According to multiple reports in VARIETY and the Newspaper Archives, this late 1967-shot film was actually made. It starred the later controversial Marty Ingels and a cameo cast similar to that of later flops such as THE PHYNX and WON TON TON, THE DOG WHO SAVED HOLLYWOOD.
But was it actually finished? It was never released and not a trace of it has ever turned up in the public eye. I'm betting that shot of Marty below was just a general publicity pic even.
Later in the next decade, it would be Mel Brooks who ended up releasing the first new silent film in decades--SILENT MOVIE. Ironically, it was also peppered with cameos but from much bigger stars of the day--Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, James Caan, and Paul Newman. It didn't do very well either.
According to Anthony Slide's "Eccentrics of Comedy" (p. 45, via google books), the movie was retitled "The Silent Majority" in 1970, but he may have conflated it with a government-produced Nixon-era film of the same year and name: http://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/30/archives/silent-majority-usia-film-fails-to-stir-foreigners.html
ReplyDeleteI found an email for Ralph's son Matthew (via his production company), who was the family spokesman in the obituary and hosted the Sportsman's Lodge tribute event: http://grayoakproductions.com/contact/
Maybe he could you what happened? Maybe the film is held in the UCLA archives.