseudolus (Zero Mostel), the laziest slave in Rome, has one wish: to purchase his freedom. When his master and mistress leave for the day, he finds out that the young master has fallen in love with a virgin in the house of Marcus Lycus (Phil Silvers), a slave dealer specializing in beautiful women. Pseudolus concocts a deal in which he will be freed if he can procure the girl for young Hero (Michael Crawford). Of course, it can’t be that simple, and everything begins to go wrong.”

A great cast including Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford, Buster Keaton, Jack Gilford, Annette Andre, Leon Greene, and Michael Hordern do a great job with this clever, slapstick comedy. 

Zero Mostel was hamming it up the entire film. He was so committed to being over-the-top that it really worked with this movie. 

The chariot chase at the end of the movie was absolutely insane. 

Now, there were not that many songs that really stuck out, except for the opening “Comedy Tonight” and the reprise of it at the conclusion of the movie. The songs were written by Stephen Sondheim.

It was a silly movie that was fun to watch. Much more of a comedy than a musical.