Slapstick of Another Kind (film)

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Slapstick of Another Kind

Directed by	Steven Paul
Produced by	Steven Paul
Written by	Steven Paul Kurt Vonnegut (Novel)
Starring	Jerry Lewis Madeline Kahn Marty Feldman Jim Backus Merv Griffin Pat Morita
Distributed by	The S. Paul Company/Serendipity Entertainment Releasing Company and International Film Marketing
Release date(s)	1982 (France) March, 1984 (US)
Running time	82/84 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

Slapstick of Another Kind was filmed in 1982. It was released in March 1984 by both The S. Paul Company/Serendipity Entertainment Releasing Company and International Film Marketing.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The People's Republic of China is severing relations with all other nations. They have mastered the art of miniaturization, and have shrunk all their people to the height of 2 inches. The ambassador of China, Ah Fong (Pat Morita), announces during a press conference that they key to all knowledge can be found from twins.

Caleb Swain (Jerry Lewis) and his wife Letitia (Madeline Kahn) are called 'the most beautiful of all the beautiful people' by the press. However, when Letitia gives birth to twins who are called "monsters." The family doctor, Dr. Frankenstein (John Abbott) informs the parents that the twins won't live more than a few months. The Swain's decide to allow the twins to live their short life in a mansion staffed with servants, including Sylvester (Marty Feldman).

Fifteen years later the twins (also played by Lewis and Kahn) are still alive. They have large heads and appear to be retarded. Their parents, who have not seen them in all those years, receive a visit from the former Chinese ambassador who inform them that their children are genuises who can solve the world's problems.

The parents, along with the US president (Jim Backus) pay the children a visit. They reveal themselves to be well-behaved and intelligent, explaining that they acted "stupid" around the servants because they were simply emulating them.

A series of tests reveal that there is a telepathic connection between the twins, and their intelligence is only functionable when they are together. Furthermore, when their heads are touching they reach a level of intelligence that has never been surpassed.

Their parents, fearful that incest may be prevalent, separate the two. They become despondant without each other, and the Chinese ambassador appears again to tell them to seek each other out. Once united, a spaceship appears and reveals that they are really aliens who were sent to Earth to solve all of the planet's problems. However, their alien father (voice of Orson Welles) reveals that Earth cannot handle their intelligence and returns them to their home planet.

[edit] Trivia

It was based on the novel called Slapstick : Or Lonesome No More! written by Kurt Vonnegut.

It was released in Europe in 1982, but did not see a US release until March 1984.

There are two different versions, the 1982 version running 84 minutes, and the 1984 version running 82 minutes.

It was released to cable television as Slapstick.

[edit] External link

Slapstick (Of Another Kind) at the Internet Movie Database

Works of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Novels	1950s: Player Piano (1952) • The Sirens of Titan (1959) 1960s: Mother Night (1961) • Cat's Cradle (1963) • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine (1965) • Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade (1969) 1970s: Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye, Blue Monday (1973) • Slapstick or Lonesome No More (1976) • Jailbird (1979) 1980s: Deadeye Dick (1982) • Galápagos (1985) • Bluebeard (1988) 1990s: Hocus Pocus (1990) • Timequake (1996)
Short story collections	Canary in a Cathouse (1961) • Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) • Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)
Collected essays	Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) • Palm Sunday, An Autobiographical Collage (1981) • Fates Worse than Death, An Autobiographical Collage (1990) • God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (2001) • A Man Without a Country (2005)
Plays	Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) • Between Time and Timbuktu, or Prometheus Five: A Space Fantasy (1972) • Make Up Your Mind (1993) • Miss Temptation (1993) • L'Histoire du Soldat (1993)
Adaptations
Stage	Welcome to the Monkey House (1970, 1974) • Sirens of Titan (1974) • Cat's Cradle (1976) • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) • Breakfast of Champions (1984) • Requiem (Stone, Time, and Elements: A Humanist Requiem) (1988) • Slaughterhouse-Five (1996)
Film	Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) • Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) • Next Door (1975) • Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) • Mother Night (1996) • Breakfast of Champions (1999)
Television	Displaced Person (1958, 1985) • EPICAC (1974, 1992) • Who Am I This Time? (1982) • All the King's Horses (1991) • Next Door (1991) • The Euphio Question (1991) • Fortitude (1992) • The Foster Portfolio (1992) • More Stately Mansions (1992) • Harrison Bergeron (1995)