Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969)

Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969)

Heironymus Merkin, the most talented movie star who ever sang, danced and loved girls, girls, girls.

Release Date: 1969, March 19
Directors: Anthony Newley
Countries: United Kingdom
Production: Universal Pictures, J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors
Cast: Bruce Boa, Margaret Nolan, Aleta Morrison, Stubby Kaye, Patricia Hayes, Milton Berle, Judy Cornwell, Tom Stern, Lynda Baron, Victor Spinetti, Rosalind Knight, George Jessel

Overview:

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.