Get To Know Your Rabbit (1972)

A corporate executive (Tom Smothers) is fed up with the rat race so he quits the corporate world to pursue his new passion as a tap dancing magician. Directed by Brian De Palma, who had made his reputation with small independent comedies like GREETINGS and HI MOM. This was his first film for a major studio (Warner Brothers) and it ended up with an unsatisfactory result for everyone involved. Smothers hated working with De Palma, Warners disliked the film and recut it and De Palma stopped making comedies and turned to darker material like SISTERS, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and CARRIE. The film is dated with its roots in the counter culture mindset of the era and the movie drifts aimlessly. While one can appreciate what De Palma originally intended to do, what we get is a satire on the establishment vs. the free spirit that simply isn't funny. It jerks and spurts its way in search of a life preserver that it never finds. With Orson Welles, Katharine Ross, John Astin, Allen Garfield and Samantha Jones.