Heironymus Merkin is an internationally successful singer approaching middle age who retells his life story in a series of production numbers on a seashore in front of his two toddlers and aged mother. Merkin’s promiscuous relationships with women are explored, particularly Polyester Poontang and the adolescent Mercy Humppe. Merkin is constantly surrounded by a Satan-like procurer, Goodtime Eddie Filth, and an angelic ‘Presence’ who interrupts Merkin’s biography with cryptic Borscht Belt-level jokes to denote births and deaths in Merkin’s life. Newley periodically steps out of character to complain about his ‘Merkin’ role with an unseen director, two screenwriters, the film’s producers and a trio of blasé movie critics who are turned off by the story’s eroticism and lack of plot.

Starring:

Joan Collins, Milton Berle, Patricia Hayes, Bruce Boa, Anthony Newley, Robert Hutton, Louis Negin, Victor Spinetti, Rosalind Knight, Judy Cornwell, Margaret Nolan, 23 more, Julian Orchard, Bruce Forsyth, George Jessel, Lynda Baron, Tom Stern, Ronald Radd, Stubby Kaye, Sally Douglas, Yolanda, Joyce Blair, Eve Pearce, Desmond Walter-Ellis, Laurie Leigh, B

Genre:

Comedy, Music