Review of Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972) by Eric B — 27 Jan 2012

Brian De Palma made a name for himself with his independent films Greetings (1968) and Hi, Mom! (1970), with that, Warner Bros. offered him a Hollywood film with this lighthearted satirical comedy about the madness of the rat race and how we want to escape it.

It was shelved for 2 years after wrangling and uncertainty about how to sell it, shame really. Successful businessman Donald Beeman (Tom Smothers) is sick with being stuck in a Nine to Five routine, having to keep to deadlines and the punctuality and repetitive nature of his work, and one day, he just gets up and walks out, quits his job and trains to become a traveling tap dancing magician under the teachings of Mr.

Delasandro (Orson Welles). Meanwhile, Beeman's boss Mr. Turnbull (John Astin) is desperate to get Beeman back to work, but it eventually costs Turnbull his job, he's now a drifter and Beeman employs him as his business manager, and while Beeman is travelling across America, Turnbull's new company grows to become one of the biggest corporations in the World, Tap Dancing Magicians (TBM).

It is very much like a Richard Lester comedy, with very surreal humour carrying it along, but it has hints De Palma's technical trickery that he would used in Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

Smothers is a likeable presence and he holds his own against pro's like Welles and Astin, the result is one of the best kept secrets of the 1970's.