Early Robert Downey Sr on The Criterion Channel

I don't know how he parlayed his early underground films into a middling Hollywood career. Robert Downey, Sr, made a number of absurdist underground films in the 1960's, some of them just under an hour long. They LOOKED interesting, in black and white 16mm, but the content wasn't serious or funny although I think he wanted them be both.

In one movie (No More Excuses) he stole Buck Henry's gag and briefly shows a guy calling for animals to wear clothes in the name of public decency. That movie threw in a random rape scene, then the rapist turns out to be a priest. I understand why people target the Catholic Church---it's the largest single denomination in America---but Downey is Jewish. Attacking Catholicism doesn't necessarily make him an atheist. He needs to make at least a token attack on his own religion if he's trying to be anti-religious and not just a terribly rude Jew.

Available on the Criterion Channel.