Get to Know Your Rabbit: Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma's Get to Know Your Rabbit is one of those bizarre films that don't quite work yet nonetheless are fascinating in their audacity. Perhaps this is due to the fact that De Palma struggled with his producers so vehemently that he was eventually fired. Whatever the case, Get to Know Your Rabbit is an odd curio. Exhausted and fed up with the world of corporate upper management, Donald Beeman unceremoniously quits his job one day to become a tap dancing magician. His old boss Mr. Turnbull desperately tries to get him back. But when Beeman's show business career eventually takes off, Turnbull has another idea: create a Tap Dancing Magician course for other businessmen. So Beeman returns from a tour to find that he has become an advertising mascot. The very lifestyle that he fled to has become just another corporate prison. This kind of cynicism is brilliantly subversive and a true treat. However, the film is weighed down and eventually capsized by De Palma's unusual use of humor. Heavily inspired by British absurdist humor (think Monty Python's Flying Circus), the film contains bizarre characters, seemingly random events, and performances that irritate and confuse. One sequence where Beeman seduces a woman who delivers a monologue about how she prostituted herself for newspapers when she was younger is especially vexing. Of course, the film does have its charms. Orson Welles turns in a rare self-deprecating performance as Mr. Delasandro, Beeman's tap dancing magician teacher. In true Welles fashion, he steals the show with several of the best lines and jokes. My two favorites:

Mr. Delasandro [While he trains Beeman to tap dance]: "I'm the heckler, right? I've been needling you for the last ten minutes, right? Time now for you to strike back with all the style and wit at your command!"
Beeman: "Up your's, fella!"
Mr. Delasandro [Pensively]: "Not bad...not bad..."

Mr. Delasandro [After Beeman has graduated from his program] : "Donald, before you go, would you like me to look upon you as the son I never had?"
Beeman [Smiling cheerfully]: "No, I don't think so."

That last one made me laugh so hard that I woke up my dad. So Get to Know Your Rabbit doesn't work. But it does something right. I'm just not sure what that something is...

5/10