Dated edginess

I've mentioned quite a few times before that I was born in the 1970s, so I have no real cultural connection to all of the 1960s countercultural stuff. That's why a lot of the popular culture of the era comes across as even more badly dated to me than older stuff, especially when it's material that feels like it was created by older people trying to remain relevant in a new generation. I couldn't help but think of that as I watched Some Kind of a Nut.

The movie starts off with what is mostly a bee's-eye view of New York's Central Park in the late 1960s. Eventually the scene settles on a couple having a picnic lunch and enjoying the summer sun. Fred Amidon (Dick Van Dyke) is a bank teller in an era when this was still considered a moderately prestigious job, on a blanket on the grass with fiancée Pamela Anderson (Rosemary Forsyth). Fred can't marry Pamela yet, becuase he's still waiting for his divorce from Rachel (Angie Dickinson) to be finalized. Anyhow, the bee lands far enough up Pamela's miniskirt that it would be a scandal to lift the skirt up to try to shoo the bee away, even though that's what needs to be done. And in trying to shoo the bee away, Fred gets stung on the face for his trouble.

Fred and Pamela were planning to take a vacation to celebrate the upcoming divorce. With bandages on his face from where he got stung by the bee, Fred discovers that it's uncomfortable to shave. So he decides that he's going to let his beard grow out while he's on vacation. This is a problem because, when he gets back to work at the bank, one of those large organizations that has a big prestigious headquarters in Manhattan, he's reminded that the bank has appearance standards for its employees. (To be fair, employees should look professional. There's a reason why things like septum rings have the reputation they do.) The bank somewhat understandably wants him to shave off the beard, as does Pamela. But Fred has decided that he's not going to, as a matter of principle.

For his trouble, Fred gets fired. He decides to spend his days with the burgeoning countercultural scene, such as with a Buddhist zen master (a scene including actor Robert Ito later of Quincy, ME if you remember the reruns of that show). Meanwhile, Fred still has friends among his former co-workers at the bank who have decided they're on his side and are going to start a protest. Pamela, for her part, still doesn't want Fred to have that beard, and she's going to get it cut off even if she has to use force to do it. Her attempts, however, don't quite work and only cause more chaos which brings Rachel back into the picture....

Oh boy have standards changed since 1969 when this movie was released. Obviously beards aren't the issue they were back then (although a lot of men of a type have decided to swing the pendulum too far in the other direction and grow Grizzly Adams-style beards; and if one tattoo in a place that wouldn't be revealed in shirtshleeves is OK, let's protest by getting full-sleeve tattoos). But even for the 1960s this seems out of date. And of course there's the look at the counterculture, which feels like it wouldn't be out of place in Dragnet even though a movie like this was clearly the opposite of what the Jack Webbs of the world were presenting.

The bigger sin, however, is that Some Kind of a Nut is supposed to be a comedy. But the zaniness here isn't funny so much as it is exhausting. And this from a movie that only lasts about 90 minutes. Still, some people may want to watch this to see just how things could go so badly wrong in the late 1960s, or for the location shooting of New York as it was in the summer of 1969.