In 1969 the comedy team of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin was the hottest property in show business. Their "Laugh-In" show was enormously popular and they were instantly recognizable for their "classy smart guy" (Rowan) and "irritating dumb guy" (Martin) approach to comedy. A Rowan/Martin movie from 1969 named "The Maltese Bippy" would seem like it couldn't miss—but it misses very badly. The movie fails because it apparently was never really fully thought through and it was obviously slapped together in great haste to take advantage of Rowan and Martin's then-current popularity and their "bippy" buzzword craze.Rowan and Martin begin the movie in their familiar tuxedos while performing their usual stand-up act. The film then progresses to a story about Sam Smith (Rowan) and Ernest Gray (Martin), two inept adult movie producers who are evicted from their offices and become mixed up with vampires and various villains. Robert Reed, Mildred Natwick, Dana Elcar, Leon Askin, Carol Lynley, Julie Newmar, and Fritz Weaver are among the familiar faces who pop up during the story, which shows very little coherence or continuity. The movie ends with an extended series of shootings, some of which are fairly bloody and which are perversely played for laughs. The baffling final sequence shows Rowan and Martin holding hands while walking into the sunset.While Rowan and Martin plus the supporting cast are very appealing, the story is so weak and fractured that it's not surprising that the movie flopped. The climactic shootings, which take place in one small room, are apparently meant to be really funny but made me quite uncomfortable instead. Gray's (Martin's) dream sequence about a werewolf is painfully unfunny, and his attempts to murder his wife (Lynley) while under hypnosis are quite unpleasant. The sequence with Sam Smith (Rowan) preparing to recover swallowed gems via amateur surgery using a butcher knife is just too sick to be funny. It was good to see departed actors Robert Reed, Leon Askin, and Dana Elcar, but their roles were reduced almost to the point of irrelevancy. Julie Newmar and Carol Lynley are very beautiful and add at least a little energy to the proceedings.Anyone who remembers 1969 is familiar with Rowan and Martin and their hugely popular television comedy show. It seemed as though in 1969 the team could do no wrong but they failed miserably here. "The Maltese Bippy" is a badly missed opportunity and is a reminder that just because one or two very popular people are in a movie's cast, that doesn't mean the movie will be good or successful. Rowan and Martin never made another film. That's too bad, since with the right story, script, and director a Rowan/Martin movie from 1969 could have been good. It's an interesting time capsule, but it's unfortunately not a high-quality one.

A number of people have commented negatively on this film, and also slam Rowan and Martin, Laugh-In, and the fact that this movie was made in 1969 and is therefore dated. I wonder why they bothered watching it.I was but a toddler when Laugh-In was on, but I watched it with my older siblings. I've seen clips from it more recently, and yes, it is horribly dated now. So are bell bottoms, peace signs, and harvest gold appliances, but they were very popular at the time. People seem to have a hard time believing that something they really like today will ever look ridiculous, but it happens to every generation.This movie is not particularly dated. Maybe 3 lines will go over your head if you have no knowledge of Sixties culture. This film is a silly spoof of monster/mystery films. Rowan and Martin act a lot like Hope and Crosby in their "Road" pictures, without any singing, and even speaking to the audience and acknowledging that they are in a movie. Every cliché from the aforementioned genres is skewered in this film, and I think it accomplishes everything it sets out to do. You don't need to know anything about Laugh-In, Rowan & Martin, or the Sixties to enjoy this film. If you've ever enjoyed, or enjoyed groaning at, movies about werewolves, vampires, old houses, hidden treasures, and dead bodies appearing unexpectedly, you will get a laugh out of this movie. Personally, I watched it expecting the worst, and was very pleasantly surprised.

This was the big screen attempt at taking the success of Rowan and Martin from TV to Film. I know it failed as a mainstream hit, but it succeeds wonderfully as broad retro camp. I liked this film overall but it is not one you will watch over and over. It is a one shot watch, maybe once more if you with a good friend who really loves camp or laugh in. This is no classic in the way that Zorro the gay blade or Abbot and Costello were. If this were 1979, I might say pass on this film but just getting the feel of sixties, even a g-rated version, is a lot of fun now nearly forty years latter.For the record, vampires are mentioned in the movie but do not appear, not even actors who are pretending to be people pretending to be vampires. The fact that in dream sequence one character dresses like Dracula does not merit calling this a vampire/werewolf flick. The vampire angle was played up in way that comedy horror tries to tell the mainstream viewers: "hey this film has stuff like vampires/werewolves/zombies/mummies" Trying to tell people who don't know the difference between a zombie and a mummy that a flick has" werewolves and vampires and stuff" rarely works. One comment said this was neither fish nor fowl. That is the biggest problem of the movie. It borrows from comedy/horror/mystery and buddy flicks in such a way that it has no real focus. The mystery is not that mysterious, the horror not remotely scary, the romance angle weak (they really should have played that one up. If the movie ended with a couple walking off happily ever after THAT would appeal to mainstream people much more than the4th wall breaking so much in the last 5 minutes. This is the next real weak point after the lack of focus: the fourth wall breaking as the ending. It reminded me of The Holy Grail when writers obviously gifted enough to write a passable ending decide to break the 4th wall when they could not come up with a great ending.I did not like the ending...but it reminded me of dating....the fun of the relationship was worth the crappy ending.

So what's a Bippy? Well if your old enough to remember Rowan and Martins Laugh-In you'd know. This film actually goes no where but does feature the gorgeous Julie Newmar. It's terribly dated like Laugh-In but in a weird sort of way it's entertaining.