Babo 73 (1964)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Robert Downey made his directorial debut with this political satire that has Andy Warhol favorite Taylor Mead playing the President of the United States who finds himself giving off various bits of bad advice while also receiving some even dumber advice.
There's very little "plot" to BABO 73 but it should be noted that there's a sequence early on where a Priest rapes a woman so that pretty much tells you what you're getting into. That scene certainly wasn't graphic or really even shown but its the attempt at laughs that the film goes for. This movie was clearly an influence on some filmmakers like John Waters but at the same time this movie is certainly dated.
The film makes fun of the White House, the government, the President as well as Catholics and just about everything else. The film deserves credit for its style of humor as we pretty much get one joke after another. I'd say that the majority of the jokes just don't work and that the humor hasn't dated well but at the same time you have to give Downey credit for the approach.
Fans of Mead will certainly enjoy seeing him here as he's pretty much all over the place and off the wall as he bounces from one situation to the next. BABO 73 is as experimental as they get and I doubt it will win over most people but it's an interesting picture.
