Our Daily Trailer: S*P*Y*S

Give us this day our daily trailer! The late Irvin Kershner directed THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. But before that he directed a spy spoof that reteamed M*A*S*H buddies Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland, and tried to heavily bank on that slim connection.

By Nov. 29, 2010

I have to go back and check the archive, but I think this could be the first Daily Trailer for a movie I haven’t seen. After watching this trailer I may have to rectify that.

News of the death of Irvin Kershner brought to my mind two questions: What happened to the G in his name and why did he never direct another film even close to The Empire Strikes Back? Going through the man’s IMDB I realized that he had directed S*P*Y*S, a post-M*A*S*H spy spoof starring Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland. I had heard about the film in passing, and the way the title aped the title of M*A*S*H intrigued me, so I went looking for the trailer.

Glad I did! This is the most egregious example of selling a movie based on past work I have ever seen. Not only is the title obviously intended to recall M*A*S*H, the trailer announcer mentions that movie AND is doing the voice of the camp announcements from M*A*S*H! I haven’t seen S*P*Y*S but it seems damn obvious that the film has nothing to do with Altman’s movie.

Further research reveals that S*P*Y*S was cowritten by none other than Larry Cohen. Now this movie has shot to the top of my must-see-list.

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