The Blue Bird (1976)

I'm sitting here with the old Soviet-American co-production of The Blue Bird on TV. This was sort of a political event when they made this thing in the '70s. They wanted to make something inoffensive, something that neither the Soviets or the Americans would object to, so they made this crap. Based on a play written in 1908. Two children go out searching for the "Blue Bird of Happiness"

I doubt any play for children written in 1908 was any good. No child would choose to watch this thing, and no adult would watch unless they had to take the kids to it.

One of the children is played Todd Lookinland. He bears a striking resemblance to his brother, Mike Lookinland, TV's Bobby Brady. The girl who played his sister went on to appear in Lethal Weapon 2.

The characters have names like Dog, Cat, Night, Sugar, Milk, Water. And on top of that it's a stinking musical. How much disbelief do they expect us to suspend?

The Soviets made great movies. And this thing wasn't that bad. At the time Variety said that it good enough that no one would laugh at it, but it was bad enough that no one would be moved by it.

The Soviets should have done what the Italians did: Lure some American TV actors over, star them in some exploitation films and use them to penetrate the American market. It would have worked. When I was a kid, I watched a number of Soviet, East German and Czech science fiction movies that I assumed were just exceptionally well-made big budget American movies.

George Cukor directed. I'm glad that the Communist movement can't get the blame for it.