{"id":43766,"date":"2024-05-10T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=43766"},"modified":"2024-05-10T16:36:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T20:36:09","slug":"the-bootleg-files-sammy-stops-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/10\/the-bootleg-files-sammy-stops-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Sammy Stops the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 865: <\/strong>\u201cSammy Stops the World\u201d (1979 filmed record of Sammy Davis Jr.\u2019s stage production of \u201cStop the World \u2013 I Want to Get Off\u201d).
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\nLAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>Back in the early VHS and Betamax days.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> An obscure film that fell through the cinematic cracks.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely.<\/p>\n

One of the most unusual figures in the movie world was Bill Sargent, who commanded a unique niche \u2013 he would videotape prominent stage productions, transfer the video to 35mm film, and release the work into cinemas. Sargent reckoned that moviegoers would pay to see recordings of shows that theatrical and concert audiences paid to see \u2013 and he was right, when he had the vehicle that demanded attention. Beginning in 1964 with the gimmicky banner \u201cElectronovision,\u201d Sargent packaged video-to-film presentations that included Richard Burton\u2019s Broadway turn in \u201cHamlet,\u201d the all-star music concert \u201cThe T.A.M.I. Show,\u201d the Truman tribute \u201cGive \u2018Em Hell, Harry!\u201d with James Whitmore in his Oscar-nominated role, and the definitive comedy concert presentation \u201cRichard Pryor: Live in Concert.\u201d
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But not every video-to-film production from Sargent was a hit. Case in point: \u201cSammy Stops the World,\u201d a 1979 recording of the previous year\u2019s theatrical revival of the Leslie Bricusse \u2013 Anthony Newley musical \u201cStop the World \u2013 I Want to Get Off\u201d starring Sammy Davis Jr. (This production was not made in New York, but rather in California\u2019s Long Beach Terrace Theater after the Broadway run). <\/p>\n

Sargent produced the 1966 film adaptation of \u201cStop the World \u2013 I Want to Get Off,\u201d which retained the theatrical version\u2019s circus setting and stage dynamics, although he abandoned the video-to-film route for a straightforward 35mm film production. That offering was not a commercial success, so it hard to imagine why he thought lightning would strike a second time if there was no jolt the first go-round.<\/p>\n

It is also not clear why Sargent opted to change the work\u2019s title from the well-established original to \u201cSammy Stops the World.\u201d It didn\u2019t help \u2013 this production was barely seen in theaters and mostly disappeared after a very brief home entertainment release.<\/p>\n

What went wrong? For starters, Bricusse and Newley updated their 1961 London musical to fit a 1978 American environment. In the original show, Newley took the starring role of Littlechap, a lower-class and amoral outsider who works his way to the top of British society through dumb luck, stubborn determination and, ultimately, the lack of consideration for those who love him. Newley, who performed the role in a clown\u2019s costume and chalk-white make-up, gave the role a degree of abrasive charisma that would define his career. <\/p>\n

Davis, however, had a very different performing persona from Newley, so Littlechap needed to be reconfigured. The chalk-white make-up was gone in favor of self-deprecatory acknowledgement of Davis\u2019 race \u2013 in the updated show, he refers to himself in his initial bottom-of-the-ladder job as a \u201ccoffee-colored coffee vendor\u201d and twice he is the object of a now-verboten racial epithet that rhymes with \u201ctrigger.\u201d Whereas Newley\u2019s Littlechap is scheming and moody, Davis\u2019 Littlechap is plucky and too eager-to-please. This throws off the Bricusse-Newley concept of an outsider clawing his way to the top of a socioeconomic world, only to discover (surprise!) it\u2019s lonely at the top.<\/p>\n

By contemporary standards, some of the updated aspects of the show are wildly out of place in today\u2019s woke society. There is a joke about rape that is so crass that it wouldn\u2019t get muttered today in a cable television roast, and a segment where Davis seeks political office by pandering to different demographics goes beyond the political correctness of 2024 \u2013 though one has to wonder if anyone under the age of 60 would get the joke about Davis seeking the Jewish joke via his appearance before the congregants of \u201cTemple Bess Myerson.\u201d<\/p>\n

This video-to-film recording of the show also cruelly reveals one major problem with Davis at this point in his career \u2013 he was not a team player. Granted, audiences packed the show to see him, but on stage he had an unfortunate habit of constantly trying to upstage his co-stars. In the duets he shared with Marian Mercer, who played the different women that shaped Littlechap\u2019s life, Davis constantly mugs and distracts from Mercer\u2019s singing. And in the solo segments when Littlechap gets lost in self-pity, Davis turns on the pathos with too much gusto.<\/p>\n

But where \u201cSammy Stops the World\u201d works is when Davis turns on his full star power. He leads the ensemble in a kinetic gospel-style reworking of \u201cGonna Build a Mountain\u201d and his renditions of \u201cOnce in a Lifetime\u201d and \u201cWhat Kind of Fool Am I?\u201d (which were already staples of his Vegas act) are brutally effective roof-raising solos. <\/p>\n

Indeed, it is no surprise that the New York critics who reviewed the Broadway premiere of the show praised the star but rued that he was in the wrong vehicle for his talents. The critics who saw this video-to-film offering found nothing of value. Michael Clark of the Detroit Free Press declared \u201cSammy Stops the World\u201d marked \u201csome kind of nadir in the history of motion picture exhibition\u201d while Greg Tozian of the Tampa Tribune informed his readers that he was the sole audience member in a Saturday night screening of what he dubbed a \u201cterrible movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSammy Stops the World\u201d came and went too quickly in theaters and it had an equally brief home entertainment release in the early 1980s. It has been mostly unseen in the subsequent years, although an unauthorized YouTube posting pried it from oblivion and put it into the digital realm. Proceed with caution, but don\u2019t be afraid \u2013 it is an interesting work, if mostly for the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n